Days after two teenagers killed three men at a San Diego mosque in a suspected hate crime, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office on Thursday announced $80 million in grants to help bolster security measures at nonprofits throughout the state, including 36 in San Diego, at high risk of violent attacks.
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The California Nonprofit Security Grant Program is providing grants to 343 organizations, 228 of which are faith-based groups, including churches, synagogues and mosques.
The idea is to enhance security at nonprofits that could be targeted for their ideology or mission. The money can go toward safety improvements such as reinforced doors and gates, high-intensity lighting, alarm systems and surveillance.
North County LGBTQ Resource Center received a $215,000 grant and is hoping to get its enhancements in place soon. “We are very honored to be able to get to work with this funding,” the center’s Executive Director Max Disposti said Thursday.
Aside from many religious organizations, local grant recipients include Girl Scouts of San Diego-Imperial Council, Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest and San Diego LGBTQ Community Center.
On May 18, two armed teenagers entered the Islamic Center of San Diego, killing an armed security guard in a gun battle, then fatally shooting two men cornered in the parking lot, police said. At the time, as many as 140 children were in a school at the center. The teen suspects fled and were found dead in a vehicle a few blocks away. A manifesto believed to have been authored by the suspected shooters is rife with regurgitated hate speech targeting a cross-section of religions, ethnicities and more.
The Islamic Center of San Diego is not listed on this most recent round of grants, but records show it and its sister campus in El Cajon have over the years received $1.2 million in state and federal grants for schools, churches and other nonprofits that might become targets for political extremists.
Newsom’s office said Thursday that the state is providing assistance to victims, family members and witnesses of the mosque shooting. The money can help cover medical costs, mental health treatment, lost wages, funeral expenses and more — up to $70,000 in lifetime benefits.
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Newsom’s office said the state has allocated $300 million to more than 1,600 nonprofits since it started handing out the security grants more than a decade ago. Another $40 million is included in the proposed budget for the next fiscal year.
“By investing in critical security upgrades, we are leading the nation in protecting places of worship and high-risk communities, strengthening preparedness, and ensuring every Californian can gather safely and without fear,” Newsom said in a statement.
San Diego City Councilmember Marni Von Wilpert, chair of the council’s Public Safety Committee, applauded the funding, which she said will “help provide the safety and security measures needed to protect places of worship and community centers, ensuring they can continue serving our neighbors without fear. An attack motivated by hate against any one community is an attack on all of us.”
This round includes $200,000 for Chabad of Poway, which in 2019 was the target of a gunman who stormed in and killed a congregant and injured three people, including a child, her uncle and a rabbi.
Some of the grant money includes facilities that provide reproductive care, including a few in San Diego County.
“Reproductive health clinics are a big, important piece of California’s healthcare safety net. So right now, when we’re seeing access to care challenged in so many states across the country, these clinics really matter,” Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, chair of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus said in a statement announcing the grants.
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