Proposition 1 aims to create more mental health support and housing for adults experiencing homelessness.
It requires California counties to spend more mental health funding from the state on housing and support services like employment assistance and education. That means youth advocates now fear the measure could divert funding from mental health support for kids.
"Proposition 1 is something that we've been following and watching very carefully," said Erin Hogeboom with San Diego For Every Child, a coalition of organizations focused on tackling child poverty in San Diego.
She said organizations are dealing with less funding overall, but also a rise in the need for mental health services.
"COVID numbers aren't necessarily the main contributor of that. We just know that the need is continually going up for for children and youth mental and behavioral health services," she said. "And yet at the same time, we know that we are facing a funding cliff."
That cliff applies to First 5 San Diego, which was created to support the health and wellbeing of the county’s youngest children. Their programs have historically been funded by tobacco taxes, but that revenue has gone down in recent years.
"If we really are serious about addressing mental and behavioral health needs across our county, we can't only focus on some of the most visible ... within the adult population," Hogeboom said. "We have to be thinking further upstream. We have to be thinking about the experiences that children and youth are going through now."
Dr. Pradeep Gidwani, a pediatrician with the San Diego American Academy of Pediatrics, said the number of children with behavioral and mental health needs has grown.
"We're nowhere close to meeting the needs of our kids and families on many levels. One is the availability of services, the payment of services and the availability of providers," he said. "We have half the number of mental health professionals we need."
He thinks Prop. 1 has noble intentions, but its execution could come at a cost for others.
"I appreciate that all of us want to help those folks who are homeless. We want to be safe on our streets, but if we don't start early, and if we don't get those investments in place and be consistent with it, we're going to be paying for this in much greater ways," he said. "Can you imagine if we had invested in children's and youth mental health 20 years ago? Would we have the current homelessness problem?"
County Supervisors Monica Montgomery Steppe and Nora Vargas did not respond tor requests for comment. Prop. 1 was narrowly passed by California voters in March.
