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The Santa Clara County Health and Hospital Committee recommended on Wednesday that the Board of Supervisors allocate $1.75 million to allcove Palo Alto over the next three years, underscoring community concerns about youth mental health and ongoing deaths by suicide.
Supervisors Margaret Abe-Koga and Otto Lee, who sit on the committee, unanimously approved the motion, which also suggested that Alum Rock Counseling Center, an existing allcove service provider, take over as the lead agency.
“I just want our young people to hear that message clearly, that we are here for them even in the deepest moments of despair,” Abe-Koga said after acknowledging a recent student death in Palo Alto. “They are never completely alone.”
The recommendation comes months after allcove Palo Alto, a youth mental health center, was put on the County’s financial chopping block.
Santa Clara County uses half of its $13 billion budget on health and hospital services and provides $4 million to allcove Palo Alto annually – the majority of the center’s funding. But in 2025, supervisors recognized that the financial model wasn’t sustainable under a federal administration that threatened to reduce county health funding by $800 million annually.
Wednesday’s recommendation, which will go before the entire board during budgeting season in the spring, doesn’t solidify the funding, but is a step in the right direction for concerned community members. If the board decides to provide the funding, Alum Rock Counseling and local stakeholders will still have to raise the remaining costs and generate a new funding model.
Palo Alto leaders hope to raise an additional $1 million a year for the center, City Council member Pat Burt said during public comment.
“The City of Palo Alto, despite their own severe budget crisis, is committed to being a seed and founding funder,” Burt said.
The problem isn’t local to Santa Clara County. Allcoves across the state are in need of local funding to cover the majority of their operational costs, according to county documents, even when Medi-Cal revenue is maximized.
David Mineta, Alum Rock Counseling CEO, said the group will do whatever it takes to sustain allcove Palo Alto.
“Last November, the recommendation to close allcove was born from the dire financial emergency facing the county, this region and state,” Mineta said at the meeting. “The discussion that ensued was in response to a current public health crisis.”
There were two “suicide clusters,” periods when multiple deaths by suicide occur in a short time frame, over the past decade and a half in Palo Alto, and Stanford Health experts say the city is in the midst of a third.
When allcove Palo Alto was created by local youth and mental health leaders in 2021, it wasn’t envisioned as a temporary resource. Youth designed nearly every aspect of the center from its services to the pillows, and it was the first model of its kind in the state.
Allcove offers free therapy without parent permission, health care, peer counseling and even help with college applications. Many students, who have continuously advocated for keeping the center running, have called the resource “life-saving.”
Nallely Gomez’s child frequently attends allcove, a space where she believes youth can be themselves.
“My son feels like it’s literally his second home,” she said during the public comment period.
Although many have lauded the center for its ability to cut through health care wait times and address the fear that students often associate with receiving care on school campuses, others say allcove can be better utilized.
According to committee documents, allcove Palo Alto continues to see low engagement rates, with about 10 young people visiting the center on average per day. Allcove staff have been working closely with student advocates and local schools to boost awareness for the center.
Now that new organizations and community members are reevaluating allcove’s funding model, Abe-Koga said, it’s a good time for stakeholders to reevaluate the program to make it even stronger.
Outside of allcove Palo Alto, city staff are working to provide even more resourcing for students, including the creation of an ad hoc committee on rail safety, a proposal to close the Churchill Ave. rail crossing and hiring 24/7 crossing guards – which the council will vote on next week.
“In between our last meeting and today, we’ve lost another youth at the train tracks at Churchill, and so this is an urgent crisis in Palo Alto yet again, all the more reason to ensure allcove funding is preserved,” Council member Julie Lythcott-Haims said at the county meeting.
