For years, Alliance San Diego has taught workshops to youth about human rights and advocacy.
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Somali Family Service, another local group, created a documentary about the harmful effects of hate crimes on communities.
And the Union of Pan Asian Communities built a program designed to support people who have been targeted by hate crimes and reduce stigma around mental health care.
The work of each nonprofit was made possible through the Stop the Hate program, a state grant initiative launched in 2021 to help organizations provide services for communities affected by hate crimes and support preventative programming. More than $100 million was distributed to 180 nonprofits across California over two funding rounds — with about $13 million going to 27 San Diego groups.
But future Stop the Hate funding is now uncertain. State legislators included just $30 million for the program in the proposed budget for the next fiscal year they adopted Monday. Gov. Gavin Newsom didn’t include any funding for it at all in his proposed budget. Negotiations are underway and a final state budget will be released by June 30.
San Diego community leaders say the need for anti-hate support services has only grown, especially following the recent fatal shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego.
“In the awareness that this all is happening … we stop investing in a program, which could possibly lead to education and empowerment of youth to move away from hate and bigotry,” said Tazheen Nizam, the executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations of San Diego.
On May 18, two armed teenagers entered the Islamic Center of San Diego and fatally shot three people. A manifesto believed to have been authored by the suspected shooters included White supremacist hate speech targeting a range of groups — religious, ethnic, women and LGBTQ+ communities.
This week, police investigated a vehicle spotted near the Islamic Center of San Diego that had a Nazi flag and suspicious canister inside. They ultimately decided it was not dangerous.
And earlier this year, child care providers — especially those of Somali descent — said they felt fear and anxiety after right wing activists visited their workplaces. The San Diego City Council voted this week to approve a resolution in support of the Somali community following the harassment.
“A lot of our community members were not familiar with the concept of a hate crime, let alone the method of how to go about reporting one,” said Mustafa Sahid, the director of operations at Somali Family Service.
The nonprofit provides support services to the broader refugee community. With $750,000 in Stop the Hate funding, it was able to film a documentary, “Voice for Peace: A Call for Change,” as well as provide case management for responding to and reporting hate crimes and offer mental health support.
Without Stop the Hate funding, Sahid thinks it will be difficult to maintain that full approach to services.
The Stop the Hate program was part of the state’s response to the rise in anti-Asian hate during the Covid-19 pandemic, though it applied to all communities. It was allocated $110 million in the state’s Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Equity budget in 2021, after the API Legislative Caucus lobbied for state-funded support for victims of hate incidents.
Along with direct services for victims of hate, the funds helped provide educational programming to prevent hate crimes from happening in the first place.
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“Hate crimes and intolerance are not going away, and the resources to stop them shouldn’t either,” said District 76 Assemblymember Darshana Patel, who represents North County communities and is a member of the API Legislative Caucus, in a statement. “I know what’s at stake if this program disappears.”
Hate crimes investigated by law enforcement in California have been trending downward since they hit a peak in 2022, but the rates are still high, according to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The most in 2024 found that one in 11 Californians experienced hate that year, though this may represent only a fraction of the full picture, since many victims don’t report hate crimes out of fear of retaliation.
Local leaders also point to the Trump administration’s rhetoric and policies targeting immigrants, migrants and the LGBTQ+ community, which they say has only exacerbated hate incidents.
“We have seen the growing xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment as it gets expressed here locally,” said Arcela Nunez-Alvarez, the co-director of Universidad Popular.
Her organization used its $550,000 from Stop the Hate to hire community educators to help inform immigrant communities about policy changes, offer support following hate incidents and run know-your-rights workshops.
The funding was “a godsend,” Nunez-Alvarez said.
The Newsom administration described the governor’s revised budget, released in May, as and aimed at cutting the long-term deficit, including through reducing some social services and programs. The budget that California legislators adopted Monday pushes to delay those cuts, and would fund the Stop the Hate program with $30 million for another two years.
As of Thursday afternoon, a budget agreement between Newsom and legislators hadn’t been reached, said H.D. Palmer, spokesperson for the Newsom administration’s Department of Finance, but negotiations have been underway.
Newsom did include $40 million in his proposed budget for the California Nonprofit Security Program, which is designed to help nonprofits defend themselves against violent attacks and hate crimes. The administration also recently awarded $80 million through the program to 343 nonprofits, including 36 in San Diego County.
The North County LGBTQ Resource Center received a $215,000 security grant. It also received $700,000 in Stop the Hate funding that it used over the last several years for intervention programs and connecting with local partners, including law enforcement to help educate about the stigmas around reporting hate crimes.
Max Disposti, the Center’s executive director, says the Center has built strong relationships with other Stop the Hate grant recipients that have helped them understand their common fears and how to address hate.
But he points to the major losses in federal funding that nonprofit organizations have endured over the last year, as the Trump administration has removed funding for LGBTQ+ programs and other DEI initiatives.
Losing state funding like Stop the Hate, he says, especially as communities like his face growing harassment, only makes the situation worse.
“It’s not a good time to end this work,” he said. “We are going to need this way more than what we even imagined in 2021.”
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