LGBTQIA+ Advocacy leads to Oceanside City Council providing more relief for Non-Profits

At the October 6, 2021, Oceanside City Council meeting, North County LGBTQ Resource Center Executive Director Max Disposti advocated for and won almost triple the funding originally allocated for Oceanside non-profits struggling during the pandemic. A grant application is still being drafted.

Pandemic Funding Available

From American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, Oceanside was awarded $32.3 million dollars. The city received half the funds on May 17, 2021. The second half will be received in May 2022. The city has five years, or until 2026, to spend the funds.

Assistant City Manager Michael Gossman presented a spending plan update, based on what the council approved in August. The August spending plan only allocated $350,000 to non-profits while allocating $1,000,000 to sand replenishment, $1,000,000 for “homeless initiatives,” $300,000 to businesses, and $327,000 to tourism programs and special events promoting tourism and the local economy.

The bulk of the funds, over $12 million, was allocated to replace lost public sector revenue. Of those funds, appropriations were recommended for cooling towers, fire apparatus funding, library youth programming, and swim center renovations. Even accounting for these appropriations, $9.97 million remained.

While guidelines for non-profit grants are still under development and the program has not been launched nor have any of the funds been allocated, Mayor Esther Sanchez released a draft of the non-profit application to certain community leaders, Disposti amongst them.

Disposti’s Advocacy

The North County LGBTQ Resource Center is in Oceanside, where Disposti is also a resident. His remarks centered on a sense of, “offense and a slap in the face,” to himself and non-profits, who were scheduled to receive fewer than three percent of the overall relief funds available.

“Do you know how much San Marcos has allocated?” Disposti asked the dais. San Marcos, a city with roughly half the population of Oceanside allocated $3 million for non-profits, according to Disposti’s public comments. The $350,000 was not enough, Disposti argued, considering that “in Oceanside and the region, [non-profits] are the second largest economy.”

In an e-mail sent to council before the meeting, Disposti wrote, “Non-profits contribute to the region’s economy by securing grants, contracts, and other revenues and employ more than 121,000 people.”

Disposti emphasized that, “Many non-profits have had to stay open when the city couldn’t even function.” Non-profits “had to serve new homeless, mental health, people killing themselves,” Disposti added.

“I feel very humiliated,” Disposti said. “We met with city managers several times, bringing concerns from communities of color.” Disposti lamented, “There are no true allocations for non-profits,” decrying that, “[Their] concerns were not listened to.”

The non-profit leader then went on to criticize the criteria in the draft program, which included proving how much non-profit applicants influence tourist development in downtown Oceanside.

“What does that have to do with the work a nonprofit does? That’s not my mission. This has nothing to do with nonprofits. I have to save lives in Oceanside,” Disposti criticized. Though, Gossman later emphasized “It was a misunderstanding” because, “We don’t have a program. We have a draft program.”

Sanchez went on to declare, “We depend on these non-profits, we have depended on them.” Further stating, “They have been working really hard.” She hoped the council would take this opportunity to “comment on this [spending plan] and make it more relevant to our communities.”

After hearing Disposti’s testimony, Deputy Mayor Ryan Keim motioned to increase the allocation to non-profits to $1 million by reducing funds used to replace lost public sector revenue. Councilmember Kori Jensen expressed support contingent upon confirmation that the application would not consider a non-profit’s impact to tourism. The motion passed unanimously.