County of Santa Clara, California

Recovery Plan

State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds

August 31, 2021 Report
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County of Santa Clara

August 2021 Recovery Plan

GENERAL OVERVIEW

Executive Summary 

The Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Clara, California has not yet approved a plan 

for the intended and actual uses of the funding. Therefore, the following points are subject to 

change, but are important to note here because they reflect the County of Santa Clara’s 

(County) strategic response throughout the pandemic.

• Addressing equity and systemic public health and economic challenges: Part of

the County’s strategy is identifying the gaps in the existing COVID-19 funding so that the 

American Rescue Plan funds can be focused on the hardest hit communities and 

families. There are individuals and groups who could benefit from assistance that 

existing COVID-19 funding does not cover. Elements of the County’s strategy are also 

focused on addressing disproportional public health and economic challenges on 

vulnerable populations, especially low-income workers and communities and people of 

color in disproportionately impacted areas. 

• Providing safety net services for the community: The pandemic has placed a 

significant demand on County safety net services in the health and human services 

areas. As the safety net for the region, we have expended $728 million during the 

pandemic response. The County also expects to spend even more to respond to future 

surges and variants of the virus. Present and future expenses will not be fully 

reimbursed by COVID-19 revenues and utilizing SLFRF funds will allow County to

maintain its existing service levels. Some of these safety net services provided 

throughout the pandemic include monitoring the needs of vulnerable populations with a 

continuous assessment of trends and gaps, providing support for unhoused individuals 

and families, streamlining access to cash, utilities, and food assistance, and addressing 

the impacts to vulnerable and other populations disproportionally impacted by the 

pandemic, especially youth and the elderly.

• Supporting the County’s continued pandemic response: Another component of the 

strategy is to plan for the inevitable future pandemic challenges. The pandemic and its 

effects will be with our community for many years to come, and most especially over the 

next two years, with current and future surges and variants. COVID-19 variants comprise 

an increasingly large share of positive COVID-19 cases and continue to grow in 

number. As such, there is a continued need for County services for vaccine outreach 

and education, monitoring for variants, emergency housing, isolation and quarantine, 

childcare, testing, contact tracing, and preparing for future impacts on the County’s 

Health and Hospital System.
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Uses of Funds

The Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Clara has not yet approved a plan for the 

intended and actual uses of the funding. 

Promoting equitable outcomes 

Equity has been central to the County’s pandemic response. While the Board of Supervisors 

has not yet approved a plan for the funding, it is important to note that the County has been 

working all along to ensure an equitable pandemic response. The County has been focused on 

bringing services, testing, and vaccines directly to the communities most impacted by and most 

at risk from COVID-19 and delivering culturally and linguistically competent education and 

COVID-19-related services to the most impacted residents through grassroots outreach, trusted 

community-based organizations, and a diversified media strategy. 

As is true nationally, COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact within Santa Clara County. 

Residents in East San Jose and Gilroy faced substantial health and economic inequalities prior 

to the pandemic. These inequities have only been exacerbated during the pandemic. Residents 

in the 8 zip codes that make up East San Jose account for 22% of the county population, but 

36% of the COVID cases. Similarly, Gilroy residents make up 3% of the population, but twice 

that share of the cases. Significant COVID disparities also persist by race and ethnicity. For 

example, the Latinx residents account for roughly one quarter of the Santa Clara County 

population, but nearly half of the COVID-19 cases and 31% of the deaths. African/African 

Ancestry residents are also overrepresented in COVID fatalities. 

These disparities can be tracked on the County’s demographic dashboard: 

https://covid19.sccgov.org/dashboard-demographics-of-cases-and-deaths. Based on these and 

other equity considerations, the County Health System has located many of its services in East 

San Jose and Gilroy and continues to focus outreach and communications activities on these 

hardest hit communities.

Community Engagement 

The Finance and Government Operations Committee of the Board of Supervisors conducted a 

special meeting on June 9, 2021, to receive community input relating to the budgeting and 

expenditure specific to SLFRF funds. The virtual meeting was scheduled in the evening session 

to ensure the broadest access to the meeting by all interested parties. Participants were able to 

provide input both verbally and in written form. 

Throughout the pandemic, the County's outreach and engagement efforts have included a 

comprehensive stakeholder engagement process; deep grassroots outreach; and a broad, 

multilingual communications strategy. The County and our partners continue to have well over 

70 linguistically competent community health workers in the field full time, many of whom are 

providing door to door outreach in our hardest hit neighborhoods. 

In terms of messaging, the County's Public Information Office (PIO) continues to provide 

messaging and communications in our 5 threshold languages. Social media, press conferences, 

fliers, websites, and other collateral materials are provided in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, 

Chinese, and Tagalog. The PIO operation also includes a robust multilingual paid media 

strategy for outreach with paid ads through Spanish language TV stations; Vietnamese, 
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Spanish, and Chinese radio; out-of-home advertising in multiple languages; and small dollar ad 

buys with diverse print media outlets.

Labor Practices

The Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Clara has not yet approved a plan for the 

intended and actual uses of the funding, and therefore there are no workforce practices on 

SLFRF infrastructure projects included in this report.

Use of Evidence 

The Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Clara has not yet approved a plan for the 

intended and actual uses of the funding, and as such there are no evidence-based interventions 

nor project evaluations reportable.

Table of Expenses by Expenditure Category

The Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Clara has not yet approved a plan for the 

intended and actual uses of the funding, and as such there are no reportable expenses included 

in this report. 

Project Inventory 

The Board of Supervisors of the County of Santa Clara has not yet approved a plan for the 

intended and actual uses of the funding, and as such there are no reportable projects included 

in this report. 

Performance Report

• There are no reportable projects, and therefore no key performance indicators included 

in this report.