More than half of the funds for these projects — about $21 million — will be sourced from Measure K, a local sales tax.

The money will be used to fund seven different projects totaling 431 new units in county jurisdictions from Daly City to Menlo Park.

The county submitted its revised state-mandated housing plan, known as the “housing element,” to regulators last April, and is waiting for certification that its plan is compliant with state housing laws.

The county is targeting building 2,833 homes by 2031, with 60% of those units allocated for very-low to moderate income earners.

“High rents and massive mortgages price out workers – and our kids – who are forced with the choice of grueling commutes to our job centers or moving out of the region,” said Warren Slocum, president of the Board of Supervisors. “The solution to the housing crisis is simple: build more housing. And that’s exactly what we are contributing to with this investment of Measure K funds.”

In recent years, state regulators have been scrutinizing cities’ housing plans more closely than ever before, as the state struggles with soaring housing costs and a housing shortage.

The latest round of funding will go toward the development of the following projects:

— Hill Street Apartments, Belmont: Linc Housing plans to develop 37 new units on a city-owned site at Hill Street and El Camino Real, near the Caltrain station.

— Cypress Point, Moss Beach: MidPen Housing proposes a project with 71 new units at Carlos Street and Sierra Street in Moss Beach.

— Ridge@Ralston, Belmont: Abode Housing/CRP Affordable is developing a 65-unit project located less than two blocks east of the Caltrain station and El Camino Real.

— 493 Eastmoor, Daly City: The CORE Companies intend to construct 72 units at the northwest corner of Eastmoor and Sullivan Avenues, within walking distance of the Colma BART station.

— Rotary Gardens, South San Francisco: Beacon Development and South San Francisco Rotarians plan to create 80 senior housing units in the downtown area, including accommodations for homeless seniors and the frail elderly.

— Independence Drive, Menlo Park: Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco aims to build 18 affordable townhomes for first-time homeowners.

— Serramonte del Rey, Daly City: Eden Housing, in partnership with the Jefferson Union High School District, proposes an 88-unit development on a property off Serramonte Boulevard.

Over the past decade, San Mateo County has invested $300 million to develop and improve affordable housing projects.

Will I lose my job today — again? Will I have enough to pay the rent?

Even though she’s an educated, experienced marketing professional, worrisome thoughts trail the 47-year-old Fremont native’s every waking moment. Currently a contract worker at a health science company, she has been struggling to find secure work that pays enough to keep up with the exorbitant cost of living in the Bay Area.

She has a lot of company. The past year has been tough for the Bay Area, as thousands of layoffs skittered across the region. Even workers at Silicon Valley’s tech titans — including Meta, Apple and Google — have faced job cuts. Since 2022, tech companies in the region have slashed roughly 40,000 jobs. And with each layoff, workers are entering a market that is less friendly to job seekers than it used to be.

New research from tech advocacy organization Women Impact Tech, which examined job and salary data nationwide from 2020 to 2023, affirmed what many people already know: companies are tightening their belts — slicing jobs and salaries alike — and many people are struggling to find work that pays enough to live comfortably in the Bay Area.

Despite having the highest tech salaries in the country, Silicon Valley has experienced the biggest drop in pay compared to other tech hubs, falling 15% from 2022 to 2023, according to Women Impact Tech.

And with inflation, DeWeese and others are watching their spending power shrink. More than 10 years ago, she was earning over $100,000 in total compensation. That amount has dropped 15% since she was laid off from Yahoo in 2016, and has not increased since.

“I feel like my career has been frozen in time,” DeWeese said. “Things have been at a standstill.”

DeWeese has been cutting back where she can, but living by herself in a one-bedroom apartment in the suburbs of Silicon Valley with her adopted Border Collie mix, Sadie, while caring for her aging mother nearby, has taken its toll.

“I haven’t gone on vacation in a long time,” DeWeese said. “I take shorter showers; I’m conscious about electricity usage; I sometimes buy groceries at the dollar store.”

Paula Bratcher Ratliff, president of New York-based Women Impact Tech, said that the shrinking pay hits especially hard for women, given the continuing gender pay gap.

“The Bay Area took one of the largest hits,” Ratliff said. “Women make up about 28% of the entire workforce in tech. When you’re seeing an overall decline at 15%, and for pay equity, women have not made much traction.”

Across the United States, women still earn between 14% and 16% less than their male counterparts, Ratliff said.

“When you compound that, it’s not a good sign for women,” she said.

The experience of a fresh graduate trying to find work is just as daunting.

San Jose native Genevieve Richards graduated from Cornell University in 2022. After college, she landed an internship at a big tech firm on the Peninsula.

Richards said she applied to 300 jobs after her internship ended. While she landed some interviews for jobs in tech and public relations jobs, they offered progressively lower salaries, some as low $60,000, which she said would make it difficult to survive in the Bay Area.

While she was able to find work quickly in Ireland, Richards is still hoping to return home eventually.

“I’d like come back to California, specifically the Bay Area, because I do feel like it’s my home,” she said. “But at this point, I’m not really sure. it depends on where the country ends up going.”

Los Gatos-based corporate recruiter Vikki Pachera, a former tech executive, said she’s observed tech companies offering lower compensation packages, but in exchange for greater flexibility, allowing some employees to work remotely from areas with lower living costs.

“Some of my current clients are offering what would be below-market salary in the Bay Area for those remote jobs, but they’re based elsewhere,” Pachera said.

Remote work, however, can be a “double-edged sword,” Pachera said. “You might have the freedom suddenly, but you might be competing (with others for the job) nationally, maybe even internationally.”

Despite the trend of shrinking salaries in the world’s tech capital, Ratliff, with Women Impact Tech, doesn’t believe it’s necessarily a race to the bottom.

“Today, about every company is a tech company, whether they’re in retail, consumer goods or hospitality,” Ratliff said. “There’s so many opportunities in tech without having to focus on those jobs with the tech organizations alone. We’re seeing great companies emerge.”

While it’s still unclear where the light is at the end of the tunnel for DeWeese, she remains hopeful her situation will improve.

“You have to have hope or else you’re just going to live in fear of being let go, again and again,” she said.

AI has also taken to the streets as fully autonomous robotaxis have been roaming San Francisco since last August — and are expected to expand to the rest of the Peninsula soon.

Founded in 2017 in Mountain View, Applied Intuition is among the companies that have emerged at the forefront of developing driver-assisted and automated-driving technologies.

Applied Intuition has Detroit roots, but co-founders Qasar Younis and Peter Ludwig say the company is Silicon Valley through and through, and have no plans of following the supposed “tech exodus” to other states such as Texas or Florida.

In April, Applied Intuition reached an agreement with Audi to develop automated driving systems for its vehicles. A deal with Porsche was also recently signed where Applied Intuition would develop software for the luxury carmaker.

While the company is less than seven years old, Applied Intuition landed a $6 billion valuation earlier this year with a $250 million series E investment bagged last March.

We chat with Younis, the former chief operating officer of famed startup accelerator Y Combinator, and Ludwig, who previously led engineering work at Android Automotive for Google. The founders talk about their confidence in autonomous vehicles, fears around artificial intelligence and why they won’t leave the Bay Area.

Q: What is Applied Intuition?

Younis: We build software and AI products that ultimately help people who are in the vehicle industry (whether private or commercial vehicles).

Q: What interested you in developing AI for vehicles?

Younis: So I went to the General Motors Institute for undergrad and I worked at General Motors. And Peter has multiple generations of General Motors alums in his family. We’re both from Detroit.

We grew up there (Peter and I) and we’ve lived out here now for 10 plus years. But within the automotive industry, we realized very quickly that General Motors actually doesn’t make all the stuff that goes in the car.

We recently launched a vehicle platform. So the platform is in the physical vehicle that runs the software and helps you run the applications in the vehicle.

And then we are in the (military) defense business, which is doing some off-road autonomy.

So you can summarize that as we’re like a vehicle software supplier. We supply software that goes on vehicles and to engineers who are building vehicles.

Q: Safety concerns have been raised over autonomous driving in recent months. How does Applied Intuition address these concerns?

Ludwig: The safety (of autonomous vehicles) does vary depending on the company that’s working on the technology.

One of our big focuses is we actually enable companies to make these systems more safe with a variety of tools and infrastructure that we provide. In general, companies try extremely hard to make these systems very safe.

These are systems that meaningfully are generally safer than human drivers, and I think in the long term, these systems will be much, much safer than human drivers.

But right now there is this differentiation between what’s called driver assistance versus a robot taxi.

Q: You announced a partnership with Porsche recently — does this mean we’ll be seeing Porsche autonomous cars on the road anytime soon?

Younis: I can’t speak for Porsche, but I can talk about us — and yes — you will see our software on many, many vehicles. We’re already a supplier to 18 of the top 20 global automotive makers.

Q: Can you describe your company culture and philosophy?

Younis: We’re as Bay Area of a company as you get. Most of our employees are located here in fourbuildings in Mountain View. Most of our employees are software engineers and all are partners of the company.

That’s a very Silicon Valley thing. And we’re a venture-backed company, and the vast majority of our investors, around 90% or more, come from the Bay Area. I mean it is a Bay Area company that is funded by Bay Area investors, and is an employee base which is software engineers, who basically built their lives around here. So in that sense, we’re as traditional Silicon Valley as you get.

It is just also the ethos of the company — as a Silicon Valley company in all the ways that a Silicon Valley company is defined. We’re a business that functions off of our revenues. We are cash flow positive, and do not operate off of investor dollars.

Q: AI has been the talk of the town, and of the world, over the past year or longer. Are the fears people have over AI warranted?

Younis: Any time there’s a new technology, there’s a lack of understanding.

We’re always with new technology entering uncharted territory. And so you always have to be thoughtful about how we approach it.

Take the example of self driving. There is no debate that it will save lives, because the system is always attentive. It has more sensors than human eyes, and it consistently improves.

Some people are going to be afraid of its capabilities, but that’s because they don’t understand the capabilities. They understand that technology works, but not always the “how.”

When cell phones started coming in, there was a pretty big backlash on cell phones. Remember those bumper stickers that would say no cell phones in the car? Now, if you get in a car with someone who doesn’t have a cell phone, you’ll be like, “Are you crazy? How are we going to get where we’re going if you don’t have Google maps?”

Over the arc of human progress, we will learn how to live with AI and use it for our maximal advantage.

Q: With all the conversations over a supposed “tech exodus” to states like Texas and Florida, will you stay in the Bay Area?

Younis: I think the thing that is very hard to find outside of the Bay Area is frankly the number of software engineers that exist here that have precisely the right skills and, two, engineers who understand the value of equity.

It’s easier to explain equity to somebody who’s in the Bay Area. But these are some of the reasons the Bay Area is compelling — lots of people who kind of understand startup life and not only big company life.

Name: Qasar YounisPosition: Co-Founder & CEOEducation: M.B.A., Harvard UniversityResidence: Bay Area

Name: Peter LudwigPosition: Co-Founder & Chief Technical OfficerEducation: Master of Science in Engineering & Computer Science, University of MichiganResidence: Bay Area

Five things about Qasar and Peter

— Younis and Ludwig are Michiganders— Their parents live a quarter mile from each other— Their families both worked at GM— Younis was COO of YCombinator in 2015— Younis and Ludwig, along with the Applied Intuition team, take off their shoes and wear slippers when in the office.

The money will be used to purchase manufactured homes for farmworkers. At least 19 families who were displaced by the shooting in Half Moon Bay will be given priority.

A total of 28 of the 45 to 50 units at Stone Pine Cove, a 22-acre property zoned for multiple affordable housing buildings, will be set aside for agricultural workers.

“Every family deserves a safe and healthy place to live,” said Supervisor Ray Mueller, who represents District 3, where a majority of the county’s farmland is located. “We must absolutely create opportunities for farmworkers to live in San Mateo County, as well as invest resources in stabilizing the agricultural economy that provides for farmworking jobs.”

The money is coming from the state-funded Joe Serna Jr. Farmworker Housing Grant.

Last month, San Mateo County resubmitted its housing plan, officially known as the “housing element,” with updates emphasizing farmworker housing as one of its top priorities.

Worries about the substandard living conditions of farmworkers in coastal San Mateo County came to the forefront after the mass shooting last year. But the push for more farmworker housing projects has been met with resistance by some residents who say they are concerned about overdevelopment in their city.

In March, the county secured $4 million in federal funds for the same project.

“These latest funds bolster the county’s recent efforts to improve farmworker living conditions,” San Mateo County said in a press release. At least $1 million of those funds will go toward the planning stage of the project.

The 6-0 vote was delayed by a month to give more time for public comment after more community members aired concerns over the loss of parking spaces, which some believed could drive parking costs up.

City staff recommended making the pedestrian mall permanent, citing its continued overall benefits to the economy and community. Staff also concluded that concerns raised by some community members against the project were “unrelated” to the road closure.

The pedestrian mall on Broadway will stretch from Jefferson Avenue to Main Street, similar to car-free downtown zones established in other Peninsula cities such as Palo Alto and San Mateo.

The projected budget needed for the permanent closure was $670,000, higher than the budget of $450,000 previously presented during last month’s City Council meeting.

The funds will be sourced from Redwood City’s public parking revenue, the general fund and the Redwood City Improvement Association, a local nonprofit.

Ali Ahmad, who said he owned a downtown Redwood City business but didn’t specify which one, thanked the council for the permanent closure.

“The closure will keep people safe, especially the kids who like to play outside on the street,” Ahmad said. “Our world has changed over the past year. The outdoor space has kept our businesses alive.”

While the pedestrian mall is already closed to vehicles, the improvements to that stretch of Broadway are slated for completion by early 2025.

Supervisor Noelia Corzo, who represents the city of San Mateo, Foster City, and parts of Belmont, said the additions to the plan, officially known as the “housing element,” are “very forward-thinking.”

In a letter dated April 2023 from the state Department of Housing and Community Development, San Mateo County was informed it needed to improve its plans to address housing access among disadvantaged groups, as well as to tackle water and sewage supply issues, among other concerns.

Corzo was particularly happy with an expanded farmworker housing study and strategy, and a community plan for Pescadero, an area where many migrant workers reside.

San Mateo County has been pushing for more housing units for agricultural workers, especially after a mass shooting last year exposed the squalid living conditions they faced. Last month, the board approved the construction of a 71-unit development in Moss Beach that would prioritize farm laborers.

The county is targeting building 2,833 homes by 2031, with 60% of those units allocated for very-low to moderate income earners.

“It’s taken awhile and I’m glad to see we have the revised updated housing element in a manner that will ensure compliance with state law,” said District 5 Supervisor David Canepa, who represents the northern part of the county. “And we really can’t forget that this is the state law we’re going to be in compliance with.”

Every eight years, local governments are required to submit a housing element, a document that outlines how cities will add a specific number of homes at a range of price points.

The county’s housing plan is already more than a year overdue.

Not having a certified housing element means that a city could be subject to consequences like the builder’s remedy, which allows developers to ignore a city’s zoning rules as long as 20% of the units are set aside as affordable.

In recent years, state regulators have been scrutinizing cities’ housing plans more closely than ever before, as the state struggles with soaring housing costs and a housing shortage.

One town in San Mateo County, the small-but-wealthy Portola Valley, had its housing element de-certified after it failed to take steps to allow new multifamily housing.

Canepa, the board’s vice president, is confident the latest version of the housing plan will be certified by state regulators.

“What excites me about this project, especially speaking to my district, is that really people can take public transportation, they can just jump right on the BART and we have that multifamily housing,” Canepa said.

As part of the plan, the county intends to rezone 126 parcels in unincorporated Colma, Broadmoor, Harbor Industrial, and the midcoast area “to allow residential development by right, with densities ranging from 60 to 100 units per acre. The minimum density required is at least 30 units per acre.”

Over a dozen residents from the midcoast area spoke out against adopting the plan, which identified more land that could be rezoned for high-density buildings, arguing that it would overwhelm the infrastructure and exacerbate worsening congestion.

The infrastructure is not able to support the amount of housing they’re planning to build, said Joanna Durand of El Granada. “And I think it’s a really big concern for the coastside and I think that it should definitely be tabled.”

Included in the housing plan were at least six properties owned by the El Cabrillo School District in El Grenada.

Supervisor Ray Mueller, who represents the midcoast area, told his constituents who requested the housing element be tabled that it is merely a plan, and actual rezoning would have to be done through a county ordinance.

“The problem with tabling the housing element and leaving it out of compliance is it makes the county unincorporated areas prone to the builder’s remedy,” Mueller said. “And so we’re going to have to go ahead and basically deal with this after the housing element is passed.”

Jordan Grimes, of Peninsula for Everyone, a grassroots affordable housing organization, emphasized the importance of rezoning for more units on the coastside.

“It is imperative that we zone for more affordable housing on the coastside to address the fact that the El Granada sites are absolutely appropriate and should remain in the plan,” he said.

“The city has found during the temporary street closure that the creation of pedestrian zones has added to the vitality and vibrancy of downtown Redwood City,” city staff said in a report.

Questions revolved around minor details on crosswalks and aesthetic improvements, but the City Council is expected to approve the ordinance next month.

Redwood City is one of several cities on the Peninsula that has established pedestrian malls and parklets in downtown areas, a trend that began during the COVID-19 pandemic when indoor dining was restricted.

Palo Alto permanently closed California Avenue to cars in late 2023, while B Street in downtown San Mateo has been closed to vehicular traffic since 2021.

The project is estimated to cost $450,000. The money would be used for guard rails, loading zones, minor re-striping and signal improvements. At least $150,000 would be sourced from the city’s budget while $150,000 would come from the Redwood City Improvement Association, a local nonprofit.

Several community members came out to support the move.

“It’s such a vibrant place downtown that allows businesses to thrive and people to connect in downtown Redwood City. Maybe in the future add more open spaces,” said Taylor Pope.

Dylan Finch, co-chair of Redwood City’s downtown association, submitted a petition to the City Council where 83 of 90 people he spoke to said they supported the closure of Broadway.

“Most said it was great for children and safer,” Finch said.

High parking costs, due to the closure of street parking spaces, were among the main reasons cited by those who didn’t support the closure.

She also expressed concern about activities “that occur in the pedestrian mall adjacent to our properties and businesses’” and other financial losses that might be incurred due to the closure.

If officially approved, implementation is expected to begin by this fall or winter.

After the Planning and Transportation Commission on Monday night unanimously endorsed the revised housing plan, officially known as the “housing element,” the council voted 6-1 to incorporate the changes. Council Member Lydia Kou, who said the housing plan lacked “community spaces” and clear funding mechanisms, dissented.

The city submitted its housing element, which was due last January, to the California Department of Housing & Community Development in June last year, but it has yet to be certified and was sent back to Palo Alto requesting revisions.

Palo Alto is targeting building at least 6,000 units by 2031 to meet its state-determined housing goals. That stays the same.

Some substantive revisions include identifying land suitable for housing development. Other updates were minor, such as updating or expanding demographic data and improving particular phrasing in the housing plan.

Every eight years, local governments are required to submit a housing element, a document that outlines how cities will add a specific number of homes at a range of price points.

In recent years, state regulators have been scrutinizing cities’ housing plans more closely than ever before, as the state struggles with soaring housing costs and a housing shortage.

Nearby Menlo Park had its housing element certified only last March after several revisions. Meanwhile small-but-wealthy Portola Valley had its housing element de-certified after it failed to take steps to allow new multifamily housing.

Not having a certified housing element means that a city could be subject to consequences like the builder’s remedy, which allows developers to ignore a city’s zoning rules as long as 20% of the units are set aside as affordable.

While Palo Alto currently has several builder’s remedy projects already in the pipeline, Councilmember Julie Lythcott-Haims said she was optimistic the state would approve this version of the plan.

“If the staff are confident, I’m confident,” Lythcott-Haims said.

The councilmember said she was satisfied with how the revised plan uses stronger language to tackle access to housing for minority communities.

“My concern is always about equity and the housing commission is compelling us to focus on affirmatively furthering fair housing and combat our racially segregated areas of affluence,” Lythcott-Haims said.

During the three-hour meeting, Lythcott-Haims expressed some initial concern the plan would confine low-income housing to inaccessible parts of town, but said that city staff ultimately clarified that was not what the plan is suggesting.

“When I saw that they were putting specialized populations on the east side of US-101, I expressed a concern about that and they were pretty clear that’s not actually what they’re intending to do,” she said.

She also supports a revision to the plan that would calculate the fees for building accessory dwelling units (ADUs), or granny flats, on single-family properties based on square footage rather than by unit.

“The fact that our impact fees right now are on a per-unit basis completely is a penalty on small housing so they’re going to swap it,” Lythcott-Haims said. “So those fees should become more reasonable.”

The city is hoping to encourage property owners in single-family neighborhoods to build at least 512 ADUs.

The City Council would have to pass an ordinance that would make changes to the impact fees to bolster the production of ADUs.

The City Council also asked city staff to add a minor amendment to the housing plan that extends the “housing focus area” along El Camino Real, which would allow developers to build mixed-use, taller and higher-density buildings.

Mayor Greer Stone said in order to meet affordable housing targets, there would be a need for “public and private dollars from the state and federal government.”

“Without funding, I don’t think any city in the state will be able to make their very low and low income housing targets,” Stone said.

Palo Alto already adopted new zoning rules late last year that would allow taller and denser housing projects.

Emily Ann Ramos of SV@Home, a Silicon Valley affordable housing coalition, who stayed for the entire meeting, said that while Palo Alto is behind, as this housing cycle already started in 2023, it was a “good effort” to get in compliance with state regulations.

“I think Palo Alto is trying very hard to finally get this over the finish line,” said Ramos, who is also a Mountain View City Council member. “When you go for housing element compliance, you really can’t just go for that bare minimum. You really have to overshoot it just to make sure that you reach compliance.”

The five-member San Mateo County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously this week to oppose a plan by the Port of Oakland to officially change the airport’s name from its current “Oakland Metropolitan International Airport” to “San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport.”

“The concern is that it would cause confusion where passengers would accidentally book a ticket to Oakland when they meant to book a ticket to SFO,” said Supervisor Dave Pine, the resolution’s author, during a board meeting this week.

“The proposal has the potential to cause significant confusion for the traveling public and others, as well as to cause adverse economic impacts for businesses that have products delivered by plane,” read the resolution.

Although SFO is technically part of San Francisco, it is located in San Mateo County, which receives the most economic benefit from SFO, one of the two busiest airports in the state.

According to SFO, 47 million people traveled through the airport in 2023.

The airport generated $6.34 billion for San Mateo County in 2021 and employs at least 10,000 people, according to SFO’s latest available data. San Mateo County estimates it earned around $98 million in taxes from the airport that same period.

SFO’s government affairs manager Dyanna Volek said during the meeting the name change would cause “confusion and frustration” for the consumers.

Public reaction was mixed.

In support of the resolution, John Hutar, president and CEO of the San Mateo County/Silicon Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the resolution would affect travel-related industries negatively.

“(Renaming the airport) will cause extraordinary confusion for visitors translating into a negative impact for our industry,” Hutar said.

One resident opposed the resolution, saying it was “much ado about nothing.” He felt San Mateo was “kicking” its neighbor across the Bay while it was down. He was referring to Oakland’s struggles with public safety and keeping its sports teams in town.

The Port of Oakland Commission is expected to take up the name change during its April 11 meeting.

But to help lessen social isolation while giving small businesses a boost, Verkada, a security tech company, is taking it back to basics — and offline — through a unique work perk.

It’s dubbed the “3-3-3” program. After 3 p.m., three or more employees can spend up to $30 in total on food and drinks at businesses within walking distance of the company’s downtown San Mateo headquarters.

The problem of social isolation and loneliness was elevated to the national spotlight in February when San Mateo County became the first in the nation to declare the issue a public health emergency and this month pledged to invest $1 million in fighting loneliness.

And all across the region, small businesses are still grappling with how to adapt to a business climate in which many of their previous patrons continue to work from home.

Verkada said it believes the program helps address both issues and is mutually beneficial to the company as it helps keep employees motivated while giving them the opportunity to build camaraderie at work.

“We’re in the office five days a week, and we do (3-3-3) because we believe that it’s great for people’s careers, and it’s good for the company,” said Kameron Rezai, Verkada’s chief financial officer, who helped create the program last April. “The second piece of feedback we got was people were kind of using it as an opportunity to connect across departments.”

Many of Verkada’s clients are small businesses, so the company naturally wants to help out its neighbors, Rezai said.

“Many of our customers are small hamburger chains or ice cream shops. It’s the bread and butter of who we sell to,” he said.

A homegrown security technology developer, Verkada was founded in 2016 out of CEO Filip Kaliszan’s San Mateo living room. The company now has 16 offices around the world, including in Tokyo and London, and has expanded the 3-3-3 program to all of them.

Rezai said while the company has grown from a start-up to a global enterprise, San Mateo as a community is embedded in its DNA.

“We’ve also decided our HQ would always be in downtown San Mateo. We feel connected to the restaurants and bars and the other places that are here. Many of them also happen to be customers, so it’s important to us to try to be connected to the community,” he said.

The headquarters currently employs a little over 1,100 people. And so far, Verkada has spent over $300,000 at various businesses in the neighborhood.

Among Verkada employees’ favorite spots to use their 3-3-3 perks are the many boba, or bubble tea, shops around downtown.

Tong Sui on South B Street is one of those shops.

Founded in Sunnyvale, the San Mateo branch opened its doors during the later stages of the pandemic in 2021. This period was marked by the emergence of stronger COVID-19 variants across the United States, leading to unpredictable cycles of lockdowns and re-openings.

“People were still reluctant to go out, especially for face-to-face shopping,” said Judith Xiao, a marketing and sales manager with Tong Sui. “We had to rely heavily on delivery platforms to increase our business volume.”

Xiao said initiatives such as Verkada’s have helped them survive in the post-pandemic years, where many small businesses still struggle as many employees continue to work from home and don’t visit shops near their offices as often.

“Verkada providing their employees with a budget for afternoon tea has significantly boosted our sales and allowed us to pay our staff,” Xiao said. “It has helped us survive in downtown San Mateo.”

The city has taken notice of the program as well.

“I think what they’re doing is a very innovative approach, and we see the impact of it,” Mayor Lisa Diaz Nash said. “Businesses, merchants up and down San Mateo talk about the fact that Verkada employees come in.”

She said that the initiative has injected not only money into the local economy but has contributed to the city’s efforts to revitalize downtown.

“It’s a very mixed bag, but it’s trending positive,” Diaz Nash said of the local economic situation. “Small businesses were just devastated during the pandemic, and we were no exception. But the city took very aggressive action to do whatever we could.”

During the pandemic, the city set up its parklet program and encouraged outdoor dining to help keep restaurants and food establishments open. In 2021, the City Council voted to keep portions of B Street permanently closed to make more space for outdoor dining and pedestrians.

Diaz Nash says other big employers in the area also are considering implementing similar programs for their staff members.

“It might not be exactly what Verkada is doing, but what works for them? How can they tailor it?” she said.

Verkada sales recruiting manager Julie Ann Barrozo, originally from Guam but now living in San Mateo, said her takeaway from 3-3-3 is that while work-from-home has its advantages, digital relationships are no replacement for human interactions.

“I will tell you that I thought I was a work-from-home girl my whole life,” Barrozo said. “The pandemic hit, and I realized, I need socialization. You need to learn how people interact. It’s very hard to read the world, and to raise money, just on Zoom.”