Biden signs $1.5 trillion spending bill into law. What does it mean for the Valley?
Help is on the way for Northern San Joaquin Valley homelessness projects, mental health services, young people in crisis and more.
The local projects are part of the $1.5 trillion spending bill President Joe Biden signed into law Tuesday.
It gets specific about projects in Stanislaus County and other parts of Rep. Josh Harder’s current congressional district. Local members of Congress submit such projects, which used to be called “earmarks” and often were criticized as wasteful pork. They’ve since been rebranded as “community project funding.”
There are an estimated 4,000 such projects funded nationally in the spending bill. Unlike past years, guidelines were stricter: No for-profit interests could get funding, members could seek a maximum of 10 projects and had to certify that neither they nor immediate family members had any financial interest in the project.
The projects pushed by Harder, D-Turlock, include:
▪ Manteca Transit Center improvements. $4.49 million for the station’s Rider Safety Improvement and Station Modernization project. The project will connect passengers to the Altamont Corridor Express Rail, a commuter rail service that runs from Stockton to San Jose.
▪ Help for the homeless. $500,000 to Camp2Home, an effort that includes moving unsheltered people out of homelessness and into employment and permanent housing. The city of Modesto expects the money to help extend job training and other job-related services.
▪ Mental health. $1.8 million for the Stanislaus County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services to help its Promotores/Community Health Outreach Worker program and to get Community-Based Mental Health Clinicians into local schools. It would help students and families with mental health services.
▪ Crimefighting. $254,470 to the city of Tracy’s police department for 15 new license plate readers at all main entry and exit points of the city, major commercial areas, and “hot” intersections that have high traffic volume.
▪ Modesto Youth Navigation Center. $500,000 would go for the one-stop center to help 13- to 24-year-olds who are homeless or facing crises. Harder’s office described the effort as helping “ intervene early, stabilize and divert young people from homelessness, connect individuals to educational and employment opportunities, and provide support as they transition to permanent housing.”
This story was originally published March 17, 2022 at 12:45 PM.
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