Alameda County coalition urges spending tax revenues on homelessness

A coalition of elected officials and community groups is urging the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to spend hundreds of millions in recently freed up sales tax revenue on homelessness programs and services.

At a special meeting later this afternoon, supervisors will discuss how they should spend money from Measure W, a half-cent sales tax proposal voters narrowly approved in 2020 but which was stalled by litigation until April. 

At stake is 650 million dollars that's already been collected over the past five years. An additional 190 million dollars will come in annually until the measure ends after 2030.

The county plan to address homelessness – dubbed the Home Together Plan – calls for spending two-and-a-half billion dollars over five years.

The county's plan includes using rental subsidies to keep people from losing their homes, creating more interim and emergency shelters and helping cities that are facing a "funding cliff" to build and maintain shelters as well as permanent housing.