Bay Area Recovery Dollars Data Update: September 19, 2024

The latest quarterly reporting data from the US Treasury reflects local governments' allocation of SLFRF funds through March 31, 2024. 

SLFRF recipients are organized into five tiers.¹ The dashboard includes Tier 1 and Tier 2 jurisdictions, which were required to submit a quarterly report for Q1 2024. There are 33 cities reflected in the dashboard. With this set of Tier 1 and Tier 2 jurisdictions, the total allocation of SLFRF funds to the region is $3 billion. The key findings, which are listed below, compare Q4 2023 and Q1 2024 data for Tier 1 and 2 jurisdictions. While Tier 5 jurisdictions were included in this round of data release from the US Treasury, they are excluded from the dashboard update and key findings to maintain consistency across time. Please email info@bayareaequityatlas.org to request the 2023 and 2024 annual reporting data for Tier 5 jurisdictions.

A Note about the Data Update for San Francisco
In addition to quarterly reports, jurisdictions are required to submit annual recovery plans that provide further details on their spending and program outcomes. Our dashboard and key findings are primarily based on data in the quarterly reports. In previous dashboard updates, San Francisco City and County’s spending was reflective of data from the quarterly report, which shows that the County had only obligated 50 percent of its $625 million total allocation. In their latest 2024 Annual Recovery Plan from July 2024, the County reports that the entirety of their allocation was obligated in FY 2020-2021. As a result, we have updated the dashboard to reflect that they have fully obligated their allocation. This data correction significantly increased the share of funds obligated for the region from 79 to 93 percent.

Key Findings

Note: These key findings are current as of March 31, 2024, the most recent data release from the US Treasury. Given this data lag, the dashboard data may not reflect the most current obligation decisions. And, as noted above, this update uses San Francisco’s 2024 Annual Recovery Plan data, which significantly increased the share of obligated funds for the region.

The December 31, 2024 deadline to obligate SLFRF funds is fast approaching. Localities have until the end of this year to complete their obligation or the remaining dollars will be returned to the US Treasury. According to the US Treasury final rule, obligation means “an order placed for property and services and entering into contracts, subawards, and similar transactions that require payment.” However, there are concerns that local governments have not properly obligated funds in alignment with this criteria. This would mean that after 2024, jurisdictions that did not properly obligate their SLFRF dollars may have to return the funds to the US Treasury.

Across the region, many localities are experiencing budget shortfalls that may threaten funding for essential services and programs. Remaining SLFRF dollars could serve as a short-term relief for many places with money still on the table. To advance an equitable recovery for the region, local policymakers and budget justice advocates should leverage this window and ensure that the remaining recovery dollars are fully obligated before the December 31, 2024 deadline.

As of March 31, 2024:

• Tier 1 and 2 jurisdictions in the Bay Area have made plans to spend $2.85 billion (93 percent) of their $3 billion SLFRF funds. There was a remaining $222 million (7 percent) that had not yet been obligated.

• Over the last several quarters, localities have not made major shifts to obligation decisions. Between Q4 2023 and Q1 2024, Bay Area jurisdictions only made additional obligation decisions for $31 million. At this rate, millions of dollars will be forfeited back to the federal government instead of used to invest in the well-being of Bay Area residents.

• Local governments largely used SLFRF dollars to offset revenue loss. Nearly half of their obligated dollars (48 percent) have gone to revenue replacement.

• The majority of funded projects (53 percent) are still in progress or have yet to launch. For projects with a known completion status, the share of completed projects increased slightly from 53 percent to 39 percent over the first quarter of 2024. Of all projects in the dataset, 9 percent do not include information on completion status.

• In addition to revenue replacement, many jurisdictions have made sizable investments to support communities weathering the financial and health challenges of the pandemic. This included 16 percent of total obligated funding being allocated 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. From Q4 2023 to Q1 2024, an additional $14 million was obligated toward government infrastructure and services, $9 million toward housing justice, and $6 million non-Covid public health efforts.

• Over the past year, the share of total funds obligated in each spending category remains largely the same. This reflects the fact that the majority of obligated funding decisions were made toward the beginning of ARPA. While there has been some movement by localities in obligating funds across the region, there is still $222 million that has not been obligated. Local governments have until the end of 2024 to make spending decisions or risk leaving money on the table.

• Between the end of December 2023 and March 2024, only 11 localities made additional obligations to their SLFRF funds. Alameda County, Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, Solano County, Berkeley, Hayward, Oakley, Santa Rosa, South San Francisco, Vacaville, and Vallejo have all increased their share of obligated funds. Santa Clara County obligated $16 million in the first quarter of 2024 — the most of all jurisdictions —  to housing justice, food security, and general public health projects. While Vallejo increased its total obligated dollars by $1.6 million, there were also large shifts across individual projects. The city canceled 21 of its previous projects and added 24 new projects. Some of the latest projects are similar to the canceled projects. The largest spending area for the city remains government infrastructure and services and digital inclusion. There was also an additional $1.3 million toward revenue replacement and $1 million toward policing and incarceration.

• In the first quarter of 2024, no localities completed obligating their full SLFRF allocation. Alameda and Solano County are the closest to completion, both with 0.3 percent of their allocation remaining. Alameda County obligated $800,000 of its $325 million allocation toward health and wellness programming for its Parks and Recreation Services and has $1 million remaining in SLFRF dollars. Solano County obligated $813,000 of its $87 million allocation. The County added $600,000 toward an existing affordable housing development project as well as $213,000 toward another existing grant project for community-based organizations. The County also reduced $1.5 million from a parks and tourism project and added that amount toward increasing funding for a local hospital system. The County only has $247,000 remaining in their allocation. 

• Daly City and Newark actually decreased the total amount of obligated SLFRF funds. Daly City reduced its obligation to develop an early childhood learning center by $986,000. This takes the funding for the project down from $1 million to $14,500. Newark added $23,800 toward scholarships for childcare and recreational programs. But the city also reduced the amount previously obligated toward revenue replacement by $4,200 and reduced a small business grant program’s funding by $33,800. Overall, Newark decreased its overall obligation by $14,000.

• Twenty-one localities still have a considerable share of their SLFRF allocation unobligated. Rohnert Park has the largest share of unobligated funds at 83 percent, unchanged from the previous two quarters. Santa Clara County ($91 million) and Contra Costa County ($37.5 million) have the largest amounts still unobligated.

• 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 Mountain View and Santa Clara obligated a combined $30.6 million to police salaries and services. Milpitas, the City of Napa, San Leandro, and Vallejo have also obligated portions of their ARPA dollars toward policing. In the first quarter of 2024, Vallejo increased funding for policing-related projects by more than $1 million to $2.2 million.

  
  Annual Recovery Plans
  Localities were required to submit an annual recovery plan by July 31, 2024. Some local governments have made their plan publicly available, including Marin County, San Francisco City and County, San Mateo County, Santa Clara County, Solano County, Sonoma County, and Oakland. The Treasury will likely release these documents for reporting localities. These annual recovery plans are more up-to-date than the most recent quarterly data and in some instances may have discrepancies with the quarterly reporting data (such as the San Francisco data discrepancy noted above). This dashboard and key findings update reflect this new information. Future updates will also compare quarterly reports with the annual recovery plans once they are made available.