Speier announces local foundation focused on fighting poverty in San Mateo County

Local leaders gathered Thursday at Samaritan House, a core nonprofit providing housing, food and financial support to San Mateo County residents, to honor the launch of the Jackie Speier Foundation. Seeded with $1 million from Speier, the foundation will largely act as a grant-making organization supporting initiatives targeting impoverished youth and women.

Speier, who started her political career on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors in 1980, has long championed initiatives meant to uplift children and women from driving legislation and funding for pediatric and breast cancer research and sexual assault and child abuse prevention to enforcement of child support orders and financial privacy.

The former U.S. representative recently stepped away from politics, passing the torch to a former aide and mentee U.S. Rep. Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco. But Speier said her work is far from over. There are more than 18,000 single-parent households in the county and 23,000 children living below the federal poverty line, with rates as high as 31% for Black children and 20% for Latino children, according to a report by the foundation.

Nearly 68,000 children have experienced some form of adverse experience from trauma, stress, emotional and physical abuse, sexual abuse, parental violence or divorce, according to the report. Food stamp use in the county has spiked by 41% since 2020 and Second Harvest, the leading food bank in the county, serves more than 107,000 local residents each month.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit women particularly hard. About 2 in 5 women in the county, or about 36%, struggle to meet basic needs. Domestic violence increased by 20% in 2021, according to the report. And the past three years also saw a mass exodus of women from the workforce given that child care options were minimal, the foundation asserts.

Tale of two counties

Speaking from personal experience was Karla and Cristina, both mothers and Samaritan House clients. Cristina, a mother of three boys, became a single mom nine months ago after fleeing a violent home, she said. She’s worked two jobs for years, one as a teacher, to support her family but still lives in a shelter. Her dream, she said, is to return to school to get her certificates that would allow her to stop working multiple jobs and spend time with her children.

“I still struggle to put food on our table and a roof over our head,” Cristina said. “I’m here today because I think it’s important to dispel the myth that people like me are lazy. We’re not. We work a lot.”

Karla, a single mother of two, has also worked multiple jobs to support her family and was forced to quit school, and ultimately her dream of becoming a lawyer, to make rent. Her work, she said, has pulled her away from her children who have been bullied for their living conditions. The strain was so difficult it led one of her children to attempt suicide on State Route 92, she said.

“It’s hard, one, being a single mother, two, the bullying that is out there telling them they don’t have a father figure and your mom isn’t around,” Karla said.

Families like Cristina’s and Karla’s are often shut out of the federal and state aid they would need to live in the region. Speier noted the cutoff to quality for support is around $30,000 annually despite estimates indicating a family would need more than $100,000 a year to make ends meet in the county. The cap was set in the 1960s and is based primary on the cost of food, not housing, Speier said, calling the federal aid estimates outdated.

The county remains one of the wealthiest in the nation with 22 billionaires and 5,000 people making more than $1 million annually calling the area home. And while philanthropic giving has increased with the county’s wealth, nearly 90% of those donations go toward national and global causes, Speier said, adding she plans to spend the year trying to tap into that wealth before announcing grants.

“We want to shine a bright light on the poverty hidden in plain sight in San Mateo County,” Speier said. “The goal is ambitious, to rid our county of childhood poverty but, you know what, we do the impossible in San Mateo County. We develop new technology, we start new industries and we do it almost overnight. So it’s time to harness that talent for our children.”

County support

Dave Pine, president of the Board of Supervisors, noted the county has tried to step in and support the community through the recent health crisis. Since initiating a shelter-in-place order in March 2020, nearly $400 million has been spent on programming to keep businesses afloat, residents housed and fed, and people safe from the respiratory virus.

In addition to establishing emergency medical access, the county also invested $188 million into housing initiatives, $76.4 million toward food security, $33 million to small business and nonprofit relief, $16 million for additional financial assistance, nearly $9 million for child care programming, and $10.7 million for youth programming.

Beginning April 1, the county’s minimum wage will also increase to $16.50 in unincorporated areas, Pine said, acknowledging that the increase falls short of what a household would need to survive in the area but still surpasses the state’s minimum wage rate by $1.

“Sadly, as we’ve heard, we have a community of unbelievable affluence, unbelievable wealth on one hand and unbelievable poverty on the other,” Pine said. “At our very core, we are here to help those who are facing the biggest challenges.”

Moving forward, Pine said the county intends to continue working with local agencies when tackling the challenges faced by some of the most vulnerable in the area and welcomed Speier’s support.

Similarly, County Executive Officer Mike Callagy said local efforts by the county and nonprofits haven’t been easy and, with a recession looming, local agencies will need all the support they can get to continue supporting residents.

“As we know, as the financial crisis deepens, the need grows, so there’s greater need and we really are the tale of two counties,” Callagy said. “Jackie’s a can-do person. What she sets her mind to she gets done … and we’re just so happy she’s in our corner and still working on important issues in this county.”