Consent Item Updates

Warming shelter gets unused funds, A delayed hotel gets approval, and Police get free money from the Federal Government and County

A Tasting Plate of Consent Items

Police in a Blanket with Funding Dip

Some of the biggest numbers on the consent calendar are going to, you guessed it, Hayward Police Department. Totaling in at $83,572.20, the Hayward Police Department will be getting two grants from the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) covering both 2022 and 2023.

The Byrne JAG is a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice that was created in the honor of a New York Police officer, Edward Byrne, who was killed in 1988. It’s difficult to see how it’s funded, but it looks like the Federal government opens up applications every year and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office applied on behalf of all of the police departments in the county.

HPD doesn’t have a plan on what to do with the money yet, other than “support[ing] criminal justice related activities such as training, equipment, supplies, prevention and education programs, and other related law enforcement programs.” Money is a manifestation of a government’s priorities, so hopefully with the potential new Council Public Safety subcommittee, the greater public will actually be able to see where this money is going.

Soothing Winter Warmer Soup

In July of 2021, the City of Hayward worked with South Hayward Parish to change their Winter Warming Shelter program into a year-round program. They have 18 nightly shelter beds and in the first 18 months have served 870 Hayward residents. Unfortunately, at the current funding level, the money will run out before the end of the Fiscal Year (end of June). So the City is going to use $495,000 in Hayward Evaluation And Response Team (HEART) program savings to fund South Hayward Parish through the end of June.

Context Croutons and Chives

For those who aren’t aware, the HEART program was an initiative pushed by the Hayward Community Coalition (HayCoCoa) as a way to have non-police responses to mental health crises. The HEART program has 2 different parts: The Mobile Evaluation Team (MET) and the Mobile Integrated Health Unit (MIHU). And if all of this sounds like alphabet soup, you’re not wrong.

The MET is funded, at least in part, by Alameda County and is a team of a specially trained Hayward Police Officer and an Alameda County Behavioral Health clinician. This has been off the ground for some time now because the County had the money immediately available and, well, we all know about police funding.

The MIHU has been a bit trickier to staff. It was supposed to be a mobile mental health clinician and a member of the Hayward Fire Department to meet both the mental health casework needs and immediate physical injuries. There were issues, however, hiring a mental health clinician and after several years, the MIHU had yet to fully get off the ground.

At least, that was the understanding a year or so ago. In looking at the HEART Program website now, there’s a third tier (because we could always use more) in the LINK, which is the mental health clinician and a case manager. The new (to us, at least) summary sheet that’s been going around seems to have separated the mental health clinician from the MIHU component. Whether that’s for cost-savings or other capacity issues, it’s impossible to say.

Regardless, due to the pandemic and the issues hiring a mental health clinician for the MIHU component of the HEART program, the HEART program seems to have extra money that hasn’t been used yet and will be applied to the Winter Warming Shelters. Although it seems like they’ve taken care of the dispatch issues, it would be nice if the MIHU could be used to get immediate, on-location case assistance for our unhoused Haywardistes without having to remember yet another phone number.

Hotel Development with Thyme

Just behind the Rigatoni’s near the Target on Hesperian, there’s been a massively empty lot for years. But that’s about to change. Eventually. Due to lengthy FAA approval processes (because it’s technically on land owned by the Hayward Executive Airport) the planned Hyatt Place Hotel has been on hold since 2017. With the approval of this item, the construction can begin before the end of the calendar year.

The proposed Hyatt Place is proposed to contain 110 rooms, a banquet facility which includes retail space, a swimming pool, and a “nationally-branded restaurant”. The Airport Operating Fund (which is a separate budget just for the Executive Airport) is expected to get $210,000 per year from the hotel and the City is expecting to get $500,000 per year in taxes from the hotel.

You can expect the hotel itself to be completed in mid 2026, with the banquet hall and retail space expected in 2028.