Oakland is about to get millions in grant funds to battle gun violence.
Mayor Sheng Thao announced Monday that the city is getting $2 million from Vice President Kamala Harris’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
Thao said the funds will help the city continue to reduce gun violence by adding new resources to the Department of Violence Prevention.
"This is not an accident, and I want to be very key about that," Thao said. "This is by design. It is direct results of the shift in our strategy under my administration."
Violence has taken 67 lives in Oakland this year. That's a 33% reduction in the homicide rate compared to last year.
Thao said re-implementing Ceasefire, the city’s violence prevention program, is largely the reason for that decrease.
The grant will be distributed over a three-year period. The city said it will be used to increase its number of life coaches from 10 to 13.
"The role of my life coaches is to work one on one with those individuals who've been identified as most at risk of picking up a gun or being a victim of gun violence within the next 90 days," Violence Prevention Chief Dr. Holly Joshi said. "They build relationships and they allow people to access the resources that they deserve."
The new funding also arrives at the same time the city is considering serious public safety cuts to balance the budget.
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Despite the uncertainty of the budget, Thao indicated Ceasefire would be protected.
"Our Ceasefire strategy is actually our top strategy that we fund to ensure that we are saving lives, and that will continue to be the value of this administration," she said.
While Ceasefire may be protected, other potential cuts are looming, including cutting the police department to 600 officers and temporarily closing up to five fire stations.
No final decisions have been made, but Thao confirmed hiring freezes in some city positions have already started. When it comes to public safety, Thao claims despite whatever cuts come, crime numbers will continue to decrease.
"You're looking at already under-resource departments doing the great work that works," she said. "And this is why we're going to continue to see these numbers because even with the numbers that we have today, from OPD to DVP, we're still 33% decrease in our violent crimes. We know it works even with a small but mighty team."
