The Senate reconciliation bill would cut $186 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. It would be the largest cut in the program’s history. SNAP, known as CalFresh in California, provides low income families a stipend every month for groceries. The cuts would push the onus on states to shoulder some benefit costs—a departure from how the program traditionally has worked—and impose work requirements on certain adults. The bill is now with the House of Representatives for a final vote before reaching Trump’s desk.

In Santa Clara County, where CalFresh participation is at its highest level in the past decade, these cuts would mean some families could lose their benefits if the state can’t fill in the gap. Overall, cuts to food stamps, Medi-Cal, housing vouchers and more could cost Santa Clara County up to $1 billion in federal funding.

“The bill proposes changes to eligibility that will make it harder for families to access benefits while also shifting a significant portion of costs to states—costs that are simply untenable for state and local governments to absorb,” County Executive James Williams told San José Spotlight. “Food is essential to survival…we are profoundly concerned about what these unprecedented cuts mean for so many families in our community, and we are continuing to evaluate impacts to our community.”

As of last July, the federally funded food assistance program has more than 130,000 individuals receiving food stamps in the county, almost double what it was in 2019, according to CalFresh data.

Some 5.3 million Californians in 2024 received an average of $189 per month in food stamps, totaling $12 billion. Trump’s bill would cut the state’s CalFresh’s funding down between $5.4 billion to $2.8 billion, resulting in more than 735,000 people losing their benefits, according to the governor’s office.

Traditionally, the federal government covered food stamp benefits while costs of administering the program is shared by counties, states and the federal government. This formula works since the federal government can operate at a deficit and print money when needed, unlike state governments.

Fullwell Executive Director Eli Zigas operates a Bay Area nonprofit that creates policies to tackle food insecurity in the state. He said requiring states to cover anywhere from 5% to 25% of the benefits means cuts are inevitable.

“The federal government is walking away from its commitment to fully fund this program, and they’re pushing some of the costs onto the states without really caring whether the states can handle it,” Zigas told San José Spotlight. “Or they know that the states can’t handle it, and therefore they’ll see a reduction in the number of people receiving assistance.”

California provides assistance

While the federal government continues to pare back money for these vital resources, the California Legislature is trying to bolster some programs in a difficult budget year. Included in the state’s budget for this new fiscal year is $36 million for the CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, a pilot program which allows people with EBT cards to receive instant rebates up to $60 a month when buying produce at select grocery stores.

“It’s more money than the program’s ever received,” Zigas said. “It’s an example of California providing some money to boost the safety net, but the magnitude of the SNAP cuts dwarfs that.”

The state also added $60 million for CalFood, a program that allows food banks to purchase California-grown foods for the communities they serve. Many food banks use these dollars to buy more expensive items like eggs.

“We are incredibly grateful to the governor and legislature for the $60 million in CalFood, which will help food banks serve over 6 million Californians each month,” Itzúl Gutierrez, senior policy advocate with the California Association of Food Banks, told San José Spotlight. “However, if these devastating cuts to SNAP in the Budget Reconciliation bill get passed, food banks will not be able to fill the gap. For every meal that a food bank provides, SNAP provides nine,” Gutierrez said.

During times of food insecurity, families turn to food banks for assistance—and food banks will see longer lines as people lose CalFresh benefits. However, food banks are already being stretched to the limit.

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley serves approximately 500,000 people a month in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties — the same number as during the height of the pandemic. Prior to that, the food bank served 250,000 people every month through food distributions and grocery programs.

“In our two counties alone, people receive about 32 million in benefits (from CalFresh) a month,” Second Harvest CEO Leslie Bacho told San José Spotlight. “So those are dollars that people are spending in our local grocery stores. And so the cuts will have an impact, not just on individuals, but also on our local economy.

“Editor’s note: A previous version of this story included lower projected cuts prior to the passing of the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’.

Contact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com or @joyce_speaks on X. 

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About two dozen protesters from the Solidarity and Unity Network (SUN) rallied in front of Robert F. Peckham Federal Building in San Jose on Thursday to speak out against the bill, which has passed the House and is being debated in the Senate. Baked into the bill are deep cuts to programs the poorest people rely on, including Medicaid, known as Medi-Cal in California, food stamps, housing vouchers and more. Protesters waved signs that said “ICE out of San Jose,” “Stop War,” and “No Big Ugly Bill” as they chanted “Stand up, fight back.”

SUN is made of two dozen groups representing a myriad of issues including Amigos de Guadalupe, Asian Law Alliance, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Jewish Voice for Peace South Bay, Laborers Local 270, Latinas Contra Cancer, Services Immigrant Rights and Education Network and more.

“If you take each one of our values, we can honestly say that Trump is working against all of those values,” Richard Hobbs, a lead organizer with SUN, told San José Spotlight. “It’s not about democracy for him, or equity or cooperation or kindness or sustainability. This bill incorporates a lot of the backsliding in our nation that we can’t afford.”

The budget proposals advancing through Congress could cost Santa Clara County up to $70 million. Trump wants Congress to work out the details of the bill to get it on his desk to sign by July 4.

The House version of the bill would slash health care programs by about $1 trillion over the next decade and require certain adults on Medi-Cal to work 80 hours a month to maintain health insurance. Due to the changes proposed to the Affordable Care Act marketplace and Medi-Cal, nearly 11 million people could lose health insurance, estimates the Congressional Budget Office. In California, about 1.7 million more people could be uninsured.

Medi-Cal represents roughly $1.9 billion in funding received by Santa Clara County this year. The county receives that money through reimbursements for patient care at county hospitals. It costs the county $4 billion, or $33%, from its $12 billion budget to run the hospitals. Half of the county hospital system’s patients pay through Medi-Cal.

“In Santa Clara County, one-third of our budget comes from the federal government,” San Jose State University professor emeritus Scott Myers-Lipton said at the rally. “The Trump cut in Medicaid will lead to even longer wait times here in Silicon Valley and an increase in infant mortality.”

Food insecurity would also rise under the bill, which would cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by nearly $300 billion over the next nine years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That’s expected to lead to more than 7 million people losing or significantly reducing their food stamp benefits. Some parents would be required to work 80 hours a month to qualify, and it would require states to shoulder between 5% and 25% of the costs.

In Santa Clara County, participation in CalFresh is already at its highest level in a decade. As of last July, the federally funded food assistance program has more than 130,000 individuals receiving food stamps in the county, according to CalFresh data.

“We know when our children are hungry, they cannot learn,” Misrayn Mendoza with Amigos de Guadalupe said. “This is a health issue too, since food insecurity is linked to increased risk of diet related disease. SNAP helps low income households afford healthier diets.”
The bill would also shift more wealth to the highest income earners, while those at the bottom will experience the greatest loss. People at the top 10% would see their incomes increase by an additional $12,000, while the lowest 10% would see their resources decrease by about $1,600 annually due to cuts in Medi-Cal and SNAP, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. Those in the middle income bracket will experience a slight bump in income by $500 to $1,000.

“Let’s be clear, this money is not just disappearing. It’s being stolen,” Darcie Green, executive director of Latinas Contra Cancer, said. “Stolen by corrupt politicians to line the pockets of their billionaire friends.”

Contact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com or @joyce_speaks on X.

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As soon as the playground’s gate opened on June 13, children, adults and older people rushed in to hop on the spherical spinner, scale the blue climbing tower and kick their feet on the swings. The playground is a first for Cupertino and was built for people of all ages and abilities — and is the newest addition in Santa Clara County’s quest to uplift accessibility for its more than 170,000 residents with disabilities, according to 2023 American Community Survey data.

“There are few places that everyone’s welcome, and this is one of them,” Schober told San José Spotlight.

The playground features four swing types, with some big enough for adults, wheelchair accessibility and a sign with pictures for nonverbal park-goers. It was built by MIG at a cost of $5.4 million, and is funded by roughly $1 million from the state and nearly $1.5 million from Santa Clara County, along with city funds and $25,000 from PG&E.

@sanjosespotlight

As soon as Cupertino’s new, all-inclusive playground at Jollyman Park opened on June 13, children, adults and older people rushed in to hop on the spherical spinner, scale the blue climbing tower and kick their feet on the swings. The Cupertino playground was built for people of all ages and abilities — and is the newest addition in Santa Clara County’s quest to uplift accessibility for its more than 170,000 residents with disabilities, according to 2023 American Community Survey data. The playground features four swing types, with some big enough for adults, wheelchair accessibility and a sign with pictures for nonverbal park-goers. Read more at SanJoseSpotlight.com. #inclusive #playground #disability #accessibility #inclusiveplayground #cupertino #siliconvalley

♬ original sound – San José Spotlight

Schober first envisioned the playground in 2016 as part of a community leadership initiative. All-inclusive playgrounds weren’t as widespread in the county then, and Schober’s idea caught the attention of former District 5 Supervisor Joe Simitian. He spearheaded the grant program for all-inclusive playgrounds in 2017, which has since allocated $20 million toward the effort countywide. The county now has 24 all-inclusive playgrounds at parks and schools in cities including San Jose, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Morgan Hill, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and Campbell.

The playground at Jollyman Park in Cupertino adds one to the West Valley, which only has a few. That’s significant for Schober and her adult son Nathan, who was diagnosed with ADHD as a child and struggled with sensory processing issues.

“You can be a quiet citizen pushing for good,” Schober said. “As long as you’re persistent, you can make things happen. Each one of us has the opportunity to influence, to make big things happen.”

Nathan told San José Spotlight a playground like this would have given him another way to express himself. He’s proud of his mom and said it’s a win for the disabled community.

“This is exactly what they need and exactly what they deserve,” he told San José Spotlight.

While Nathan likely won’t use the playground much as an adult, other families with adult children in the community will.

Cupertino resident Minna Xu said the playground is vital for her adult son, who is on the autism spectrum. He can use the adult-sized slides and swings to help with his sensory needs. Xu said he can get easily overstimulated without that outlet, adding it’s important for the community to know there are adults who need this. Nearly 70,000 residents in the county have a cognitive disability like Xu’s son, according to 2023 data.

“(People) didn’t tend to realize there’s such community needs,” Xu told San José Spotlight. “But this playground raised the awareness, and after that, our city decided to bring more all-inclusive elements to other parks.”

Mayor Liang Chao said the playground sends an important message: Cupertino welcomes everyone.

“We (wanted) to create something where you come and you feel you belong, not only in this playground, but also the city,” she told San José Spotlight.

Other recently finished all-inclusive projects include the playgrounds at Emma Prusch Farm Park in San Jose and Central Park in Santa Clara, which opened this spring.

Simitian said this is one of the few times he had an idea that worked out as intended during his time as supervisor. He termed out in 2024. He wants inclusivity to be a countywide movement spurred on by local nonprofits, including Magical Bridge Foundation, which specializes in creating all-inclusive playgrounds and parks.

“Each and every one of these playgrounds can be a model that communities look to and say, ‘You know, yes, we want to do that,'” Simitian told San José Spotlight.
Olenka Villarreal, Magical Bridge Foundation founder, said that message is important to keep the momentum going for residents who need accessible spaces. The nonprofit has playgrounds opening at Foothill College, Ravenswood Middle School in East Palo Alto and the Morgan Autism Center in San Jose.

“Chances are each of us knows somebody that benefits from thoughtful design, and so when we talk about creating public spaces as important as a public playground, that sort of sets the tone how your family is welcomed into this community,” Villarreal told San José Spotlight. “For us, of course, it is all about the equity.”

Contact Annalise Freimarck at annalise@sanjosespotlight.com or follow @annalise_ellen on X.

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Portraits of important Black figures — Malcom X, Martin Luther King, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and Marcus Garvey — greet visitors when they walk through the halls. African symbols such as masks and the Djembe drum hang on the walls. Educational posters about where the African diaspora happened and more are plastered throughout. Inspirational African proverbs like “Unity is strength, division is weakness” remind those who enter of their cultural heritage.

The two organizations share an office space, and often share clients. Ujima focuses on providing behavioral health services through a culture-centric lens, and Roots provides primary care and medical services to the Black community and beyond.

With a diminishing African American population in Santa Clara County, having spaces that understand and celebrate Black history and culture becomes even more vital to the improved health of individuals and community, Yvonne Maxwell, founder and director of Ujima Adult & Family Services, said.

“African centered services usually always involve knowledge and understanding of our history, our historical experiences,” Maxwell told San José Spotlight. “What we try to do is to create a space people can feel comfortable, and then can practice some of these cultural values. They don’t have to explain a lot. We already come from the space of understanding.”

Ujima was founded in 1991 after the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors questioned why a disproportionate number of Black and Latino children were in juvenile hall. Supervisors put aside money for a group to provide counseling targeted for African American youth. Maxwell, who was a social worker at the time, wrote a program proposal with the South Bay Association of Black Social Workers and won the contract.

The services Ujima gives have continued to evolve over the years. The organization still focuses on children, providing at-risk Black youth with classes to improve their life skills and exposure to higher education through field trips, summer camps, workshops and more. Ujima also provides a range of mental health services, including crisis intervention, case management and therapy, among others. All are through a cultural lens. This gives clients a safe space to share freely about struggles they may experience due to the color of their skin.

Misdiagnosis of mental symptoms is a common obstacle Black people face from the medical establishment, such as the diagnosis of schizophrenia or paranoia, Maxwell said. Other times, psychiatrists can overmedicate someone, or even withhold medication due to the assumption that the person is seeking drugs, she added.

Ujima strives to not just tackle one mental health episode, but to look at the whole person.

“We do an assessment and evaluation, and date the diagnosis. Then (we’re) treating the right symptoms, and not those that are perceived or projected,” Maxwell told San José Spotlight.

Working in tandem

Roots Community Health, founded in Oakland, opened its San Jose branch in 2017. Chief Administrative Officer Alma Burrell said building trust with clients and hiring workers who understand the cultural experience of Black people are essential.

“It starts with listening, not being in a rush, but actually listening and paying attention. Paying attention to what’s being said, and then responding to it from that shared cultural lens,” Burrell told San José Spotlight.

Having culture-focused care is even more critical when the mortality rates for Black infants and mothers are higher than other ethnicities, Burrell said.

From 2017 to 2022, Black infants in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties died at an average rate of 8.3 for every 1,000 births, more than double the rate for Hispanic/Latino infants at 2.7, Asians at 2.2 or white infants at 2, according to data from the California Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The major causes for Black infant deaths include low birthweight and birth defects.

Black mothers also died at a much higher rate in these counties. Between 2018 to 2023, they died at an average rate of 69 deaths per 100,000 births, compared to 18 for white mothers, 13 for Latinas and 8 for Asians.

Roots is working to combat these statistics by providing expectant mothers with doulas from pre-pregnancy all the way to postpartum.

“They are actually making a difference,” economist and community advocate Chuck Cantrell told San José Spotlight. “It’s a basic health care step … it’s not a new practice. It’s just empathy, understanding care and to go along with it.”

In addition to addressing people’s mental and physical health, Ujima aims to bolster community health and a sense of belonging within the Black community, which makes up just 2.9% of the nearly 2 million residents living in Santa Clara County.

Through the Ubuntu Wellness initiative, Ujima regularly hosts group activities like hiking, gardening, hair twisting workshops, book clubs, dinners, parent workshops and African drum and dance circles. They also have bi-monthly guided group discussions where people can find fellowship, commiserate and receive affirmation.
Ubuntu means “I am because we are” in the South African Zulu language. With community so deeply ingrained in African cultures, creating a sense of belonging for Black people in Silicon Valley becomes a lifeline. Community wellness is an element that often gets overlooked, but is critical for an individual’s well-being, Menar Negash, program coordinator with Ubuntu Wellness, said.

“That embodies what we’re trying to do,” Negash told San José Spotlight. “We are people through other people, and being together and working on our community wellness together.”

Contact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com or @joyce_speaks on X.

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County officials announced the opening of 1072-1082 Vermont St. in San Jose, known as Vermont House, at a Thursday news conference. The two houses can hold up to 15 people who have a mental illness or dual diagnosis that includes a substance use disorder. A typical stay will last six months to a year, with leeway for extensions. Residents will have their own room.

An on-site coordinator will help with cooking meals, shopping, coordinating Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings and other daily activities. In addition, each individual will have a treatment plan tailored to their needs, including psychiatric service and case management to help place residents into permanent housing or facilitate reunification with family. Nonprofit Community Solutions will oversee the program.

“Our built environments matter,” County Supervisor Susan Ellenberg said. “When residents walk through here, my anticipation and hope is that they immediately feel at home, that they feel well taken care of.”

San Jose bought the property in 2009 to house veterans. Nonprofit housing provider Abode Services, which was overseeing the site at that time, started vacating veterans last year when officials began discussing the sale. Some were relocated to permanent housing. The county acquired the property in January and paid the city $310,000 with a California Health Facilities Financing Authority grant. It spent about $150,000 to renovate it.

Residents can be referred through Judge Stephen Manley’s Behavioral Health Court, which pairs close judicial oversight with intensive supervision and treatment services in lieu of jail. They may also be referred by behavioral health agencies, Rachel Montoya, president of Community Solutions, told San José Spotlight.

Transitional housing has allowed Mark, who was formerly homeless, to gain stability. After getting arrested for lighting a fire to keep himself warm outside, he went through the behavioral health court and was connected to a transitional housing program run by Community Solutions. He’s now looking for an apartment of his own. Mark did not want to use his last name to protect his privacy.

“They’ve done a lot for me,” he said at the news conference. “It’s helped me with getting back into my AA meetings.”

Residential treatment centers are one of the first steps in the continuum of care process for people with a mental illness diagnosis or substance use disorders. It’s the county’s approach to helping people in their journey back to normalcy. The county has been working to add more mental health beds after Ellenberg and Supervisor Otto Lee declared a mental health crisis in 2022 due to the lack of treatment facilities. They called for more investments and a coordinated response. Since then, the county has added 208 beds, including 53 acute in-patient psychiatric beds at for-profit San Jose Behavioral Health.

The county has 1,268 beds for various levels of treatment: 374 beds in locked facilities for acute need, 322 beds in skilled nursing facilities and mental health rehabilitation centers, 378 beds in residential adult facilities for people with mental health issues and 194 beds for people detoxing from substance use. The county’s goal is to have about 1,600 beds by the end of 2030.
Montoya said they want to provide a safe place for people to recover and transition into permanent housing.

“We have to make sure that this feels like a home, because going from incarceration to a house, we don’t want it to feel like going from jail to jail,” Montoya said. “This is their home. This is where they should feel safe. They should be able to relax. They should be able to take care of themselves.”

Contact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com or @joyce_speaks on X. 

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The City Council on Tuesday approved the revival of San Jose’s paramedic coordinator program, known as Med 30, with new funding for seven months — starting in December — as part of the budget vote. It will cost $748,000, according to the budget memo. The program had various responsibilities for ensuring timely medical care during fire emergencies, including investigating discrepancies in the fire department’s narcotics inventory.

Officials this week acknowledged the importance of the program, which was eliminated in 2024 before revelations about rampant firefighter drug thefts. But some councilmembers said they can’t risk committing ongoing funds while facing a $35 million shortfall. Officials will reevaluate the program at the end of the seven-month period.

“Med 30 is important, but to tie additional funding into funds we have not received yet — and are only guesstimating — will put our budget at risk,” District 9 Councilmember Pam Foley said before the vote.

District 7 Councilmember Bien Doan — a firefighter who previously spoke out against Med 30’s elimination — called for its reinstatement in a budget memo he wrote with colleagues Pamela Campos, George Casey and Michael Mulcahy.

Doan credits the city’s firefighter union for locating the needed money, which would come out of revenues from the new first responder fees the city council approved in March.

“This will save lives,” he told San José Spotlight. “Our fire union, Local 230, helped identify a permanent funding source worth an estimated $4 million in additional annual revenue through the existing transport recovery fee. However, I was concerned that city administration appeared hesitant to trust the union’s data. There is still more work ahead, and I will continue to lead efforts and build strong partnerships to make Med 30 a permanent part of our emergency response system.”

Councilmembers also approved funding for 14 new sworn staff for the new Fire Engine 32, as well as money to modernize the department’s narcotics storage systems.

“The department looks forward to implementing these critical resources that will improve our service delivery and community safety,” Fire Chief Robert Sapien told San José Spotlight.

City leaders approved Sapien’s request to cut the Med 30 program in 2023, a few months before firefighters began raising alarms about narcotics discrepancies at their fire stations — and reported giving patients morphine from tampered vials. However, the Med 30 cut didn’t take effect until the following year.

The public didn’t learn about the fire department’s narcotics theft crisis until this past April, when the city announced the arrest of a fire captain suspected of stealing paramedic narcotics across as many as 17 fire stations. The city did not disclose firefighters’ 2023 reports about patient exposure until San Jose Spotlight obtained and published them last month.

Following the emails’ publication, Santa Clara County’s emergency medical services chief blasted Sapien for sitting on those warnings and not making his agency aware of them when they were received. The county official also raised concerns that the San Jose Fire Department violated federal law.

“I would like to be very clear: eliminating Med 30 did not result in decreased oversight,” Sapien told San José Spotlight. “In fact, controlled substance inventory is now managed by the Emergency Medical Services Continuous Quality Improvement Fire Captain, which is the same fire captain that was formerly assigned to Med 30 and whose expertise provides consistency and continuity in this area.”

Sapien said additional controls have already been put in place to strengthen drug oversight.

“And more will be implemented to address the security of controlled substances once they are assigned to a fire company,” he said.
Jerry May, president of San Jose Fire Fighters Local 230, publicly urged against Med 30’s elimination for years. When the drug theft scandal went public, he tied it back to the program cut. He lauded the council’s decision to reinstate it — even if only temporarily.

“We’re really excited to reimplement this critical resource and program for firefighters in our community and looking forward to collaborating with the council and city manager’s office to find funding in the future,” May told San José Spotlight. “I think it will prove its value in those seven months and there’s a reason that position has been part of our organization for 20 years.”

Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on X.

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Last month, Newsom announced $3.3 billion in Prop. 1 grants to 126 recipients across the state. Santa Clara County was left out. The county sought funding for three projects — the development of a skilled nursing facility in Morgan Hill, construction of a mental health facility on Jose Figueres Avenue and renovation of a substance use residential facility on North Morrison Avenue, both in San Jose.

The $6.4 billion bond pushed by the governor was narrowly passed last year. The bond sets aside $4.4 billion for the construction of treatment beds for people with mental illness and substance use issues. The other $2 billion is to be used to construct housing for the same population, with a majority of housing reserved for homeless veterans.

“It’s hard to not feel a significant personal disappointment that external factors are inhibiting our forward progress,” District 4 County Supervisor Susan Ellenberg told San José Spotlight. “The governor promoted Proposition 1 in the context of counties need to do more to provide mental health services. We submitted three outstanding projects. None of them were awarded.”

Santa Clara County sought a $74.2 million grant for its largest project at 101 Jose Figueres Ave., which would’ve added 58 beds. The county wants to demolish the outdated crisis stabilization unit and redevelop it into a two-story, 83-bed mental health facility. A portion of the facility will be set aside for acute in-patient care. It’s unclear how the county’s projects will move forward.

A spokesperson for the county Behavioral Health Services Department told San José Spotlight they received no reason why the county-owned projects didn’t receive any funding. Staff plan to resubmit the applications to the second and final round of Prop. 1 money, which recently opened, and search for other sources of funding.

Ellenberg said she’s further frustrated Prop. 1 was funded by taking away dollars from the Mental Health Services Act, eating away at more of the county’s money to address its mental health crisis.

Rewriting the rules

Prop. 1 rewrote the Mental Health Services Act, which voters approved in 2004 to create a 1% tax on people whose income is more than $1 million dollars to pay for mental health services. The state normally raises between $2 billion to $3.5 billion each year from this tax, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office. Prop. 1 shifted more money generated by this “millionaire’s tax” to state programs, from 5% to 10%. As a result, Santa Clara County will lose about $6.6 million each year when the next fiscal year starts in July.

Prop. 1 also changed the way money from this tax would be used, requiring 30% of funding to support housing, primarily for homeless people. This removed the flexibility counties had to spend funds on other mental health services, such as outreach and responding to those in a crisis. Prop. 1 also renamed the Mental Health Services Act to the Behavioral Health Services Act.

“Part of the consolation that I felt as a supervisor was OK, at least we’ll get (the funding) back through Prop.1, but to not be able to realize the return of any of those dollars that we lost through the transition from MHSA to BHSA really ties our hands,” Ellenberg said.

In 2022, Ellenberg and Supervisor Otto Lee declared a mental health crisis in the county due to the lack of treatment beds and called for more investments and a coordinated response. Since then, the county has added 208 beds, including 53 acute in-patient psychiatric beds at for-profit San Jose Behavioral Health.

The county has 1,268 beds for various levels of treatment: 374 beds in locked facilities for acute need, 322 beds in skilled nursing facilities and mental health rehabilitation centers, 378 beds in residential adult facilities for people with mental health issues and 194 beds for people detoxing from substance use. The county’s goal is to have about 1,600 beds by the end of 2030.

While the grants for the county’s projects didn’t come though, three privately-owned projects received Prop. 1 funding: A 108-bed skilled nursing facility in Morgan Hill run by 439 S 4th St LLC, a 60-bed crisis residential in San Jose run by Heritage Villa LLC and a 60-bed substance use treatment facility in Gilroy run by nonprofit HealthRIGHT 360. The facilities are slated to open between winter 2026 and spring 2027. In total, these three facilities received $42 million in state funding and will add 228 treatment beds in the county.

Getting Prop. 1 funding in this last round is going to be tough. There’s only about $800 million left for mental health and substance treatment facilities. The state plans to prioritize grants for rural areas and counties that didn’t received funding in the first round, according to the state website.

Ellenberg said the county will work with the three awardees to see how many beds it can license to serve its clients.

“I’m delighted for the three grants that were awarded. We need the beds,” Ellenberg said. “Better those three than nothing at all.”
Vitka Eisen, CEO of HealthRight 360, said she’s excited to bring a substance use residential treatment center to a historically underserved region.

The 60-bed facility, slated to open by next winter, will provide people with up to 90-day stays and withdrawal treatment to help those with addiction. In addition, residents will receive counseling, get linked to job training and participate in individual and group activities like attending a concert.

“Recovery is more than just stopping using drugs,” Eisen told San José Spotlight. “It’s like creating a new life, finding things that replace the time people have spent using drugs with other things that give them joy and pleasure.”

Contact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com, or @joyce_speaks on X. 

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Councilmembers Peter Ortiz, Domingo Candelas, Pamela Campos, George Casey and David Cohen introduced a proposal Wednesday to pause new smoke shops from opening in East San Jose. The City Council voted last year to add more regulations for smoke shops before moving to a call for full suspension after Santa Clara County Public Health’s recent Latino Health Assessment cited the danger shops pose to impressionable youth. The assessment shows East San Jose has a tobacco retailer density of about seven per square mile — more than twice the county average of three per square mile.

After spearheading the effort to put more regulations on smoke shops last year, Ortiz said it’s time to take the next step in limiting their influence on East San Jose residents.

“I’ve tried to introduce this policy in the past — it wasn’t successful,” he told San José Spotlight. “They’re still opening them. So now I’m calling for a moratorium until the city can guarantee less smoke shops in concentrated areas.”

The San Jose Rules and Open Government Committee will revisit the proposed suspension of new smoke shops in two weeks after city workers analyze the potential workload. Neighboring Campbell recently approved a similar policy, which was extended last month.

District 1 Santa Clara County Supervisor Sylvia Arenas said the county’s first Latino health assessment in more than a decade showed cancer remains the leading cause of death among Latinos countywide. Latinos make up more than 25% of the county population, according to U.S. Census data.

“It’s no coincidence that in East San Jose there are smoke shops that are located across from high schools. These numbers are not just statistics,” she said Wednesday. “They are symptoms of targeted marketing, retail clustering and bad policies with a high concentration of tobacco retailers in Latino neighborhoods.”

Community leaders said imagery used by smoke shops draws in younger customers, and such shops sell underregulated items like synthetic marijuana and nitrous oxide.

Community Health Partnership CEO Dolores Alvarado said she wants to break the cycle of family members needing to convince older relatives to ditch their potentially fatal addictions.

“I have a father who is 94 years old,” she said Wednesday. “The only reason that he is the remaining member of the family is that in 1984, when I had my first child, I said to him, ‘If you don’t stop smoking you will never see your grandchildren.’ I suffer from secondhand smoke … So I know this enemy quite well, personally and professionally.”
The goal of the smoke shop suspension is to create more equitable health conditions for residents and encourage healthier lifestyles, Latinas Contra Cancer Executive Director Darcie Green said.

“We’re overburdened, underserved and targeted by harmful industries at the expense of our health,” she said. “Let’s be clear about what that leads to — more exposure to advertising that normalizes tobacco use, easier access for youth, secondhand smoke drifting into homes, schools and parks and greater difficulty for people trying to quit.”

Contact Vicente Vera at vicente@sanjosespotlight.com or follow @VicenteJVera on X.

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The city’s Older Adult Health and Wellness Grant Program funds nonprofits focused on educating San Jose’s older adult community on health, social and nutrition programs — but $526,434 in proposed cuts threaten to shut down the entire program. City Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services manages the program, and representatives said they need to meet a $2.8 million budget reduction to cover for the city’s financial shortcomings. Nonprofits will be frozen out of the grant program’s funding if the City Council approves the proposed 2025-26 operating budget on June 10.

“The city of San Jose is projecting a $36 million budget shortfall in the next fiscal year,” parks department spokesperson Dylan Kuhlmann-Haley told San José Spotlight. “After careful review of our programs, the department is proposing a reduced budget that minimizes impacts to staffing and preserves the department’s core services wherever possible.”

Yu-Ai Kai Japanese American Community Senior Service works to reduce the social isolation of older adults as a bilingual and cultural support program. The Japantown-based nonprofit serves mostly older adults who need assistance or have dementia. Executive Director Jennifer Masuda said keeping them engaged with social services and providing caregiver support should be enough to deem her and similar providers as essential for city funding.

“We’re not just talking about older adults living, we’re talking about them thriving,” Masuda told San José Spotlight. “It’s really about advocating for our seniors, but also to create a more healthy life for them.”

A recent U.S. Census Bureau report showed baby boomers will outnumber children by 2030.

San Jose’s increasing older adult population is reflected in the 2025 Silicon Valley Index published by research group Joint Venture Silicon Valley, which shows the population of residents 65 and up has grown 28% since 2013 — while the rising cost of living is driving younger people away from the area. A future of fewer working-age people could spell a shortage in caregivers, health care and social workers.

“We prevent a lot of social isolation,” nonprofit Breath California CEO Tanya Payyappilly told San José Spotlight. “I would really like to ask the city to reconsider these cuts because this is just a small amount of funding in a big bucket. It would eliminate something that is supposed to help all these vulnerable people.”

Michelle Schroeder, attorney with Senior Adult Legal Services, attended city council budget discussions on May 12 and said her nonprofit will have to stop servicing four out of nine senior centers as a result of the cuts. Looming budget cuts in the next fiscal year threaten unrelated older adult-focused programs in other cities across Santa Clara County including Los Gatos, Sunnyvale and Palo Alto.
Kylie Clark, policy and advocacy manager with the Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits, also spoke against the cuts and said she was shocked to learn the Older Adult Health and Wellness Grant Program was on the ropes.

“The grants became part of these nonprofits’ budgets that they were relying on, and for the city to just completely cut it without warning, it’s decently unprecedented,” Clark told San José Spotlight. “It also feels like older adult services are just not the place where the city should be looking for cuts.”

Contact Vicente Vera at vicente@sanjosespotlight.com or follow @VicenteJVera on X.

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The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously May 20 to remove a majority of the governing board of Santa Clara Family Health Plan in favor of filling the seats with county employees. It’s one of several steps county leaders are taking to maximize their public hospital reimbursements from the state’s Medi-Cal program for low-income families, foster youth, disabled people and older adults. The plan is to streamline Medi-Cal reimbursements, known federally as Medicaid, under a single-plan model to improve reimbursement rates, remove inefficiencies and axe duplicative costs.

Leaders of the Santa Clara Family Health Plan came out swinging against the idea last week.

“The county administration’s proposal is frankly reprehensible,” Family Health Plan CEO Christine Tomcala told supervisors at the meeting. “It disrespects our governing board, our staff and most importantly our members.”

Family Health Plan leaders called the move a “hostile takeover” in a May 16 letter to supervisors.

Santa Clara County established the Family Health Plan in 1995 to integrate care for people eligible for both Medicare and Medi-Cal. The goal was to give enrolled members a more coordinated, person-centered care experience. The county established the health care program as a separate entity because officials thought it would be too difficult to manage in-house.

But the program has since become a barrier to funding care, County Executive James Williams said at last week’s meeting.

About 300,000 Santa Clara County residents are enrolled in Family Health Plan — making it the largest managed care plan in the county. Due to its governance structure, county leaders say the agency largely functions as a separate insurance company more concerned with cost containment and surplus revenue.

The Family Health Plan lacks a financial backstop like the county’s general fund, a taxpayer-funded bucket for discretionary spending.  County leaders said this encourages the program to reimburse the hospitals at lower than preferred rates.

Having more supervision over the Family Health Plan will give the county more of a say on those rates, Williams said. Meanwhile, he warned efforts by Republicans in Congress to make steep federal Medicaid reductions, compounded by reductions proposed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, have put pressure on the timeline to make these changes now.

The state Department of Health Care Services will have to approve Santa Clara County’s “single plan” request. If approved, the county would remove Anthem and make Family Health Plan the sole Medi-Cal/ Medicare provider. But the request could take several years.
There are essentially four different health plans managing Medi-Cal and Medicare members. Two are private insurance providers: Anthem and Kaiser Permanente. Two are public: Valley Health Plan and Family Health Plan insurance providers.

“There is really an urgent need for an efficient, unified and effective Medi-Cal strategy that can mitigate these cumulative impacts and support the stability of these critical safety net services,” Williams said at the meeting.

Family Health Plan filed a lawsuit against the county requesting a temporary restraining order against the takeover, arguing it is unlawful since Family Health Plan is a separate entity. A judge denied that request.

“We’re pleased that the court did not intervene to stop the board of supervisors from properly exercising its policymaking authority to improve managed care in Santa Clara County, and that Family Health Plan subsequently requested dismissal of the lawsuit the next day,” County Counsel Tony LoPresti told San José Spotlight.

District 4 Supervisor Susan Ellenberg, in remarks directed to residents, said the actions the board took that day won’t impact patients.

“(It’s) to simply fund the best care available to you — from the doctors and health care professionals you trust,” Ellenberg said at the meeting.

Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on X

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