During the December 3rd and January 28th Council Public Safety Committee meetings, comments from Hayward Fire Chief Ryan Hamre suggested that the Mobile Integrated Health Unit (MIHU) is not likely to return to the HEART Program. The MIHU was cancelled in April 2025 due to being funded almost entirely with Fire Department overtime, despite success in reducing 911 calls for service.

Updates On The HEART Program

The remaining two pieces of the HEART Program, the Hayward Mobile Evaluation Team (HMET) and the LINK Case Management and Mental Health Team, both live within the Hayward Police Department. The HMET is composed of a specially trained Sworn Officer and an Alameda County Behavioral Health Clinician, while the LINK Team is two mobile Mental Health Clinicians, a Service Coordinator, and a Clinical Supervisor.

The HMET's primary role is to respond to acute mental health crisis calls and welfare checks. While the LINK Team conducts street outreach, follow-up care, and connects people to existing resources. In 2025, the HMET received 901 calls for service while the LINK Team made 549 referrals to other programs.

Police Chief Bryan Matthews continued to praise the HMET, saying that people with mental health issues are more likely to be "involved in a Police use-of-force incident" and that HMET had all but eliminated those incidents.

Chief Hamre said that the MIHU program was not "directly responsible for the main two goals of the [HEART] program," during the meeting. He also shared that often the Fire Department was dispatched with the MIHU team regardless, and will still be available for emergency medical treatment for future calls. "We managed to save the main two," Chief Hamre said, "and managed to save some money for the budget crisis

Building It Into The Budget

Councilmember Julie Roche expressed an interest in getting HMET and LINK included in the structural budget--as of now, the positions are supposed to be funded by salary savings, though the reality may be different. Police Chief Matthews said he also wanted to build HEART into the budget. "The goal is to get a dedicated officer to do that work," he said, potentially as soon as their coming budget. At the moment, he said he was redirecting Staffing to HMET and only relied on Overtime on occasion--often Fridays.

However, he said that funding LINK was more complicated. During the January meeting, Dr. Emily Young from the Youth and Family Services Bureau (YFSB) of the Police Department said that funding for LINK was expected to end on July 1 of this year. Dr. Young said that they are looking for ongoing funds, but are currently relying on grants, despite having been allocated salary savings from the Police Department. "[We've] been really successful at getting different pots of money," she said, but admitted that "the timing is just not good" for this fiscal year.

Councilmember Roche said, "At some point we have to decide how we're going to move forward because we know the funding is going to end July 1." The LINK program is composed of 4 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff. Mayor Mark Salinas asked if Measure W money could be used to fund the LINK Program. "I mean, It's millions," he said. Dr. Young said it was possible, but would largely depend on how money was allocated and what activities would be funded.

How Does Youth Services Handle Diversion?

The Hayward Police Department's Youth and Family Services Bureau (YFSB) highlighted their work at the January 28th Council Public Safety Committee meeting. The presentation was broken into three different parts, reflecting the different work of the YFSB: Office/Community Based Services, School-Based Behavioral Health, and LINK Service. The presentation said that 84% of the youth served by Juvenile Services "are not yet system involved and can be diverted through services," despite 45% of the referrals to their services coming from the Hayward Police Department and the Alameda County Probation Department.

Why Is This Within The Police Anyway?

Dr. Emily Young, head of the YFSB, said that the reason YFSB existed within the Police Department was because, "We believe that if you can get to the root cause underlying the reasons people become known to the Police, then they will not have to see the Police as much." She gave no direct reason why similar work couldn't also be conducted outside of the Police Department.

However, it's possible that being housed within the Police Department makes it easier for YFSB to obtain grants and contracts from the County Probation Department and other law-enforcement agencies. Despite being funded by the City's General Fund, Dr. Young's presentation said that YFSB receives $2,300,000 in contracts and grants, the many of which are from the County Probation Department. She said it helped to ease the burden on the General Fund, but did not mention where the savings went.

The most recent addition to YFSB's suite of programming is a Gender Responsive Life Skills Training program from the County Probation Department which Dr. Young described as "girl-focused life skills training."

What Counts As "System Involvement"?

Dr. Young celebrated the 370 youth and families served by YFSB and the fact that almost half (45%) of referrals to their Office/Community Based Services came from either HPD or the County Probation Department. "We are reaching the kids that are at the highest risk of systems involvement," she said. "We know we're reaching the highest risk kids because they're being referred by the system. That's a true diversion."

However, being referred by the Probation Department usually requires a child to have been involved with the system already. The Cornell Law Legal Information Institute defines probation as "a criminal sentence that allows a convicted defendant to remain in the community under supervision instead of serving time in jail or prison." This conflicts with Dr. Young's assertion that youth are being diverted "before they have a case."

Some would also argue that being picked up by a Police Officer is "system involvement." It's unclear from the presentation what form the referrals make, but if a child actually is arrested, a Police Officer has either already determined that there is probable cause to detain them or has a warrant for their arrest. Either of which could be called "system involvement."

However, according to a 2024 Staff Report accepting one of the grants, the Probation Department appears to specifically divert "formal entry into the juvenile justice system." This implies there is some informal entry into the system, though there was no additional information or definition.

Grants Come With Strings

A lot of this may be a consequence of where their funding comes from. According to a service provider with experience working with Probation Department grants, some of the grants incentivize referrals by the Police and the Probation Department. Some go so far as to only allow access to funded services only after being referred by either the Police Department or the Probation Department.

It's unclear from available public documents if this is the case with any YFSB grants or contracts. The Delinquency Prevention Network services contract, for example, includes working with local school districts and providing service coordination. However it also includes restorative justice programs "intended for youth both in and out of custody."

According to Dr. Young, over $790,000 of the YFSB budget comes from grants and contracts with the County Probation Department. And some of the programs are expanding in scope, with Dr. Young leveraging positions paid for with County Probation Department money to provide services at HUSD high schools. She specifically mentioned Hayward High School and Mt. Eden High School, hinting that Tennyson High School may be included in the future. It's unclear if these are in addition to the Social Emotional Counselors being maintained by the District in the most recent Fiscal Stability Plan.

The lack of clarity on this issue may be a cause for concern for those who argued against the use of School Resource Officers (SROs)--HPD Officers specifically stationed on school campuses. During the same meetings, both Chief Matthews and Dr. Young expressed regret at the cancellation of the SRO program and some Councilmembers have actively advocated for its return, or a similar program involving the HPD.

Picking Up HUSD's Slack

It appears that YFSB's footprint on local school sites will be increasing even beyond redirecting existing County Probation Department services. The Gender Responsive Life Skills program is, according to Dr. Young, being piloted at unspecified school sites. And YFSB already provides extensive support to HUSD, having served over 3,800 youth, families, and school staff, including providing Professional Development for staff and administrators.

The primary focus areas of the services provided were Social-Emotional Learning, Mental Health, and Social Skills/Relationship Support. These are the kinds of services which were provided by school-funded Social-Emotional Counselors that have fallen victim to recent budget cuts. "That will help pick up the need that's going to come if we lose these counselors on campus because of the HUSD budget cuts," Councilmember Roche said.

For families and individuals who are skeptical of the Police Department and the criminal legal system, it may be worrying that our schools are forced to rely on money from the Probation Department to fund mental health services for children in our schools.