2024 Feb 9 Support Letter Proposition 1

February 9, 2024

The Honorable Governor Gavin Newsom
1021 O Street, Suite 9000
Sacramento, California 95814

Re: SUPPORT from Marin County Board of Supervisors for Proposition 1 on the March 5, 2024 statewide ballot

Dear Governor Newsom,

On Tuesday, February 6, 2024 our Board of Supervisors took a formal motion to Support Proposition 1. After substantive discussion during our regular Board of Supervisors meeting, our Board voted unanimously to support a ‘Yes’ vote on this measure on the March 5, 2024 statewide ballot.

Proposition 1 is in alignment with our County’s strong commitment to Housing First and bolsters our own local commitment to addressing California’s serious shortage of treatment and residential opportunities for individuals experiencing or at risk of homelessness and who are living with serious mental illness and/or substance use disorder. Our Board appreciates the opportunity to express our support in this letter, and we also want to share some areas where we welcome the opportunity to continue working with your Administration prior to implementation in 2026. We feel that Proposition 1 will overwhelmingly bring positive change and opportunity to the system of care for the most vulnerable in our community.

We share your commitment to addressing the homelessness crisis

Proposition 1 will significantly shift how the County’s second-largest source of funding for mental health programs will be used: a refocusing of dollars on those experiencing homelessness. We applaud your Administration’s unprecedented commitment to moving the needle on California’s tragic homelessness crisis, and understand that Proposition 1 is intended to address this directly – as well as the parallel need to provide effective treatment for those with co-occurring mental health and/or substance use needs. The $6.38 billion bond will build on your Administration’s historic one-time commitments in recent years to capital facilities and housing to serve this population.

Since 2017 and the launch of our Coordinated Entry program in Marin, we have housed 728 individuals – and 94% of them remain housed. This success has largely been in part through the opening of two Permanent Support Housing properties (and two more coming online), which were provided critical funding under the state’s Homekey program. Thank you. All of these sites were made possible by state funding – but also because we committed significant local County and City dollars to the efforts. Marin County also operates a 24/7 Crisis Stabilization Unit, so we understand the statewide acute need for long-term psychiatric treatment beds to provide individuals most in need with safe, effective recovery opportunities – as opposed to returning someone immediately back to homelessness. The bond will provide funding to expand treatment beds statewide – and therefore greatly reduce the tragic situation that our County staff so often face when a client is ready and needing long-term treatment, but unable to find an open bed. We are ready to create additional beds in Marin.

Workforce, prevention and outreach work is critical

We also recognize that in its refocusing to address homelessness, Proposition 1 proposes to move workforce and prevention away from counties to the State. Prevention is critically important to reduce instances of serious mental illness and substance use disorder. In this transition, we urge your administration to ensure local prevention work is supported through alternative means, and especially prevention and early intervention work that targets youth and their families and caregivers. 

We wanted to highlight some critical prevention work we have done here in Marin:

• Marin County Mobile Crisis Response Team (MCRT): Our 9-person team now operates 24/7/265 and responds to both mental health and substance use disorders. The Team is currently funded by the Mental Health Services Act and state DHCS dollars with an annual budget of $3 million. These services are critical prevention efforts and support our commitment to reduce law enforcement response when clinicians and social workers provide a safe, effective alternative. In 2023, MCRT answered 2,616 calls countywide from the community and law enforcement,
• Marin County Suicide Prevention Collaborative: The County-led collaborative is in its 5th year, and has a wide-reaching impact. Including: 550 attendees participating in the Collaborative’s meetings; more than 60 education and training events attended by 2,600 residents; and the launch of meaningful local programs such as the Men and Boys Action team and the development of the first Community Guide for Suicide Prevention and Support.
• School-Based Mental Health and Substance Use Prevention: Close collaborations between local school districts, the Marin County Office of Education, and Marin County Health and Human Services Department have led to enhanced substance use and mental illness prevention programs for middle and high schoolers. These programs are currently funded by Mental Health Services Act and grant dollars and serve students at over 20 schools in Marin County.

We recognize that with the proposed funding formula shifts under Proposition 1, funding for prevention and response programs like these may be reduced. We urge the state to identify ways to expand its support for the most important prevention programs through other funding mechanisms. Especially in light of the CalAIM transition and behavioral health payment reform, we urge the state to ensure additional payment/funding transitions under Proposition 1 do not adversely affect successful community prevention and early intervention programs.

Of course, all our mental health and substance use prevention and treatment work is not possible without a strong, well-supported workforce to serve these individuals and their families. In the shift of workforce dollars from the local level to the state, we support efforts to bolster and expand those in these highly-valued professions. We also know that effective professionals are not limited to licensed clinicians, as those in Peer Support roles with lived experience have a vital role in serving some of the hardest-to-reach individuals.

We share your commitment to ending Veterans homelessness

Proposition 1’s $6.4 billion calls out a commitment specifically to housing for our Veterans; $1 billion of funds are set aside specifically for Veterans housing. We applaud this commitment called out in Proposition 1.

Ending Veterans homelessness has long been a goal of our Board. Of the 728 individuals housed in our County through Coordinated Entry since 2017, 110 of them are Veterans. We have tracked this population closely, and know that there are still 27 Veterans experiencing homelessness in Marin today. This was why last month, we celebrated the state’s $14.4 million grant for our new facility in Novato which will create 50 units of permanent supportive housing, of which 24 are reserved for veterans. We also contributed significant local dollars to this facility. When the building is completed this year, we estimate that we will get to functional zero for Veterans experiencing homelessness in Marin. That being noted, we hope that our significant local investments and commitment to ending Veterans homelessness that predates Proposition 1 does not equate to our County having to pass up bond funding opportunities under this category. Should the measure pass, we urge the state to consider ways that counties like Marin can remain eligible for funds earmarked for Veterans as state grant programs under the $1 billion are developed. We have significant ongoing funding needs to support this population, and hope that our previous commitment to this subgroup locally makes us more, not less, competitive for these funds.

In conclusion, while we understand that a number of statewide associations have taken a ‘None’ position on Proposition 1, we are expressing our Support for the measure to Marin constituents.

We support the goals of Proposition 1, and we look forward to being a strong partner with your Administration, we commit to continue to champion locally proven and effective solutions to address homelessness, serious mental illness and substance use disorder. Chief among these solutions is building more housing and treatment facilities. Thank you for your leadership.

Sincerely,

Dennis Rodoni, President
Marin County Board of Supervisors

Cc: Marin County Board of Supervisors
Jason Elliott, Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Newsom
Senator Mike McGuire
Assemblymember Damon Connolly