Alameda County Social Services Committee Meeting - November 24, 2025
Alameda County Social Services Committee Meeting - November 24, 2025
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors Social Services Committee met on Monday, November 24, 2025, with Supervisors Fortunato Bass and Tam present. The meeting included an update on the county's response to the federal government shutdown and the annual presentation from the County Veterans Service Officer, Anthony Simpson. No public comments were provided.
Government Shutdown Update
- Agency Director Andrea Ford reported that in response to the government shutdown, the Social Services Agency partnered with the Alameda County Community Food Bank to distribute food at four self-sufficiency centers as pop-up sites, operating through November 14, 2025, when the shutdown ended. The Enterprise self-sufficiency center operated a food truck concept and had the most activity, distributing approximately 10,000 pounds of food per day.
- Regarding LIHEAP funding, Ford noted that due to restored federal funding, the county will return to the board on December 9, 2025, with a plan for Spectrum Community Services to spend $3 million in Measure W funds. The federal government has not yet sent funding to the state.
- Ford also mentioned that HR1 impacts include the CalFresh ABOD work requirement (still on hold pending federal guidance) and Medi-Cal for UIS population (effective January 2026).
Annual Update from County Veterans Service Officer
- Anthony Simpson, Alameda County Veterans Service Officer, presented an overview of the office's mission, services, and accomplishments. He highlighted specialized training in benefits such as special monthly compensation (e.g., aid and attendance), debt management and waivers, Dependency Indemnity Compensation (DIC), vocational readiness, and apportionment for families of incarcerated veterans.
- Simpson reported that with a team of five veteran service officers, the office achieved 138 in-person contacts, responded to over 42 telephone calls and emails, and completed two outreach events in the past month alone.
- He cited two notable successes: a veteran who received high-quality hearing aids after seeking help at an outreach event, and a widow who received a retroactive DIC payment of $228,018 (plus $1,648 monthly) due to the PACT Act of 2022.
- Future plans include a countywide newsletter, virtual appointments (using a new QMATIC contract), targeted outreach to underserved areas, and a standalone office in Hayward. The Hayward office renovations are complete, with technological equipment being installed as of November 14, 2025; opening is expected by end of 2025.
- Simpson discussed satellite outreach at libraries in Pleasanton and Union City, providing confidential spaces. He noted that the Pleasanton event had low turnout due to the government shutdown affecting publicity, but two January events are scheduled.
- Supervisor Tam asked about a planned VA clinic at Alameda Point, which Simpson could not address but offered to follow up.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken during the meeting.
- The committee received the updates and will consider the LIHEAP/Measure W funding allocation for Spectrum Community Services on December 9, 2025.
- The board acknowledged the veterans services office's progress and plans, including the upcoming Hayward office opening and expansion of virtual services.
- Supervisor Tam requested a follow-up on the status of the Alameda Point VA clinic project.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon and welcome to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors Social Services Committee meeting for Monday, November the 24th, 2025. May I have a roll call, please? Supervisor Fortunato Bass present. Supervisor TAM. Present. We have a quorum. Thank you. Can you provide instructions for online participation as well? The link to join the Zoom meeting is on ACGov.org on the posted agenda. Teleconferencing guidelines can be found there as well. If you're participating in person, please fill out a speaker card and hand it to the clerk. If you're online, please use the raise the hand function. If you're calling in, please dial star nine to raise your hand. Thank you. Thank you very much. Before we get started on the first informational item uh on the board agenda on the county's veteran services officer, could we um just get a brief update on um the activities that the social service agency had completed as a result of the government shutdown? And are there any like follow-up that we need to uh consider? Good afternoon, Supervisor Tam Andrea Ford Agency Director for Social Services. Um, in terms of the government shutdown, um the activity um that was in place was a partnership with the Alameda County Community Food Bank to distribute food at four of our self-sufficiency centers in a form of pop-up sites. Um the one office enterprise self-sufficiency center operated as a food truck concept. Umperations ended on November 14th. That was the last day of the pop-ups because the government shutdown ended. I understand at least some uh some of the uh correspondence that uh the one over at Eastmont Mall had the most activity. Was that the self-service center? Yeah, actually, it was the one at Enterprise, the food truck. Oh, enter the most activity, yes. Thank you for for each one of their um distributions, uh, they had about 10,000 pounds of food that was distributed per day, including um the day that it rained pretty heavily. Uh, I think they had just shy of 10,000 pounds. It was 9,000 and something, but so each one of their days was very successful. Okay, and thank you for your agency and your staff support in um coordinating with the food bank and immediately trying to get alternative sites to make sure uh people were not impacted because of their interruption with the SNAP benefits. Um, I know we've also been getting a lot of questions about well, what we did with LIHEAP and uh also uh when the funding uh would come to that agency, what the state's gonna be doing uh in in light of the government shutdown as well. Can you just give us a brief update so that the public can hear about this as well? Yeah, so it was um item number 16 on last Tuesday's board agenda. Um, and it was regarding measure W funding, and because the federal government had restored complete funding to on the light heap program, we're gonna come back to your board on December the 9th with a plan for Spectrum Community Services. Um their plan for spending the additional three million dollars in measure w funds. We'll be asking your board to approve the measure w funding allocation, the spectrum community center for um three three million dollars. Spectrum is currently working with our finance department to submit a revised scope of work that will outline um the spending. As far as I'm aware, uh the federal government still has not sent funding to the state as updated last Tuesday. The plan was to try to get money out the door by the end of this month to the state. Thank you. And I know we're gonna be looking forward to um more updates, probably in the next month or so on HR1 in terms of not just um what we've been talking about with Medi-Cal, but also with a lot of the services that social service administers for our residents. Yeah, I think the most immediate impact um as it relates to HR1, the social services would be the ABOD work requirement for the CalFresh program. Uh, we still have not implemented that in the state of California because we haven't received guidance from the federal government, so that's still on hold, and the other one would be Medi-Cal for the UIS population, which takes effect in January. Those are the two more immediate impacts of HR1. Thank you very much. Appreciate that update. This is our annual update. So thank you. Good afternoon. That's much better for me as well.
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