Redwood City’s collective effort on COVID-19

In my role as mayor, I am drawing on my decades of experience in the medical profession as a nurse and health care professional to ensure every decision I make prioritizes public health and safety. Flattening the curve is just the beginning of how we will get through this crisis. What follows are other ways our city is supporting residents and businesses.

Many are struggling to keep a roof over their heads. We have set up the COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance fund to assist households and individuals, such as child care providers, who have no alternative source of income or unemployment insurance. In the first week, we received four times the number of applications we usually receive in a year. The city has gathered $2 million in funds and hopes to assist 1,000 households.

Although the Board of Supervisors has passed emergency ordinances banning eviction and rent increases involving COVID-19 affected families, it cannot forgive the accumulated owed rent. Eventually, the renter will be facing a daunting mountain of unpaid rent. However, government assistance will not be enough. We need all parties — lending institutions, landlords and tenants working together to avoid a significant surge in loan defaults and in our homeless population.

We recognize the economic crisis that has befallen our 6,600 businesses, who also employ many of our residents, and have developed the Business Community Outreach Call Center to provide resources and information. The city has contributed $300,000 to San Mateo County Strong’s grant program to help support our small businesses. A new webpage, redwoodcity.org/covidbusinessresource, has been created to help businesses of all sizes tap into local/state/federal/ and corporate programs. Here again, government assistance will not be enough. We need public support, however possible, to keep businesses breathing. We need landlords to work with business owners to prevent being left with empty buildings.

Providing nutritional assistance has become a priority. A senior lunch pick-up program has been established at the Senior Center. Our website lists organizations providing meals, bagged groceries or delivery for those homebound. We continue to provide emergency services for our homeless and unstable housed population. Also, in our attempt to reduce the spread of COVID-19, portable restrooms and handwashing stations have been placed in high-risk areas. Our residential care facilities have been hit hard by the virus as our Fire Department has visited all 70 of them providing health and safety guidelines and caregiver education.

The psychological impacts from having to shelter in place and the resulting isolation have been significant. To address this, the Redwood City Library, the Parks Department and Community Services are offering services for education, fitness and play. There are many virtual library programs and a new Community Memory Project as a way to share reflections and express feelings and emotions during the pandemic. There is a fitness and wellness page with an online Zumba class. We have tried to increase outdoor activities with our Slow Streets Program to create safer areas for walking and biking along five miles of designated streets.

Where does the city go from here? The reality is we may not fully open until a safe, effective vaccine is developed, which could take another year. In the meantime, we are working to get business to reopen as quickly as possible, while observing recommended guidelines. We are looking at opening public streets, sidewalks and public/private parking lots for outdoor dining and retail. We also need to support safe child care, as that is critical for many parents to have the support they need to return to work.

Assessing the city’s economic health is an ongoing challenge for our staff. Redwood City has maintained significant reserves and always balanced our budget. We are constantly reallocating funds to best serve the needs of our community. There are two unknowns which could significantly affect Redwood City’s and all California cities’ economic status. Funds coming to local communities are filtered through the state’s coffers, and it is unknown how much the state will retain to fund its own deficit. The other issue is California’s unfunded pension liability, which exceeds $1 trillion and estimators predict it will reach $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion due to COVID-19. CalPERS was only 73% funded at the end of 2019 and is now down to 63%. Local communities are required to make up any CalPERS deficit. This increase combined with decreased sales tax revenue may push some communities toward insolvency. Redwood City is positioned better than most, but the next few years will certainly require some belt tightening.

I am very proud of how our community has responded to this challenge. I hear every day of new acts of kindness, neighbor helping neighbor, people volunteering their time or contributing money so others may eat or keep a roof over their heads. Our community refuses to be defined by the worst things that happen to us. We will face this challenge collectively — we will be resilient.

Diane Howard is the mayor of Redwood City, a retired orthopedic nurse, and also spent 28 years as an office manager of a family medical practice and three years as a physician relations representative at Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City.