The City Council on Aug. 11 approved new funding guidelines and authorized staff to seek proposals for the next four-year cycle of the city's largest local grant program, even as residents and service providers warned that the money falls far short of a mounting crisis in need.
The 5-0 vote — with Councilmember Barry Snell recused and Councilmember Dan Hall absent — launches the Human Services Grants Program for fiscal years 2027-31. Operating for more than 50 years, the program is the city's single largest source of funds for local nonprofits and underwrites a social safety net serving residents from infancy to old age.
"This truly is a city of contrasts," Councilmember Ellis Raskin said before moving to approve the staff recommendations. "In a place of such affluence, we are still met with extreme need."
The first-year budget for the new cycle is projected at about $9.2 million, down from the roughly $11.2 million the current cycle is ending at. Nicole Liner-Jigamian, the fiscal administrator for the city's Human Services Division, told the council the drop is not a cut but a relocation: interim housing funds historically routed through the program will now be funded separately, moving about $2 million outside the grants program while still supporting that need.
Staff said they expect to recommend an increase when they return in spring 2027 with proposed awards. "We really do expect to get higher funding requests than we have in the past, and we expect it to exceed that $9 million," Liner-Jigamian said, noting that in the last cycle the city funded programs at about 85% of what they requested.
Mayor Caroline Torosis pressed staff to find more. Citing roughly $180 billion in federal cuts to nutrition assistance, proposed elimination of Older Americans Act programs and a $303 million deficit at the county homeless services department, she directed staff to identify additional local dollars. "We have to hold the line at the local level," Torosis said, asking staff to find "at least $2 million somewhere to add to this program."
Staff responded that they are collaborating with the city's Measure GS committee to allocate eligible tax revenue toward housing and homelessness prevention, and anticipate that a significant share of future applicants will qualify.
The new guidelines mark a shift toward a more "prescriptive" approach, replacing the previous open call with a finite list of 19 eligible services across three areas: housing and homelessness prevention, health and wellness, and financial stability. New or expanded priorities include domestic violence services, immigration support, community violence and gang intervention, dental care, intergenerational programming and expanded case management for the newly unhoused.
The cycle also introduces a wage option aimed at reducing burnout among low-paid frontline workers. Agencies may either provide a 30% cash match, as historically required, or agree to pay staff billed at least 90% to a program the city's minimum wage — $25 an hour for fiscal 2026-27 — and have the match waived.
Public testimony was dominated by calls for more investment. Connections for Children, a current grantee, reported that the average cost of licensed child care in Santa Monica has climbed to $1,755 a month, roughly 80% of the average gross monthly income of a two-person household using its subsidies. The nonprofit said 30 children sit on its eligibility waitlist and estimated that closing the gap would require about $631,800 more in annual funding.
Others urged the council to restore a five-day congregate senior meal program at Reed Park's WISE Diner, which closed in July, and to keep neighborhood-based meal programs eligible for funding.
Council members repeatedly emphasized prevention, particularly for youth. "When we invest in our youth, we are investing in our future," Councilmember Natalya Zernitskaya said, requesting a future analysis of the program's return on investment.
Councilmember Lana Negrete, who described years of PTA involvement, said early intervention saves money later. "What we end up dealing with in the end is so much heavier when we don't address it" early, she said.
Staff plan to release the request for proposals in September, hold a bidders' conference and close it in December. Funding recommendations are due back to the council in spring 2027, with awards finalized in the June 2027 budget. The new cycle begins July 1, 2027.