Oakland’s ongoing budget cuts have resulted in the cancellation of contracts for over a dozen community service organizations. In a collective effort, organization leaders and workers spoke publicly on Tuesday at the Fruitvale Transit Village to describe the impacts.
Peralta Hacienda Historical Park is a six-acre green space, cultural center, and community hub in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood.
Affected organizations who spoke included The Unity Council, SOS Meals on Wheels, Trybe, Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice, Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency, Adamika Village, Roots Community Health, Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation, Eden I&R, and the Hoover Foster Resident Action Council.
Oakland’s fiscal crisis hit home three weeks ago when 77 city employees were laid off. At that time, City Administrator Jestin Johnson said in a message to staff that roughly 100 people would be either laid off or “bumped” into different positions by Feb. 28.
The layoffs are part of the city’s phased approach to reducing its budget shortfall this year. More than $204 million in cuts to city programs and services are happening in the first phase, including trimming police overtime, postponing one police academy, temporarily closing two fire stations, not opening one station that was already closed, and transferring money into the general fund from other city sources, including almost $6 million from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and almost $15 million from the Self Insurance Liability Fund.
A budget report from December says the second phase of the plan, which includes the layoffs, is intended to cut nearly $16 million.
Collateral damage
“Families will lose their homes. Seniors will be pushed out of their communities,” said Maciel Jacques of Centro Legal de la Raza, a legal services agency that advocates for low-income and immigrant communities. Jacques added that contracts with the city of Oakland are always paid late.
“Let’s also be clear this is not a choice between eviction, defense and fire services. That is a false dilemma designed to distract from our local government’s failure to fix structural budget issues,” she said. “Our organizations have absorbed approximately $659,000 in costs, money we have spent out of pocket without reimbursement to ensure Oakland’s most vulnerable residents remain housed.”
Kim Olson with SOS Meals on Wheels said her organization has not been paid for two years by the city, which owes a total of $300,000 in work that has already been performed. The organization, which serves meals to 1,400 clients a year in Oakland, got a termination letter Jan. 28 that said it should cease work that would extend past the termination date of Feb. 27 or arrange for alternative funding sources.
“We have nothing but bad choices ahead of us, and yet we still have to make them. … We are in a severe budget crisis, and the only way to make cuts is to make cuts.”
Councilmember Zac Unger
Oakland City Councilmember Zac Unger said after Tuesday’s event that he had asked the city administrator whether these organizations were going to be paid for work that has already been done.
“He told me they would,” said Unger. “I’m not going to make any guarantees on his behalf, but that’s what he told me.” “We are in a difficult but not insurmountable situation with our budget,” Unger said. “We have nothing but bad choices ahead of us, and yet we still have to make them. There are programs in the city that we love, that do good things for the city of Oakland, that are not going to be able to be funded at the level they have been before. We are in a severe budget crisis, and the only way to make cuts is to make cuts.”
The City Council has placed a measure on an April special election ballot to increase Oakland’s sales tax from 10.25 percent to 10.75 percent to raise between $20 million and $30 million annually for the next 10 years.
Organizations can’t wait for funding
But those funds may not arrive soon enough to reach the people who help people in Oakland’s community organizations.
At the event Tuesday, De’Morea Evans underlined the fact that youth in crises can’t wait. He represents Trybe Inc., a nonprofit that serves food and other services focused on youth in Oakland’s Eastlake, San Antonio and Fruitvale neighborhoods.
“We create opportunities for children to learn and have fun when they’re on school breaks, like we have a spring break getting ready to come up,” said Evans, adding that these cuts will make it difficult to put things in place for children to be safe in those idle times.
“I don’t know if you’re paying attention to Oakland, but the people who are committing the crimes are getting younger,” he said. “So, what we’re trying to do is recruit them from being recruited. And if you cut these funds, you’ll find these kids to be in line and continue the cycle that we said we want to see change.”
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