The county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved $4.3 million in emergency funding for a program that provides free developmental check-ups to children up to 5 years old.
The panel also voted to shift money from a homeless shelter project in Lakeside to a sleeping cabins site in Lemon Grove. Both votes were unanimous.
The money for First 5 San Diego‘s Healthy Development Services “will prevent imminent service cuts that would have impacted over 3,300 children and families,” according to a statement from Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe’s office.
The allocation halted a cut that, her office said, “would have resulted in a 59% reduction in behavioral health services and a 50% reduction in developmental therapies.”
Before the vote, Montgomery Steppe told her colleagues that the program “strives to support the whole family,” citing a national survey that found one in four California children from birth to 5 years are at risk for behavioral or developmental delays.
Supervisors heard from dozens of people, including doctors and child advocates, who supported shifting funding to rescue the program.
Dr. Marsha Spitzer, of Family Health Centers of San Diego, said the services are “vital to ensure that our children can grow to healthy adults.”
Supervisor Jim Desmond, though, noted that with the funding for the program, tobacco tax revenue, decreasing, the county needs a plan.
“When the funding ends for a program, we just can’t backfill it all the time,” Desmond said.
The supervisors approved spending another $4.9 million for the cabin site on Troy Street in Lemon Grove. Those funds will be taken from the Willow Recreational Vehicle Senior and Family Parking project in Lakeside, which had stalled. Some in the audience cheered the decision.
“With today’s action, the remaining funds will now be invested in two high-impact programs aimed at addressing homelessness across the region,” according to a statement from Montgomery Steppe and Supervisor Joel Anderson, who co-sponsored the Troy Street funding proposal.
According to the supervisors, $3.5 million will pay for one year of operations of the cabins, “a new initiative expected to provide temporary shelter and support services for approximately 140 people annually through 60 sleeping cabins.”
The county will also spend $868,568 for its Regional Homeless Assistance Program to provide emergency housing services, including case management, daily meals, housing aid, hygiene facilities, transportation and “connections to broader social services.” A county staff member said there will be 24/7 security.
Addressing homelessness is complicated, but the Troy Street location “is a compassionate way of addressing the issue,” Anderson said. “We’re not storing people – we’re restoring their lives, and giving them back the future they once held.”
City News Service contributed to this report.
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