Committee approves state and federal grants for parks, children's services and overdose prevention

San Francisco — The Budget & Finance Committee on May 18 voted to forward several grants to the full Board, including two state Department of Parks and Recreation awards for Buchanan Mall (~$4.8M) and India Basin (900 Innes, ~$25M), a HRSA Title V children-and-youth innovation grant (~$1.35M), and a CDC overdose-prevention grant ($500,000) to support a local opioid-overdose strategy.

Recreation & Park Department staff said the Buchanan Mall funds will address outdated infrastructure on five blocks between Eddy and Grove Streets and that the India Basin funding will support park construction on the 900 Innes site; both state grants are retroactive to when state appropriations were set. The panel credited state legislators (Sen. Scott Wiener, Assemblymember Phil Ting) with securing the appropriations.

DPH presenters described the HRSA award — to identify and better serve 20,000 children and youth with special health-care needs in San Francisco — and said year-one funding is $166,110 with annual funding thereafter. Judith Martin and other DPH staff described overdose-prevention grant activities, including drug spectrometry equipment, field testing supplies, an overdose dashboard and ED navigation supports.

Supervisors welcomed the funds and asked for continued reporting on project timelines; the committee forwarded the items to the full Board with positive recommendations.

What happens next: The grants will be placed on the May 24 Board agenda for acceptance and appropriation; departments were asked to provide standard reporting and implementation timetables.