Bay Area Recovery Dollars Data Update: September 20, 2023

The latest quarterly reporting data from the US Treasury reflects local governments' allocation of SLFRF funds through March 31, 2023. 

SLFRF recipients are organized into five tiers. The dataset now includes the addition of 60 jurisdictions in the fifth tier, which were not included in the previous reporting datasets. These localities received less than $10 million in SLFRF funding and have populations below 250,000 residents. The updated dashboard includes projects and allocations for these jurisdictions, which are only required to submit annual project and expenditure reports to the US Treasury. As a result, there are now 94 cities included in the dashboard compared to the 34 in the version that reflects Q4 2022 data. With these additional geographies, the total allocation of SLFRF funds to the region is now $3.3 billion — $250 million more than in the previous update.

Key Findings

As of March 31, 2023:

  • Bay Area municipal governments have made plans to spend $2.3 billion (70 percent) of the $3.3 billion SLFRF funds allocated to the region. There was a remaining $972 million (30 percent) that had not yet been obligated.

  • The large majority of funded projects (75 percent) are still in progress or have yet to launch. The share of completed projects increased from 18 percent to 23 percent over the last year.

  • Local governments in the Bay Area largely used SLFRF dollars to offset revenue loss. Nearly half of obligated dollars (43 percent) have gone to revenue replacement.

  • In addition to revenue replacement, many jurisdictions made sizable investments to support communities weathering the financial and health challenges of the pandemic. This included 18 percent of obligated funding to public health projects that were responding directly to Covid-19, 8 percent to advance housing justice, and 6 percent to bolster government infrastructure and services.

  • Compared to the end of 2022, the total share of funds obligated towards direct Covid response has decreased from 21 percent to 18 percent. This likely reflects the gradual sunset of pandemic protocols, including reduced Covid testing and vaccination.

  • Some Bay Area governments leveraged SLFRF funds to fund new, equity-oriented pilot programs and initiatives. Examples of these include small-scale subsidy programs to prevent families from becoming unhoused; guaranteed income pilot programs; and public health campaigns that targeted communities most impacted by the pandemic, including Black, Latinx, Native American, and Pacific Islander residents.

  • More places are obligating the SLFRF funds toward new initiatives. For example, the cities of Alameda and Santa Rosa obligated $4.6 million and $1 million, respectively, toward a guaranteed basic income pilot program. 

  • A handful of municipalities used SLFRF dollars for policing and incarceration, which does not align with the stated intent of using these funds to advance equity. The cities of San Mateo and Livermore spent a combined $29 million on police salaries and services. East Palo Alto and San Ramon have also obligated about $4 million each toward policing. The City of Santa Clara was in the Q4 2022 reporting data, but its government did not submit a report to the US Treasury. As a result, the city was not included in this round of data collection.

Related Resources