Over the past year, a California health agency funneled millions in taxpayer money to anti-police organizations for a variety of initiatives, including COVID-19 response efforts and teaching teenagers about social justice, according to a review of state grant spending by the Washington Free Beacon.
The Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), which oversees California’s Medicaid program serving about 15 million residents—roughly a third of the state’s population—distributed close to $2.4 million to these groups. The recipients included the Anti Police-Terror Project, an Oakland-based group advocating for the abolition of the police, and several other organizations that are part of its defund the police coalition, such as Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice.
The DHCS operates with a budget of $164 billion and has nearly 4,700 employees. It has stated a commitment “to use our state’s tax dollars as effectively as possible.” These grants were issued during the 2023-24 fiscal year, at a time when California was dealing with a $22.5 billion deficit. A spokesperson for DHCS mentioned that a response wouldn’t be available until “the middle of next week.”
“The Newsom administration spent itself into a massive deficit, and programs like this are Exhibit A for how it happened,” said James Gallagher, the leading Republican in the California State Assembly. “The health department should stick to health programs—not woke nonsense that wastes tax dollars. I’m looking forward to budget hearings next year when they can explain why they think this was an appropriate use of scarce state resources.”
In June, Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice was awarded $1 million by DHCS. The funds are designated for “elevating the voice and power of systems-impacted and formerly-incarcerated young people through culturally-rooted healing, education, organizing, and legal support.” This project is scheduled to continue until November 2026.
Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice, based in Oakland, focuses on goals like “Defunding, decertifying, developing community-based alternatives to policing.” Their initiatives include a fellowship for formerly incarcerated young adults that aims to “dismantle the racist institutions of policing and incarceration.”
In 2021, the organization joined a defund the police coalition started by the Anti Police-Terror Project, which has also received funding from DHCS. The Anti Police-Terror Project obtained $75,000 for a program beginning in August 2024 to provide COVID-19 testing and treatment for the homeless at its Oakland community center and through its Sacramento branch and other partners. Local health departments no longer track COVID-19 cases.
The Anti Police-Terror Project continues to push for defunding the Oakland Police Department and removing police involvement in mental health emergencies. However, the group’s focus on mitigating COVID-19 is limited.
In practice, the organization’s public health services consist mainly of massages, herbal remedies, and psychological counseling offered by volunteers at a community center. The Anti Police-Terror Project, which has roots in an “Afrikan liberation organization,” also offers “mobile peer support de-escalation assistance” for those facing mental health crises due to substance use or domestic disputes—situations it attributes to “white supremacy, capitalism, and colonialism.”
A report by the Silicon Valley newsletter Pirate Wires in June revealed that a co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project, who is also the partner of an Oakland city council member, transferred at least $800,000 to other groups he controlled. He faced battery charges last year during a confrontation at a homeless encampment, but those charges were dismissed in September.
Another member of the Anti Police-Terror Project’s coalition, Filipino Advocates for Justice, also received funds from DHCS in June. This Bay Area group, which supports immigrant rights, was granted $600,000 to assist “Filipino and immigrant young adults facing substance use risks” using a “healing-centered approach with therapy and free events.”
Filipino Advocates for Justice operates a political action arm and engages in voter advocacy. Earlier this year, the group attempted—but failed—to pass a ballot measure that would have weakened a property tax law. It has also benefited from donations from progressive groups, including the Tides Foundation, backed by George Soros, the New Venture Fund, and the Akonadi Foundation, another anti-police entity.
Southern California-based Gente Organizada, another immigrant rights group, received $700,000 from DHCS in June. The funding is intended to “reduce the number of BIPOC youth in Pomona who are at risk of exposure to the justice system.” Their aim is to involve at least 30 young people of color in “advocacy activities with our youth-led social action group” and to promote alternatives to incarceration.
On its website, Gente Organizada criticizes the city of Pomona for “Upholding White Supremacy through Overpolicing of BIPOC People,” calling it “Institutional Violence.” The organization has also advocated for the removal of police from schools.
