The Stakes: Oakland LGBTQ center reduces services after losing federal grants over DEI focus

This story is part of “The Stakes,” a UC Berkeley Journalism project on executive orders and actions affecting Californians and their communities. It was co-published with the East Bay Times.

Before Sergio Ardila joined the board of the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center, he was one of its clients. Ardila, who describes himself as a recovering addict, attended his first Narcotics Anonymous meeting at the center in 2022 through its Rainbow Recovery program and received rental assistance from the organization during a period of unemployment.

“My story with the center is very personal,” Ardila said. “I got involved to give back what the center has given.”

Now, because of $600,000 in federal funding cuts at the direction of the Trump administration, both services have either been scaled back or cut entirely. The center was notified in January that it would not receive funding because the organization was “not in alignment with the administration,” CEO Joe Hawkins said.

The LGBTQ center is among many nonprofit organizations across the country that have had their federal funding frozen or rescinded since the start of the second Trump administration. As a result, the center, which serves more than 4,000 people, is no longer able to subsidize mental health services or provide rental assistance. Addiction treatment services have been significantly reduced and the center lost additional funding for its HIV prevention efforts.

The center was forced to lay off about half of its staff earlier this year, according to Bay Area Reporter, a free weekly newspaper serving the LGBT communities in the Bay Area.

Though the two grants only made up a portion of the center’s annual budget — which Hawkins said was around $4 million last year — President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders have strained LGBTQ organizations and put pressure on philanthropic giving.

More than six months after the funding loss, the Oakland center is still dealing with the setback. But leaders say they are finding creative ways to move forward with new grants and community support. 

“ When we started waving the red flag, we knew that it was going to be pretty devastating for us,” Hawkins said. “We just started reaching out to our supporters, and they started coming through.” 

Higher demand for services

Hawkins and co-founder Jeffrey Myers opened the center in 2017 to serve Oakland’s LGBTQ population. The center describes itself as the first of its kind in California to be founded and led by Black men. 

Located in the Lakeshore LGBTQ Cultural District, it operates a health clinic, youth club, library, and food pantry, and hosts a number of support groups. Its website still lists housing assistance, mental health subsidies and addiction treatment services, but notes that they are on hold indefinitely. 

While Hawkins hopes to bring these services back, it remains unclear if it will be possible. The center has recently seen increased demand for its services, Hawkins said, including an influx of so-called “domestic political refugees” — LGBTQ people seeking a safe haven from familial rejection and immigration-related fears.  

Ardila, who works for BART and also serves on the board of the Lakeshore district, said the center is pouring every resource toward “services that are at the most basic level,” including a new transgender wellness center and satellite medical clinic in East Oakland.

“We’re really trying to save every penny,” he said. 

Tapping tax dollars

While the center has shifted its funding to focus to operating the two clinics and remaining open as a gathering space, Hawkins estimates it will take a $500,000 hit this year. Still, he’s optimistic. The center received a $200,000 grant from Gilead Sciences, the HIV-focused pharmaceutical company that also sponsored Oakland Pride, and has received additional financial support from Kaiser Permanente. 

Hawkins said his team has refocused efforts on obtaining city and county grants and he is now hiring for the development team, which will focus on applying for grants. 

Alameda County Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, who represents parts of Oakland, said in an email that she’s hopeful the center will qualify for a portion of about $1.5 million in funding from Measure W, a half-cent sales tax that pays for housing and homelessness programs, among other services. 

Hawkins and Ardila also said the center has turned to more creative, community-based forms of fundraising, including a free billboard campaign, and an option on the website to add the center to wills or trusts. 

“Individual donors have been our saving grace since the very beginning, before we had staff and we were all volunteers,” Hawkins said. 

The center has an increasingly important role in the community, Ardila said. Even amid the funding uncertainty, the new East Oakland satellite clinic has remained one of the group’s major priorities because of “all the attacks that the transgender community is receiving.” he said. 

Trump has issued executive orders attacking “gender ideology” and gender-affirming medical care for minors. 

“ I really hope the center can survive these four years,” Ardila said. “I also hope that the country can realize the mistake that we collectively got into.”

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