Why this matters

The County has projected a $300 million budget hole from federal cuts to social services.

San Diego County plans to rely on philanthropy to help keep social services running in the face of federal funding cuts.

The County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday directed staff to negotiate a partnership with the San Diego Foundation, which would pay for county social services by matching every dollar the county spends. The philanthropy, up to $18 million over two years, would go to pay for existing contracts that address housing, hunger, health care and other community needs – many of which have faced cuts by the Trump administration. 

Up to an additional $1.1 million could cover grant administration fees from the San Diego Foundation, according to county documents explaining the partnership. 

In exchange, the county will donate $4 million to the San Diego Unity Fund, an initiative launched by the Prebys Foundation, Price Philanthropies and the San Diego Foundation, to increase annual philanthropic giving by $70 million to help support the same needs.

County supervisors voted 4-1 to have staff draw up the specifics of the agreement for county staff’s review and to authorize the disbursement of funds. Supervisor Jim Desmond was the lone “no” vote. 

The partnership would prevent cuts to the contract services and “ensures that essential services stay within reach of people who need them the most,” said Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer, who introduced the proposal. “It’s very clear we cannot sit back and hope Washington comes to our rescue. We have to build safety nets.”

Earlier this year in the wake of federal funding cuts, the county canceled $5 million in CalFresh Healthy Living contracts that supported nutrition and healthy lifestyle programs. Cuts to U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development permanent housing programs, which is worth about $40 million in San Diego, could also put more pressure on county housing services.

Lawson-Remer said her greatest concern was that the new work requirements for the federal nutrition assistance program called SNAP and Medicaid, the federal and state funded health insurance program for low-income people, could cost the county $300 million and require 1,000 new staff to administer. The county estimated that 400,000 people in the region will be subject to the new work requirements and could lose benefits if they don’t find work. 

Before the new regulations, adults up to age 54 without disabilities needed to show they were working at least 80 hours a month to be eligible for SNAP or Medicaid. That age has been raised to 65. In another change, adults carrying for dependents under 18 were previously exempt from the work requirements, but now those dependents must be under 14. 

Desmond said that while he supported saving taxpayer funds, the proposal’s rhetoric was “incredibly misleading,” and that new work requirements for SNAP and Medicaid weren’t “devastating cuts” but “good achievable goals.” He asked the supervisors to require that the final partnership come back before the board for a vote, but Lawson-Remer declined. 

The new proposal is just one of several measures by county Democrats to address safety net cuts, including directing staff to hire a consultant to consider a new revenue measure to address the cuts, proposing the county begin running health clinics and changing the county reserve policy to allow them to spend $380 million subject to a board vote. 

Type of Content

News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.