OCEANSIDE — The city of Oceanside is proposing a $21.5 million spending plan for its Measure X sales tax revenue in the upcoming budget year, adding new programs such as a non-law-enforcement homeless outreach team, mobile health services for police officers, and additional traffic and e-bike enforcement.
Measure X is a half-cent sales tax first approved in 2018 and extended by voters for another 10 years in 2024. Tax revenue funds public safety, road improvements, infrastructure, free youth programs, and homeless services.
The Oceanside City Council reviewed the Measure X spending plan at an April 15 budget workshop. A new program proposed for Measure X funding is a homeless outreach program made up of case managers and social workers, which will replace the Oceanside Police Department’s current Homeless Outreach Team, or HOT.
The Homeless Evaluation, Assistance and Resource Team, or HEART, is planned will kick off in May before the start of the next fiscal year on July 1, but still needs to be approved by the City Council. Staff proposed allocating $200,000 from Measure X for the program this fiscal year, followed by $400,000 in 2026-27 and each of the subsequent eight years.
HEART will include two social workers currently involved in HOT, who will be reassigned, as well as outreach workers in the library, all of whom the city contracts through Interfaith Community Services. Police officers involved in HOT will be reassigned to the city’s crime suppression unit, also funded by Measure X.
“The Homeless Outreach Team will no longer exist, and now it will be a case manager leading an intervention model from the HEART,” said Assistant City Manager Michael Gossman. “The social workers that we use are trained in mental health and mental illness and intervention.”
HEART will provide daily homelessness outreach through a “health-first, trauma-informed and service-oriented approach,” according to a city memo.
This work includes connecting individuals to shelter and housing programs, helping them obtain vital documents and benefits, and offering support in accessing behavioral health and medical services to reduce non-emergency 911 calls.
The team will also coordinate with the Oceanside Navigation Center, the city’s Safe Parking Program, and OPD’s crime suppression unit to serve unhoused individuals.
Another new program proposed for Measure X funding is an on-duty, mobile occupational health service for law enforcement personnel to support their physical and mental well-being. Starting in the 2026-27 fiscal year, Oceanside plans to allocate $85,000 annually toward this program.
Using an On Duty Health- or similar service model, the program will offer health and fitness assessments; ultrasound screenings with radiology follow-up; cardiopulmonary exercise testing; true VO2 max testing; comprehensive labs and urinalysis; strength and endurance testing; pre-employment and return-to-duty evaluations; and behavioral health supports, such as mental wellness check-ins.
The Oceanside Fire Department already has its own employee health and wellness program, also funded by Measure X.
City officials also recommended a one-time $50,000 allocation from Measure X for increased e-bike and traffic enforcement. The city is also using $25,000 in Measure X revenue for this enforcement in the current year.
Gossman said OPD is searching for funding to address this need permanently.
“The Oceanside Police Department requested one-time funding, and then they’re looking to establish a more robust, ongoing program that would exist within their current structure. So this is just to get them through that period,” Gossman said.
Other Measure X spending
Total Measure X allocations for the upcoming year include $2.6 million for police, $1.045 million for community programming for teens and youth, $4.37 million for homelessness programs, and $4.88 million for fire services.
Last year, youth program funding included $45,000 for the Teen Works Program at the city library and $1 million for youth programming offered by local nonprofits. In the upcoming year, the city plans to allocate $100,000 to the Teen Works Program, $120,000 to programming through the Parks and Recreation Department, and $70,000 for programming through OPD, with $755,000 available for nonprofits to apply for.
City staff said this was done so city-funded youth programs did not have to compete with nonprofit programs for city funding.
The programming through the Parks and Recreation Department includes recreational youth sports at Bladerrama Park; deep-sea fishing; O’Side Friday Teen Nights, featuring sports and other activities during the summer; and Mobile Recreation, providing year-round after-school activities at city parks that lack a recreation center.
The City Council highlighted how important these programs are to supporting at-risk youth. Deputy Mayor Eric Joyce said just over $1 million for youth programs is not enough, and pointed out that overall youth program funding from Measure X is proposed to decrease starting in 2028.
“So I’m seeing that our community programming is on the chopping block, and I just am raising this flag because I see a changing of what I thought was intended,” Joyce said.
Mayor Esther Sanchez said this is because the Measure X program will begin winding down at the 10-year mark unless voters agree to extend it again.
City staff noted that in the future, the city could use revenue from the city’s cannabis dispensary tax to fund additional drug diversion programs for youth. Councilmember Jimmy Figueroa said this could be a long-term funding strategy for youth programs if and when Measure X goes away.
“I know it’s not being presented to us at the moment, but I know that there is a strategy to provide support for our prevention-based youth programs here in the city,” Figueroa said.
Measure X will also fund several capital improvement projects in the upcoming year, including $4 million for the planned police training center and firing range. Another $1 million is planned for allocation to this project next year.
Ongoing CIP funding from Measure X includes $2.8 million annually for street restoration and asphalt overlay (set to increase to $3.5 million annually in 2032), $700,000 for road repairs and slurry seal, and $500,000 for Safe Routes to School (set to increase to $750,000 annually starting in 2030).
The city set aside $500,000 from Measure X for shoreline restoration this year and will allocate $550,000 in 2026/27. This allocation will increase 10% each year.
Mayor Esther Sanchez said she would also like to see Measure X funds used for habitat restoration in the future.
The plan reviewed by the City Council will now go to the Measure X Committee for review. The City Council will review and adopt its full 2026-27 budget in June.
