Board Defers AHS Layoffs, Deploys $53M for Housing After Years of Delay

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors intervened to halt looming healthcare worker layoffs at Alameda Health System, buying time to confront a structural deficit driven by an estimated $9.5 billion statewide hit from federal HR1 spending cuts. In a meeting that also broke a four-year logjam on affordable housing investment, the board approved nearly $53 million in Measure W funds for 950 units across 10 projects — the first major capital deployment since litigation over the measure was resolved.

• Board votes unanimously to defer March 9 AHS layoffs, creates two-supervisor working group to find alternatives before next fiscal year

• $53 million in Measure W Home Together funds awarded for 10 affordable housing projects, including 310 units for people experiencing homelessness

• County joins legal fight against Trump administration, authorizing amicus brief in Newsom v. Trump 9th Circuit case

• Two long-tenured county leaders retire — Registrar of Voters (24 years) and County Counsel (26 years) — with interim replacements named and national searches underway

• Supervisors push Fair Chance Housing ordinance to open publicly funded units to formerly incarcerated residents

• Residents demand withdrawal of Measure D study RFP, calling it misuse of public funds to undermine voter-approved open space protections

The most consequential action of the day came at the continued Beilenson Act hearing on Alameda Health System's proposed staffing and program reductions — a crisis supervisors framed almost entirely as a consequence of federal policy.