Senate Standing Committee on Human Services

Good afternoon. I'd like to call to order this special oversight hearing of the Senate and Assembly Human Services Committee. And I'd like to welcome the public, Members of the Administration, stakeholders and staff for this oversight here and discuss the 26-27 Community Services Block Grant state program.

The purpose of today's hearing is to review the state's plan for CSBG funding, a federal anti poverty funding stream created in 1981. And to put this in perspective, in 2023, 6.4 million Californians were under the California poverty measure line, which means that they had an annual income around $44,000 for two working age adults and two children.

Additionally, California is home to 187,000 people experiencing homelessness, the largest percentage in the United States. These numbers are certainly troubling and this Committee remains concerned with the impacts of poverty and homelessness on children, older adults. And so we'll discuss today the programs that state and qualifying agencies and nonprofits have been implementing with CSBG dollars.

But also put this in the context of current funding and threats to cuts federal funding which will impact these critical services to reduce poverty and to support our communities.

So I look forward to hearing more about how our local community action agencies are responsive to community needs and how the Department of Community Services and Development works to support those efforts while overseeing proper Administration of Federal Dollars. So with that, and I hope that we will have our Assembly and Senate colleagues joining us.

During the course of this hearing, Members of the Senate and Assembly Democratic Caucus had caucus meetings that we just got out of, obviously around some very pressing matters, including the proposed redistricting plan which we'll be taking up this Thursday. So I do hope and expect that Members will join us as we progress with the informational hearing.

But I want to be respectful of your time and ensure that we can begin with our panels. So with that, we'll proceed to the first panel. And this is going to be an overview of the Community Services Block Grant program.

I'd like to invite up Jason Wimbley, Director of the Department of Community Services and Development, David Knight, the Executive Director of the California Community Action Partnership Association, and Mary Alice Escarza Fechner, the Executive Director of Community Services and Employment Training, the Board Chair of the California Community Action Partnership Association.

Thank you for waiting and for being here today and will go first to Mr. Wimbley.

Great. Good afternoon, Chair. And thank you for allowing me this opportunity to speak today on the 2026-27 state plan for the Community Services Block Grant, or CSBG.

It is a privilege to be here today to share with all of you and with the public the purpose and operations of CSBG and the impact of CSBG in assisting low income households and communities throughout California. I'm Jason Wimbley, Director of the Department of Community Services and Development or CSD.

CSD is responsible for administering several programs designed to improve the economic security of low income Californians. We work towards this goal by partnering with community based organizations dedicated to helping vulnerable Californians achieve and maintain economic security, pay their energy bills and meet their home energy needs through energy efficient weatherization and renewable energy.

These programs serve to address the immediate and critical needs of low income Californians on the individual level while also promoting self sufficiency and community wide economic security in the long term.

One common thread that runs through all of CSD's programs is the department's partnership with community based organizations that enable the Administration of these programs at the local level and tailor Administration and service delivery to the needs of individual communities.

This quality is perhaps best displayed through the Community Services Block Grant and its network of local CSBG agencies, defined as eligible entities in the State plan and commonly known as Community Action agencies. As the lead agency of federal CSBG funding, CSD works directly with 60 organizations throughout 58 counties in California.

CSBG agencies are eligible to receive funding on an annual basis to put towards a wide range of supportive services designed to address the causes and in conditions of poverty, including but not limited to housing, employment, education, health and emergency and disaster services.

CSBG services are designed with the goal of addressing the immediate needs of low income families individuals while helping them to attain the skills, knowledge and motivation to achieve and maintain economic security.

This network of CSBG agencies includes nonprofit and local governmental agencies as well as organizations that specifically target the needs of some of California's most vulnerable populations including migrant and seasonal farm workers and Native American Indians. CSBG is unique in that it's not a typical program narrowly focused on addressing a specific need.

Instead, it's a funding source often leveraged to support and enhance other services and activities that target low income community Members. This use of CSBG funds, combined with the maximum flexibility extended to local agencies to address anti poverty needs of their communities, yields an impressive array of services and outcomes each year.

The CSBG act helps achieve this by requiring agencies to be governed by a tripartite Board of Directors consisting of at least 1/3 low income residents, 1/3 public officials and 1/3 representatives from the private sector. Agencies are also required to solicit direct input from the broader community through community Needs Assessments.

These assessments are informed by surveys, public forums, and the direct involvement of low income residents to provide a comprehensive picture of of the conditions faced by vulnerable Californians in each agency's service territory.

The Community Needs Assessments then inform each agency's Community Action Plan, a work plan for addressing poverty within communities by outlining needs, service delivery strategies, resources and outcome measures. All of this work contributes to the CSBG State Plan that is the subject of this hearing.

The CSBG State Plan is California's application for federal funding and serves as a roadmap detailing how CS CSD will administer the grant funds in partnership with our local agencies. Submitted every two years to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the plan covers a wide variety of topic areas pertaining to overall grant Administration and implementation.

While the needs of California communities will never be exactly the same within the State plan, our CSBG agencies have identified the most common needs that they will address over the next two years.

This includes access to safe and affordable housing, employment skills and training, and job placement addressing food insecurity, access to health care and mental health services, transportation and asset building.

In Federal fiscal year 2025, California was allocated 68.4 million in CSBG funds, which is comparable to what the state has received in annual CSBG funding over the last three federal budget years.

The CSBG act requires at least 90% of the CSBG funds be made available to CSBG agencies While the remaining 10% be split equally for discretionary use and state Administration. In 2023, California reported serving approximately 1.5 million low income Californians through our network of CSBG agencies.

This included approximately 271,000 children, 92,000 seniors, 65,000 people with disabilities, 51,000 people who lacked health insurance, and 7,000 veterans. Since the background materials did such a superb job of summarizing the service and achievements outcome achievements in detail, I will simply state that services were emphasized in the areas of housing, employment, education, cognitive development services and food distribution.

To address food insecurity, I would like to highlight an example of the amazing and vital work our network agencies are leading every day to fight poverty and provide supportive assistance and resources to vulnerable low income individuals and families.

In the City of Hanford, the King's Community Action Organization partnered with several public and private organizations at the state and local level to create new permanent supportive housing for unhoused Members of the community. The new Sunrise Apartments was converted through California's Project House Key from a motel operating as a short term shelter into apartments providing permanent housing.

King's Community Action Agency and funding contributions from CSBG helped bring this project to fruition. The Sunrise Apartments is now operational, providing housing and case management for its tenants. A gentleman by the name of Felix is one of the new residents of the Sunrise Apartments.

He told his story at the official opening in May and I found it particularly moving. Having lost his home and estranged from his family, Felix was unhoused for two years and living adjacent to the local community garden without a place to call home.

He found a sense of belonging by volunteering and tending to the garden, assisting with food distribution and caring for the property on weekends. Still, he found it difficult to hold on to hope. In Felix's words, I knew I had to find a way to incorporate myself back into society, but the doors kept closing on me.

Felix's life changing moment occurred when a community outreach team from King's Community Action Organization connected with him and offered him food, blankets and ultimately a place to stay and call home at Sunrise Apartments. Thanks to his case management team and the safety and security of the Sunrise Apartments, Felix's life has taken a significant turn.

He has regained the desire to live and is on the path to regain the most important aspect of his life reconnection with his children. It can all be too easy to fall into poverty and exceptionally difficult to rise out of it.

CSBG empowers communities to come together in service of their neighbors to offer a helping hand and move forward to towards building a brighter future for California.

As everyone is aware, federal funding for a number of social and safety net programs that support vulnerable Californians has already been reduced or at risk of being cut in next year's federal budget. CSBG is no different and funding for the grant is under threat. The Trump Administration has proposed eliminated funding for CSBG in its 2026 federal budget.

This aligns with budget proposals from President Trump's first term. However, Congress ultimately chose to continue and maintain stable funding for CSBG. Recently, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, which has oversight over the CSBG budget, passed its 2026 appropriations bill and voted to fully fund CSBG in the coming year at the same level as 2025.

The House of Representatives Appropriations Committee is not scheduled to take up CSBG funding until September at the earliest, and a final budget agreement will remain to be negotiated between all parties.

But amidst this uncertainty, I take solace in the fact that CSBG has historically received bipartisan congressional support because it's community based, designed to meet local needs and strengthens the self sufficiency and economic security of low income Americans.

CSBG is more important than ever as vulnerable Californians continue to struggle to make ends meet and the programs and supports they rely on face unprecedented threats.

Communities coming together in the spirit of community action can play a critical role in responding to a rapidly changing environment, and CSBG agencies are uniquely positioned to respond to the changing needs of low income Californians in years to come.

Now I'm pleased to introduce David Knight, Executive Director of the California Community Action Partners Association, or CALCAPA, and Mary Alice Escarcega-Fechner, CALCAPA's Board Chair and Executive Director of Community Services and Employment Development, who Community Services and Employment Training, excuse me, who will share their stories and insights.

Thank you for the opportunity to present the 2026-27 CSPG State Plan and we greatly appreciate the Legislature's continued support of CSPG and look forward to your questions as we proceed. Thank you very much.

You can hear me all right. Good afternoon. Thank you, Jason and thank you to the Joint Committee for Convening today. And thank you for the opportunity to provide remarks on behalf of the California Community Action Partners Association.

CALCAPA represents California's network of community action agencies and partners who work every day to overcome poverty, expand opportunity and strengthen communities. We welcome the opportunity to speak regarding the Community Service Block Grant and the State Plan.

First, I want to thank the California Department of Community Services and Development for their work in drafting this State Plan and for the continued collaboration with local agencies and stakeholders. The CSBG State Plan is just not a compliance document. It is a roadmap for how California will invest in community based solutions to poverty.

Our association focuses on providing training and technical assistance, increasing statewide communications, and leading advocacy and policy development. Our Association also serves as the lead state for the Regional Performance and Innovation Consortium for United States Health and Human Services, CSBG Region 9.

This means that California and CALCAPA lead the region, which includes the states of Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands. California Community Action just doesn't lead in the region. It also leads nationally with two of our agency's Executive Directors who also serve on the CALCAPA Board of Directors.

Serving on the Board of Directors for the National Community Action Partnership Association, the California Department of Community Services and Development Deputy Directors also engage with the National Association of State Community Service Programs, California Community Action.

Our CSBG eligible entities have long been leaders in this national community action movement which are still often sought out as leader's voice for community action across this country, more so now than ever. While the Community Service Block Grant just celebrated 44 years this year, the Community Action Movement is now well into its 61st year.

While it relies on decades of experience in each of our communities, it constantly thrives to adapt to the ever changing landscape of our families and our communities.

Being in partnership with California CSD and serving as a lead development Association for all agencies statewide, CALCAPA has a unique opportunity to see and measure the landscape of our great state in each of the communities we serve.

As we review the plan, CALC have been encouraged to focus on a few key Strengthening local flexibility each community is different and our agencies need the flexibility to design programs that meet the unique needs of rural, urban and suburban areas alike. Investing in capacity and Workforce Community Action staff are on the front lines.

Investments in training, technical assistance and workforce development will strengthen program outcomes and ensure long term sustainability. Partnerships and Leveraging CSBG works best when paired with other resources. We encourage continued focus on leveraging opportunities with state and federal programs, local and private sector partnerships. Data and outcomes we support continued efforts to improve data collection and reporting.

Meaningful data should not only demonstrate compliance but also help us tell the story of impact, how lives are changed and communities are strengthened. One area I'd like to highlight about California's community action agencies in using data and outcomes is through a performance management system named ROMA, which stands for Results Oriented Management and Accountability and is our core performance management framework.

ROMA is not just a federal requirement, it's a tool our agencies use to ensure we're getting clear goals, tracking measurable outcomes and continuing improving services.

Agencies across California integrate ROMA into their daily work by assessing community needs and then through comprehensive needs assessments, setting outcomes focused outcome focused goals that connect directly to the national community action goals, ensuring consistency statewide and nationally, collecting and analyzing data to monitor progress, identify gaps and redefine approaches.

This means that performance management is a cycle, not a one time report. And then finally, ROMA allows us to communicate results to funders, policymakers and communities demonstrating accountability and impact. And it drives continuous quality improvement so that programs aren't just maintained but strengthened year after year.

Through ROMA, California's agency can show how families are moving towards stability and self sufficiency, how communities are becoming stronger, and how limited resources are leveraged for maximum impact.

As you will hear in many testimonies today, agencies have seen a greater need from families than ever before during a period of ongoing recovery from wildfires, floods and other natural disasters.

It's important to note the Community Service Block Grant is vital to leading our communities on the path of economic mobility, all while still ensuring stability of our families of low income. Community Action is built on the premise that CSBG is not a program but rather a flexible funding source.

Our agencies are extremely knowledgeable about their community needs and strengths and they know how to best combine private and public resources to ensure they develop thriving communities. CSBG's focus on being locally led allows other low income funding to have a stronger return on investment.

Whether these are state or federally funded, programs often require startup and capacity building dollars. With the ongoing influx of CSBG funding, agencies are able to hit the ground running and also be flexible in their delivery of services.

They already know what housing needs are present, what workforce training is needed for businesses thrive and expand, what communities lack health and mental health access and where a lack of nutrition slows development in all areas.

Our flexibility in the Community Service Block Grant allows agencies to ensure families not only have access to SNAP or food vouchers, but also a place to get that healthy food. It creates access to transportation vouchers while at the same time making sure there's a successful transportation infrastructure to use those vouchers.

To have successful implementation of opportunities, a program must have two things, funding and access. First, on funding we are all more than aware funding levels remain a critical point in our political discussions.

The California Community Action Network works collectively serves as a huge catalyst for agencies to share best practices and performance systems, keeping costs low to match low funding. This also allows development and capacity building to happen more rapidly and allows calcapa to move all the data we collect into information.

We are then able to take that information and put it into communication in a way that people are better to learn about the CSBG opportunities that benefit communities. This is powerful for us as a network and for you as decision makers on access.

The key to CSBG and its connectivity across their state allows you as policymakers to know that you have local boots on the ground organizations ready to deliver opportunities to families. Whether it be an emergency, disaster response, stability efforts or economic mobility opportunities, having this access readily available is beneficial to the State of California.

You'll hear more today about many of the successes and how our agencies abilities are maximized as we continue to navigate the long term impacts of limited funding, all of which adversely affect people of low income. Community Action will continue to be called upon.

CALCAPA has been and continues to be proud to work alongside the State of California and CSD to keep our network at the top of the state's response to needs as well as to lead the country in the work for our families and communities.

Thank you for the opportunity to share information on our network and on the CSBG plan today. Thank you for your time and the governance of our great state.

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon. It is certainly a privilege for myself to be here. My name is Mary Alice Escarsega-Fechner and I am the Executive Director for Community Services and Employment Training and also the proud President of CALCAPA. CSBG is more than a grant. It is the lifeline connecting those struggling in poverty to essential resources.

It serves as the cornerstone of efforts to address the pressing needs of communities across California, especially in Tulare County. This essential funding empowers local agencies statewide to tackle their unique poverty challenges. Whether it's housing instability has been shared, food insecurity, or the need for employment pathways, the community decides those areas.

Its inherent flexibility is invaluable, allowing resources to be directed precisely where the need is greatest. This adaptability is critical in responding to immediate challenges like the Central Valley. We've had the freeze, we've had the drought, we've had flooding. During the drought we installed 7522000 gallon tanks for people who had no water.

This could not have happened without CSBG and leveraging other resources in the community. CSBG prioritizes measurable, locally defined outcomes. Moving beyond a one size fits all approach. This enables agencies to blend CSPG funding with other resources to maximize outcomes. In the heart of the Central Valley, specifically in Tulare County, CSBG is absolutely essential.

This region, a top agricultural producer and is comparable to the size of the State of Connecticut, faces widespread and persistent poverty. Our overall poverty rate stands at approximately 17%, almost 18% with children poverty living in poverty at 24%, well above state averages.

The community relies on flexible anti poverty funding to uplift the most vulnerable populations in our community. At CSET, CSBG directly supports vital staffing needs and access to services in rural communities. Currently, none of our other grants cover the personnel costs for essential functions like grant writing. We would have no grant writers without CSBG.

CSBG helps those critical personnel and helps maintain support in small community offices in places like Early Mart and Cutler Rossi, which have access to no transportation at times and can literally take a full day to go from Porterville to Visalia back to Porterville, which is only 40 miles each way.

These offices serve as vital lifelines for residents with limited access to reliable transportation in a service desert. CSBG empowers organizations like CSET along with dedicated partner agencies to effectively fill GAPS coordinate community programs and respond swiftly to pressing needs. Residents express the residents are telling us what the needs are.

Agencies are supporting housing stability, utility assistance, food access, employment pathways, and connecting safety net aid, especially for those in small towns and unincorporated areas. Through this dynamic, support agencies throughout California are transforming lives and elevating their community.

In closing, the Community Service Block grant empowers organizations like CISA to fight poverty effectively and adaptively, Transforming just in Tulare county over almost 14,000 lives each year in Tulare County. We urge you to champion continued robust funding for this essential lifeline, recognizing its irreplaceable role in building stronger communities across California. CSBG is that link.

It threads it all together for all of our agencies. And to let you know, it assures access. It assures that community has local control of what the needs are in their own community. And for us, CSBG is essential. It is literally $1.0 million out of a $39 million budget.

It leverages that much because without our grant writers, we would not be able to access additional funding. Without rural community offices, we would not be able to connect with families or for individuals who need access to food.

We also are able to operate eight senior centers, and through those eight senior centers, we fed 155,000 seniors in Tulare County. So in your packets you have all of the data that talks about all of the work that is getting done in Tulare County. I just want to emphasize CSBG, again, is more than a grant.

It really is a lifeline for many of the community action agencies in our community. Thank you.

Thank you so very much. I'm a Committee of one right now, so I'll ask a few questions and I believe we'll have some other Members joining us soon. So, Mr. Wimbley, I understand there have been federal staffing changes at DHHS. Could you tell us how these changes have affected the Administration of CSBG and other CSD programs?

Sure, sure. Good question. So at federal staffing, federal staffing, supporting csds, other programs definitely experienced layoffs and have been impacted by layoffs that have occurred earlier this year. CSBG staffing remains largely intact. So there hasn't been any impact on that side outside of some challenges that we've experienced at the beginning of the year.

Combined with the staffing layoffs that occurred for our low income Home Energy Assistance program as well as the federal freeze, we were able to work through some of those challenges. And at this time, all of our programs are operating normally. And the funds awarded for those programs is also flowing normally as well.

And could you elaborate a little bit more about how CSBG dollars were used to help community response to the LA fires earlier this year?

Sure. So at the state level we in response to any emergency or natural disaster, we coordinate with the Governor's Office of Office of Emergency Services as well as our sister departments with the California Health and Human Service agencies.

I mention that because that helps to inform the state response as well as we use the opportunity to report up any resource issues or challenges or some of the on the ground developments that some of our local agencies in the impacted areas have shared with us.

In response to the Los Angeles Wildfire event, we redirected, we maintain a partnership with supplybank.org and we redirected a CSBG funded supply distribution effort to provide diapers and other central area items to the LA area.

Those items were received by the County of LA and then in turn they distributed those items to the fire impacted areas that they were serving.

In addition, our CSBG providers, LA City and the County Department of Public Social Services, our CSBG agencies in that area responded by maintaining one they first responded by maintaining their operational continuity, overcoming Internet challenges, power outages and evacuations, and mobilized to provide distribution of food, water, clothing, other essential items like air purifiers and K95 masks into the fire impacted areas.

In addition, they served as an informational resource hub to the community and the community Members to make sure that they were fully aware of other resources that were being made available in the community. In addition, they provided services to help individuals acquire documentation and other important documents to help with FEMA assistance applications.

And then lastly they made efforts, concerted efforts to provide extend after school care as well as other educational support and maintain the watchful eye of the elderly.

Thank you so much. As you noted, a little bit of money is leveraged so much to make such an impact. Mr. Knight, could you talk about how CALCAPA has supported CSBG entities with the implementation of CALAIM?

Yeah, thanks. Absolutely. So when CALAIM first began, we had three agencies kind of jump on board quite quickly. And what we realized is that when you look at the enhanced carrier management or the community supports that fall under CALAIM, it matches exactly to the community action model.

And so what we did as CALCAPPA was first just really try to create some awareness and spaces to learn from those three agencies that first took it on right away.

Now we sit at 20 different agencies across the state that operate CALAIM supports and what we continue to do for that is Just making sure that we help partner match them.

So when they're looking at, you know, the PATH program or they're looking at what different organizations operating that CALAIM and that county, they're able to match with them really, really quick. The last piece of that is really trying to line it up with a performance alignment.

So making sure that organizations understand what CALAIM's targets are, how they match with the community action targets. And then of course, the last thing is just really making sure that they have the funding and the capacity to navigate that type of billing versus grants and things of that nature.

One additional question. Funding is kind of in a state of flux right now. And thankfully Congress was able to prevent the proposed cut to CSBG, but we know that that may be something that may be on the table next year.

And so how are we communicating with participating agencies about the potential for a complete elimination of funding or a reduction in funding? How are we planning for that?

Quite extensively. Okay, I hope. I mean, that's a topic of discussion these days. So I think David Knight mentioned in his remarks, we maintain a very close working relationship with our community based organizations that we fund through CSBG.

We have an Advisory Committee that's representative of select agencies and Executive directors where we've taken up this conversation on many occasions to talk about life with a reduction or life if there is an elimination. And through those discussions, there was several organizational leaders talked about the things that they were doing to prepare.

And I think that information sharing was very instrumental and helpful. We also continue to provide. We convene quarterly as a network with our agencies to provide updates and share our best practices. We also use it as a form to also provide critical updates on funding.

But you know, I think right now we spend a great deal of time trying to navigate the current administrative environment that we're in with policy changes, the threats of federal reduction, you know, the impacts of layoffs that we've had on with some of our other programs. You know, it definitely, it's.

There's a large volume of things that are coming at us these days and we are working together to try to manage our way through them. So I think right now those are the things that we're doing and we'll continue to do going forward.

Okay, thank you so very much for being here today. Thank you for the important work you do for our communities in California. And we're going to bring up four SBG funded agencies next to talk about the work they're doing and the impact they're creating in communities.

And so we're going to Marla Stuart from the Employment and Human Services Department in Contra Costa County. Good to see one of the counties I'm proud to represent represented here as well as Darren Seaton, Deputy Director of Sacred Heart Community Service, Michelle Ingall Silva, Chief Executive Officer of Proteus Incorporated, and Madison Flynn, Northern California Indian Development Council.

And so thank you all for being here. We appreciate the work you do in our communities and we could start first with Ms. Stuart.

Thank you Chair Arreguin and good afternoon. And we do appreciate your representation. Thank you. I am Dr. Marla Stuart. I'm the Director of the Contra Costa County Employment and Human Services Department.

We are building brighter futures across the lifespan and we do this by administering the full range of social services to that comprise our public economic safety net including Childcare, Child Protective Services, Medi Cal, CalFresh, CalWORKS General Assistance, Adult Protective Services in Home Supportive Services and the Area Agency on Aging which includes Meals on Wheels and Congregate Meals.

And we are the Community Action Agency for Contra Costa County. We envision a thriving community where all individuals and families can be healthy, safe, secure and self sufficient. To meet this vision through all of our programs we provide access to resources.

The reason for the existence of the need to help people with access to resources is the reality that we live in a society in which our abundant resources are unequally distributed and not commensurate with the effort of labor resulting in a large portion of our community including many employed living without the necessary resources to even survive, let alone thrive in this environment.

CSBG is a linchpin for us and our community based providers. We rely on CSBG funding services. We rely on CSBG funded services when assisting community Members who have great need but for reasons related to immigration status or income just above the poverty level do not qualify for our standard safety net services.

CSBG is in fact the safety net for for the safety net. Through CSBG and our Economic Opportunity Council, every two years we conduct a community needs assessment to identify unmet needs. We release an RFP to invite proposals to meet these needs.

Our CSBG funding, which is just shy of $1 million per year, supports three community led identified priorities and services provided by 11 community based organizations. Priority one shortage of affordable housing, shelters and rental assistance. Through CSBG we partner with the Bay Area Legal Aid, Greater Richmond Interfaith Project, Hope Solutions and stand for families free of violence.

They provide emergency shelter and financial and legal services for those facing eviction including for victims of interpersonal violence. Last year, our CSBG funding ensured that 3,600 households avoided a utility shutoff or had their services restored after a shutoff and 141 individuals experiencing homelessness obtained safe, affordable housing.

Priority 2 Food insecurity Through CSBG, we partner with Loaves and Fishes of Contra Costa County and Monument Crisis Center. They provide meals, food pantries, and food distribution. Last year, our CSBG funding supported 3,400 meals and 9,000 boxes of groceries.

Priority three underemployment and insufficient living wage jobs through CSBG, we partner with the Lao Family Community Development, Monument, Impact, Opportunity Junction, Rising Sun, Center for Opportunity, and St. Vincent De Paul. They provide services that remove barriers to employment, job readiness training, certificate programs in technology, building trades, and administrative services.

Last year, 120 adults obtained employment at or above a living wage. In our current environment, many of our critical life preserving safety net services are at risk of reduction or elimination without the creation of alternatives. HR1 reduces the availability of our two largest safety net programs, SNAP and Medicaid.

It does this by changing the rules of eligibility and increasing the state share of cost.

Additionally, the changes to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity and Reconciliation act reduces the number of eligible immigration categories from 19 legal categories to eight categories and defines additional programs as public benefit programs and subject to immigration status validation, including programs that have never been identified like this, WIOA, Head Start and CSBG.

CSBG, while not, has not had a reduction in funding yet, it is identified for elimination in Project 2025, which is driving a lot of what's happening at the federal level. And the President's proposed budget did eliminate CSBG. We are very concerned.

In Contra Costa County with our public social services safety net in 2024, we served 41% of all households with cash assistance totaling over $800 million. Resources that these households use to meet their basic needs and resources which support our local economy. I started by calling CSBG the safety net for the safety net.

Our national safety net is about to weaken and many households are going to fall through. When our public safety net fails, our community turns to our community based providers. I want to end by recognizing and thanking our 11 CSBG funded community based providers and by quoting three of our executive directors speaking about the possible impact of any reductions in CSBG funding.

Quote, the value of CSBG funding is tremendous and allows us to feed community members who are struggling with food insecurity. With the current administration cutting many safety net services, CHB dollars help underwrite staffing, food, and supplies in order to leverage more restricted funding.

We will have to reduce meal production and pantry distribution, end quote. Quote, we would quite literally lay off staff, as every grant dollar is dependent upon all the other funders to keep the puzzle of funding in place. This funding is crucial to our ability to serve basic needs of victims fleeing violence who have nowhere to go with their children, end quote.

Quote, If we do not receive CSBG, we will make every effort to fill the gap through fundraising and alternative revenue sources. However, given the current funding environment marked by increased competition for limited resources and donor fatigue, this would be a challenge. CSBG is the safety net for the safety net.

We just cannot be a nation that turns a blind eye to people who are working in low wage jobs, those experiencing violence, and those experiencing homelessness. If we cannot have an economy that fairly distributes our vast resources, then we must have a safety net for the 41% of our Contra Costa households who do not, even when working, have sufficient access to resources. I thank our partners at the Department of Community Services and Development, and I urge you to continue advocating for funding for CSBG.

Thank you so very much. Why don't we go down the table here. And Madison Flynn, I'll turn over to you, and thank you very much for being here today.

Thank you. My name is Madison Flynn, the Chief Executive Officer of Northern California Indian Development Council. I'm honored to be here today to provide a perspective on the use of Community Service Block Grants funding to help poverty level American Indians and Native communities in California strive for self sufficiency.

California is one of if not the only state in the nation to have established an American Indian set aside under the Community Service Block Grant program. Since the implementation of CSBG in 1982, California has maintained that American Indian set aside within the state's total CSBG allocation.

NCIDC is one of the only three eligible CSBG organizations along with the Karuk Tribe and LA County. They are both the American Indian agencies. The Karuk Tribe and NCIDC are also in addition are what are called limited purpose agencies, or LPAs. Our migrant and seasonal sister agencies are also a specialized form of an LPA.

We were granted that status as an LPA because of the relationships that we had with the Community Services Administration back before CSBG. And when the CSBG Act came in, our eligibility for the CSA program's grandfathers us in as LP agencies under the public law and allowed us to continue to serve alongside all of our community action agencies CSBG entities throughout California.

NCIDC is a nonprofit 501C3 Indian organization, but we are also made up as an intertribal organization. We have a membership of 13 Indian tribes and tribal organizations. Our original direct service area, excuse me, when we were created in the mid-70s consisted of four counties in the northwestern part of the state, thus the name. It's one of the most poverty stricken areas in California for Indian tribes.

However, since 1986 NCIDC has also been the primary statewide CSBG service provider for the American Indian Set Aside Network. We have 57 counties and over 100 reservations and rancherias in our contract, which get allocations and services for services for CSB through CSBG. We receive about $2 million, which helps serve the State of California.

It seems like a huge amount, but it's not when you have 57 counties and, you know, over 100 rancherias. Last year we had over 20,000 Native people assisted directly by CSBG programs and services within the state. And historically, another 40,000 people were served by new community resources that were created through CSBG services that addressed the immediate need and had long term impact in people's lives. I am a product of that, my family.

I grew up on a small reservation in Loleta, the Table Bluff Reservation. In order to facilitate the delivery of services to the American Indian eligible beneficiaries throughout the state, NCIDC has an established subcontractor network of American Indian organizations that deliver direct CSBG services to off reservation Native people.

The majority of these subcontractors have been previously designated by the US Department of Labor as Native American grantees providing services under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, or WIOA. Our CSBG program becomes a complement to the employment and training services of those agencies. The ability to case manage clients with both CSBG and WIOA services...

Excuse me. Resources provide much flexibility in addressing the barriers clients face in achieving success with each client. In most instances, the addition of CSBG funding has expanded the capacity of these subcontractor agencies, strengthened their management and operational systems, and provided a catalyst to develop additional programs and services for their American Indian service populations.

Reservations and rancherias in California are all designated as pockets of poverty within the CSBG network, and NCIDC also contracts directly with each tribal government or their designated tribal entity for the provision of CSBG services on and near the reservations of rancherias.

As with off reservation and rancheria subcontractors, many of the tribes have successfully used their CSBG funding to augment existing programs, initiate new service programs, and expand their capacity to self determine the programs that they need to operate to provide the necessary resources. Excuse me. And for the best outcomes for their tribal communities. None of these tribes are getting a lot of money.

Like I said, it's $2 million of the spread over 100 rancherias, 57 counties. We have over 100 tribes on our contract, and many of the smaller tribes get under 1500 a year. Yet even this small allocation of CSBG resources to a small tribe can often provide critical locally directed funding that allows the tribes to create and leverage programs that they otherwise would not be able to execute.

Programs on reservations span the potential universe of eligible activity with concentrations in community garden projects, other related health and wellness projects, youth education support programs, youth career exploration, work experience, cultural and language programs, addressing intergenerational trauma, adult employment and training support, service for elders, which is a big component in Indian country. Also emergency services and similar activities.

Just to sum it up, we're appreciative of the partnership that our American Indian Set Aside Network has established with the non-Native CSBG agencies in California, such as the Community Action Agency representatives on this panel with me, as well as the strong support of the staff and leadership of the Department of Community Services and Development as we work on addressing poverty, promoting self sufficiency in Indian Country, as described in the draft state plan.

And finally, I would just like to acknowledge the support of the State of California Legislature themselves in establishing and maintaining the American Indian set aside program within the community. Excuse me. Within the California Community Service Block Grant legislation. And we hope to continue to be partners in addressing and improving the unemployment and poverty statistics within Indian Country and California on an ongoing basis. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to come and speak with you. My name is Michelle Engel-Silva, and I'm honored to come here and represent my organization, Proteus Incorporated. I serve as a Chief Executive Officer. I've been employed with Proteus more than half my life. Sounds like a very long time. 30 years.

And it's a privilege to share the services we provide and to tell you about the impact of Community Services Block Grant on the communities in which we serve. We are a private nonprofit organization. We've been in business for 57 years. Our mission is to provide education, workplace training, job placement, and support services to farm working families and other low income individuals, helping them move from poverty to self sufficiency.

We serve in four counties in the Central Valley, Kings, Tulare, Fresno, and Kern. And in these counties, poverty is widespread and the need is urgent. We have 18 offices located throughout the cities, 10 of which have customer focused centers where customers can walk in and get services. We have offices in Delano, Dinuba, Hanford, Porterville, Sanger, Selma, Parlier, to name a few.

Our low income farm workers and families face barriers such as limited access to training, limited resources, limited education, and limited resources to meet their basic needs. CSBG helps us bridge the gap. Out of our overall agency budget of $34.6 million, Proteus receives approximately 2.5 million in CSBG funds, and we are designated to serve migrant seasonal farm workers and low income customers. We've been receiving these funds for over 40 years.

While $2.5 million does seem like a modest amount compared to our total budget, these dollars are essential because they provide the infrastructure and foundation that allow us to leverage nearly $20 million in additional federal and state resources. Not only are funds used to help seek additional funding opportunities, we also use the funds to support grants that can't support themselves fully and to co-enroll customers so we can expand and utilize our resources to the fullest capacity.

Now I'm going to talk about some of the services Proteus offers and some of the ways that CSBG is used in those services. Proteus focuses on employment services. We offer job placement, job readiness training, resume development support. We utilize CSBG funding to supplement those.

Last year, Proteus was able to help 285 youth and 853 adults to obtain employment. Other exciting news is that we had 1,138 currently employed participants. And providing services through Proteus, we helped them advance their career and improve the benefits or salary they were already making in their current jobs. We also focus on education.

We have vocational training, basic skills training, and we help youth learn skills and improve their basic grade level competencies. Proteus has a William M. Maguy School of Education. It's located in our Visalia area and it's named after our former founder of Proteus.

We offer vocational training in truck driving and we have a sustainable energy class where people can receive a certificate in the field and they also obtain additional certifications that are helpful in the industry for them to become competitive in the job market.

We furthermore offer ESL, GED, HEP, and last year we were able to use CSBG funds to help us train 30 participants in financial literacy. Obviously, CSBG funding supports stable living environments also. As mentioned many times before, CSBG funding allows emergency rent support, deposit assistance, and utility help to stabilize families quickly.

Last year, 422 individuals at Proteus avoided evictions through our services. 315 individuals received utility assistance, and over 5,000 homes were repaired or received energy efficiency improvements through our energy division. CSBG also allows us to offer support service and wraparound services to our enrolled customers.

We assist customers with transportation help, food vouchers, work supplies, school supplies, basically anything they need to maintain their goal of being in training and looking for jobs. Furthermore, we use Community Service Block Grant money to help inform our communities on information and things that are happening in their local communities.

Last year, we used some CSBG funds for wellness outreach, including heat awareness, nutrition, and preventative health service information to the community. The beauty of CSBG funding is it is flexible. It allows us to offer the services that our communities need. It also helps us respond to changing community needs as well and helps us with some special projects.

In the past, for example, CSBG funds have helped Proteus in building some training pods. These are small houses that emulate real houses and they give our energy efficient class students hands on experience to prepare for careers in the energy sector. Currently, CSBG funds are also used to support our London Community Center in Tulare County. It's a vital hub for residents in Dinuba.

The center provides access to training, outreach programs, supports drug and alcohol prevention, and hosts community events such as Summer Night Lights and back to school activities. Looking forward, Proteus is prioritizing three key anti-poverty trends over the next two years based on that community action survey about which we have all been talking today.

We hope to expand workforce training and prepare residents for good quality jobs in clean energy, healthcare, and technology. We hope to expand our educational opportunities in ESL and GED and offer community resources such as free tax preparation courses and computer literacy classes. And we also hope to invest in youth.

We are thankful for the four decades that we have received CSBG funding, and we want you to know that reduced CSBG funding would weaken our infrastructure, limit our ability to leverage millions of additional dollars, and force reductions in services that touch families. It would also provide fewer pathways out of poverty. In closing, CSBG funding is not just a line item in a budget.

For the families in our communities, it is hope. It is the difference between instability and stability, between generational poverty and the chance at self sufficiency. Every dollar invested through CSBG is tracked and translates into tangible, life changing support for our communities. Thank you for your time and for your continued support of CSBG funding.

Thank you. Lastly, we'll go to Mr. Seaton.

Good afternoon, Chair Arreguín. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Darren Seaton, and I speak on behalf of Sacred Heart Community Service, the designated community action agency for Santa Clara County. For more than 60 years, Sacred Heart has worked to achieve our vision, a community united to ensure every child and adult is free from poverty.

Last year alone, more than 33,000 low income households turned to us for services that stabilize families, foster economic mobility, and build grassroots power. At our core, we believe poverty is not a personal failure. It's a structural problem that demands systemic solutions. Our members often come to us in crisis, but they stay to build something better. So let me offer a snapshot of what that looks like.

Each week more than 2,000 families visit our market style food pantry where they can choose fresh produce, staples, and proteins with dignity. Our La Mesa Verde Gardening Network helps over 200 families grow their own food each year, promoting self reliance and sustainability.

We coordinate the countywide Homelessness Prevention System, managing a network of 20 partner community agencies that helps more than 2,500 families annually avoid eviction and secure stable housing. Through our utility assistance programs, we help approximately 11,000 households keep their utilities and water running.

Our employment and income support programs assist more than 500 members each year with job searches, digital literacy, free tax preparation. And last year our VITA volunteers helped return more than $1 million in refunds to working families.

We support youth and parents through after school and summer academies, literacy and STEM programs, and early childhood initiatives, like our Safe, Secure, and Loved curriculum led by trained promotors and immigrant low income communities. But what distinguishes Sacred Heart is that people most impacted by poverty help lead our work.

We support 14 member led committees composed of individuals with lived experience. These committees guide our program, shape our advocacy, and nominate representatives to serve on our tripartite board alongside officials nominated from the public and private sectors. The structure isn't just about compliance.

It's a reflection of our belief that those closest to the problem should be the closest to creating solutions. CSBG is more than just a funding source. It creates a framework that ties our work together. CSBG's locally driven process is the backbone of how we decide what programs to offer and how we combine them to meet people's real world needs.

We conduct community needs assessment, engage residents directly, and coordinate across sectors to ensure our services reflect what our community identifies as priorities. A family coming in for food may also need help with childcare or transportation so they can attend workforce training, gain stable employment, and afford rent.

CSBG's flexibility allows us to integrate these services into a no wrong door system, one that removes barriers and helps families access the right mix of support in one place, as well as referrals to our community partners. When we talk about family stability, we don't mean it going alone. We mean creating the conditions where people have the tools, support, and opportunity to thrive.

In this way, CSBG is a vital tool for building communities that thrive where all families are included and have an opportunity to succeed. So on behalf of our members, our staff, and our community, thank you for your time and for your commitment to the communities we serve.

Thank you very much. Still, the committee of one. I think you really... I had some question, prepared questions. I think you all touched on the things I wanted to talk about. You each provide different services to different parts of the state, rural, urban. I guess... I guess my question is how are you able to braid these resources with the other resources that you're able to, through philanthropy, through other grants.

And could you talk a little about, whoever would like to elaborate, how you may be preparing for the potential impacts of not just other federal cuts, but also the potential cuts if unfortunately Congress progresses with a reduction or elimination of CSBG. Tough questions. Anyone who wants to elaborate? Yeah, yeah.

So the question about braiding funding. So yeah, basically we take our CSBG funding and we budget it to different divisions. So we give about $1 million to our farm worker division because it's migrant seasonal farm worker focused. And we allow our farm workers to be enrolled in training, work experience.

And during that time, we use a lot of CSBG money to offer the support services that allow them to get to their training and allow them to overcome those barriers. And then we also use our money, as I said, just to supplement our small projects that come in with minimal budgets but are huge impact in the community.

And so we CSBG to help the grants that don't necessarily fund themselves completely. And then we also use a lot of our money to supplement our CDE, Department of Education, and do our ESL and our academic classes because we don't have quite enough money to meet the needs. As far as how we are preparing.

CalCAPA has been very instrumental in talking to providers and kind of letting them know the message give staff is don't panic, but be ready. And so we have contingency plans in place if we lose CSBG funding. We really have some plans in place to cut staffing.

We've talked about outsourcing some of our key HR and fiscal components if we have to. We're really focusing on budgeting right now and not buying things we don't necessarily need. So we have extra budgets just in case. And in our current funding and our leases, we always make sure we have a funding out clause.

That way if funding does hit and gets reduced, we'll be able to get out some of the out of some of those long term leases and contracts that we might otherwise be obligated. And the number one message I just give staff is now the time to perform and now's the time to spend and performance speaks for itself and tell the stories and tell the numbers and get that information to the people that make decisions.

As Michelle just mentioned, CSD has been very vocal in ensuring how to prepare for the future. For as I mentioned, we do a lot of case management with our WIOA and CSBG programming along with our we also have an education center so, so it's really case managed on an individual basis.

If the person is reduced work hours, we definitely try to braid that with the WIOA and then we also have some additional funding to go with that as well to ensure that there's self sufficiency. Other ways that we've been preparing is we've been actually just reaching out to foundations, private foundations.

Up until five years ago, we were about 85-95% federally funded. We've expanded that now to be about 70%, a little over 70, and the remaining to be private foundations. So definitely trying to restructure our, you know, just the makeup of our fiscal situation. And as Michelle just mentioned, you know, we have been transparent with our staff.

We're a very small staff. I'm sure as much as CSBG, any of the CAs are. Don't panic, but also, you know, prepare for the, just be prepared for what's to come. Again, having these difficult conversations that may come to make difficult decisions, but that's one way that we are preparing for if and, fingers crossed, not that the funding is reduced and or cut is to ensure that we are looking at all the resources that we have at hand.

Okay. Not everyone has to speak, but I think this is helpful. I mean, I think this is what we need to be considering. I mean, thankfully the money is going to continue this year, but there's this looming threat that we're dealing with. So I appreciate the detail.

Thank you. I'll speak maybe on behalf of counties and public entities. So we, because we run all of the social services, publicly funded social service programs, we really appreciate the CSBG funding because we use it to fund services for people who come to us with needs and are not eligible for the public programs for one reason or another.

Usually the lack of eligibility is immigration status or income that is just slightly above the federal poverty level, which is way too low. So CSBG gives us just one more way that we can support community members. In answer to your question about what would we do with reduced funding, I'm going to respond to this for CSBG. But also for Medicaid and SNAP and our other federally funded programs, you know, congregate meals, et cetera.

In Contra Costa County, our social services are 97% state and federally funded. The county does not have money. Counties do not have money to backfill state and federal funding. When we lose state and federal funding, that is a reduction in services for the community and it's a reduction in employees for us. So there's a potential for people being laid off.

Now that said, we are really working internally to brainstorm ideas about things that we can do. Our board has invested recently about $2.5 million in application support to make sure that we are fully utilizing Medicaid and SNAP and that everybody that's eligible is on. That is a county investment, not required, not mandated.

And the other thing that we're thinking about right now, we don't know if we'll do this. This is just an idea at the moment. But we're thinking about supporting our nonprofits to provide volunteer services for people. Medi-Cal, Medicaid is going to require, has a work requirement for the first time ever. Right.

And that's going to mirror the SNAP work requirements. And part of what can meet that work requirement is volunteer work. So we may support our nonprofit organizations in providing volunteer opportunities for people. So we're trying to think about things to do. But I want to be really clear that for counties, federal and state funding reductions are dire and cannot be backfilled by counties.

I thank you all for your responses. I think it just provides an idea about the impact that our CSBG funded agencies and partners are doing in the communities and just how we have to be prepared for the future. We have to take a quick recess and then we'll proceed to the public comment portion of our hearing. So I'll be back in two minutes and then we'll open up for public comment. Thank you.

And I want to thank the panelists. And we're going to open it up for any members of the public who wish to give public comment. If you can, please come forward to the microphone here and you'll have two minutes to address the joint committee. Yes, correct. Our witnesses have obviously more time. This is the public comment portion. So.

Well, I prepared a statement that's 12 minutes. But I can submit this hopefully to...

I guess our sergeants here, and they'll give it to the staff.

This is information that you guys really need to know. I am Lynne Bussey from Chico, California, and I'm one of the three founders of a program up there called Esplanade House that was extremely successful. This was started over 25 years ago. I basically wanted to address the issues of non-compliance with the applicable California legislation and regulations.

My hope is that before you approve this 2026-27 state plan, you will at the very least ensure that CAs follow the laws that we have in place for them in California. Currently it appears that CAAs can pick and choose which California code they would like to follow and which ones they would not.

But one small, simple action on your part is all that is needed to ensure that this will no longer be the case. I going to have to skip all this history. I will tell you though that our organization partnered with Community Action Agency to operate a homeless shelter for families with children.

We started out in an old motel. We ended up building 60 apartment units, Administration building, childcare center, partnered with the university. We had a really great thing going. Unfortunately, the other programs that CAA also were running at the time began to fail.

They lost the Head Start project contract the Senior Nutrition Program, Meals on Wheels program, the Energy Efficiency Training Academy that was built with ARA funds but never got off the ground, and the Feeding America contract. So we were very concerned about what was happening financially. We offered, we were fundraising $150,000 a year, about 25% of the budget.

And CAA could get the remaining funds from block grant funds and, you know, city, county monies, whatever. They did all the government funding, we did all their fundraising for them. So it was kind of a perfect partnership. But when the problem started, we were shut out from financial documents. And I'm just...

I'm really sorry that I can't read this whole thing because I'm really counting on you guys to correct the California Code 100765, which states that all Community Action Agencies are required to follow the Freedom of Information Act.

I think if you can submit your written statement because there's only one Member of two separate committees. It'll be actually more beneficial if we get your written statement that we can distribute that to all the Members of the Committee.

Can I do that? I do have a copy here. I did make a few little changes, but I can email it just as easily.

You can email it to the committee, and we can make sure it gets distributed to Members of both committees. If you have a physical copy, the gentleman here wuold be happy to take it and provide a copy for the record.

Okay. Would I be emailing, like Spencer Davis, the guy that answers the phone at CSD?

We have our actual committee secretary right here and consultant. Maybe you can connect with this individual and make sure that she has the information to submit her testimony. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any other public comment? Is there any other public comment? Going once, going twice. Okay.

I just want to thank everyone for being here today. Our witnesses, for taking the time to be here to talk about what CSBG is and the impact is having throughout California. In particular, the programs which are so important for low income seniors, youth, persons with disabilities throughout the State of California. I'll just put this in context.

I was the mayor of Berkeley for eight years. We are a CSBG agency. And I can just tell you on a personal level how impactful those dollars have been, not just for our employment programs, but also to support the work we've done around reducing and ending homelessness in our community.

I know the impact that that has, not the local level working with partner agencies. And I know that that impact is statewide. So I just want to just thank the Department for the, and the Association for the ongoing work you're doing to support local governments and agencies to make sure that we are spending these dollars, that we're tracking outcomes, that California is being competitive.

I think the big issue is obviously how we continue to sustain this investment. And this is, I think, a really critical time for our state. Poverty is not decreasing, sadly, despite the investments that we're making. And we have, as I noted at the beginning of the hearing, some of the highest rates of homelessness of any state in the United States, despite the billions of dollars that we spent and the continued focus that we have in the Legislature and Governor Newsom.

So there's a lot more work to do. And I think it's going to be coming on all of us, not just the Legislature, but the administration and all of our partners throughout California to look at how we can support each other, to make sure we continue these investments.

So once again, I think it's important to hear from the committees directly to help inform these committees as we're making these important policy decisions. I look forward to seeing how the services provided with CSBG funding continue to adapt to meet the changing needs of our state and how we, as the Legislature, can partner with you to make sure that we can continue these critical investments.

And so I think I speak on behalf of myself and the Members of the Assembly Committee and say thank you very much for the work you do. Thank you for being here today. And with that, I will now adjourn this Joint Oversight Committee hearing. And with that, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much.