County Board of Supervisors to vote on 687 new homes to end homelessness

The County of Santa Clara Board of Supervisors will meet this coming Tuesday, December 18 at 9:30am to vote on funding nine housing developments to end and prevent homelessness in our community.

The Board of Supervisors and the County Office of Supportive Housing have been amazing partners in our community’s work to end homelessness. They helped us put the Measure A Affordable Housing Bond on the ballot in 2016, and they have already approved funding for 10 new developments in six cities.

If funding is approved on Tuesday, we will have paved the way for construction of 1,437 new homes for people who have experienced homelessness, and for families with very low and extremely low income in our community.

With a YES vote on Tuesday, Housing Bond implementation will be ahead of schedule, with funding approved for 30% of the 4,800 goal after only 20% of the 10-year timeline.

Links and Resources

Thank you for being a part of our Housing Ready Communities Action Network. The time to take action is NOW.

What

Send an email today to the County Board of Supervisors to encourage a vote to approve funding for 687 new homes to prevent and end homelessness.

Who

You. You can make a difference! We are making progress, but we need your voice to ensure our community keeps moving forward with more new supportive housing and homes affordable for low income families.

When

The County of Santa Clara Board of Supervisors will meet Tuesday, December 18 at 9:30am. Email messages should be sent before 9:00am on Tuesday, December 18. If you miss that deadline, however, do not worry. It is more difficult for the Clerk to distribute them to the Board, but emails are accepted “up to and during” the meeting (the meeting should last into the afternoon).

How

Send an email message to boardoperations@cob.sccgov.org

  1. Make certain to name the agenda item in the email subject: “Agenda Item 39: Measure A Affordable Housing Bond (Office of Supportive Housing).
  2. Please also send a copy of your message to action@housingready.org to help us keep track of our work together. It is not required, but you can also add email addresses for supervisors and their chiefs of staff to your message. See more detailed information below.

Why

This is a perfect opportunity to submit email messages to 1) say thank you to the County Board and staff for all the work they have done thus far, and 2) demonstrate broad community support for this important work so that we can do more faster. We have made a lot of progress, but the crisis is urgent and lots of hard work remains.

What to Write

What you write as part of your email message is completely up to you. To get you started, take a look at the Sample Email Message below. Feel free to copy and paste the information you want into your own message.

One More Thing

If you would like to go the extra mile, share this Action Alert with your friends and social media networks.


Sample Email Message

To:

boardoperations@cob.sccgov.org

Cc:

mike.wasserman@bos.sccgov.org, christine.m.stavem@bos.sccgov.org, cindy.chavez@bos.sccgov.org, scott.strickland@bos.sccgov.org, dave.cortese@bos.sccgov.org, lara.mccabe@bos.sccgov.org, supervisor.yeager@bos.sccgov.org, jim.weston@bos.sccgov.org, joe.simitian@bos.sccgov.org, tyler.haskell@bos.sccgov.org, clerkrecorder@rec.sccgov.org, action@housingready.org, info@destinationhomesv.org

Subject:

Public Comment on Agenda Item 39 (Measure A Affordable Housing Bond, Office of Supportive Housing) on December 18, 2018

Email Message Body:

Honorable President Joe Simitian
and Members of the Board of Supervisors
County of Santa Clara
70 West Hedding Street, 10th Floor
San Jose, CA 95110

Subject: Vote Yes on Agenda Item 39 (Measure A Affordable Housing Bond, Office of Supportive Housing) on December 18, 2018

Dear President Simitian, Vice President Chavez, and Supervisors Cortese, Wasserman, and Yeager:

As a Santa Clara County resident and member of the Housing Ready Communities Action Network, I write to support your approval of Measure A Affordable Housing Bond funding for the proposed developments before you today.

The proposed funding would support nine housing developments and provide 687 additional homes for the Santa Clara County residents who need them most.

Housing Bond funding for these developments would help our community end homelessness by creating homes with supportive services, and also prevent homelessness by building hundreds of homes affordable for working families with low income.

I am thankful for the commitment of the Board of Supervisors, County staff and the voters of Santa Clara to this important work. Also, congratulations for being ahead of schedule! Approving 30 percent of the 4,800 Housing Bond goal after only 20 percent of the 10-year timeline is impressive.

Supportive housing has been proven to end homelessness in communities around the world. Beautiful buildings and on-site supportive services will help our new neighbors keep their housing, build relationships in the community, and get the treatment each person needs.

As you know, Santa Clara County faces a serious housing crisis, especially for families earning less than $40,000 per year. An unbelievable 70 percent spend more than half of their take-home pay on rent. Housing Bond funding is essential to address this crisis.

I urge you to approve funding for the proposed developments without delay, and look forward to continuing to work with the County, the Santa Clara County Housing Authority, our cities and my neighbors to get many more supportive housing developments approved and built. Thank you for your work and support!

Sincerely,
Your Name
Your City Name
Your County Supervisor District

Note: If you do not know your County Supervisor District, visit the website of the County of Santa Clara Registrar of Voters to find out. It is easy!

Housing Ready Communities

The Housing Ready Communities initiative brings together neighbors, community groups, nonprofits, government and housing developers to take action and support approval of new supportive housing and extremely low income affordable housing in Santa Clara County.

Housing Ready Communities is a Destination: Home initiative implemented in partnership with the County of Santa Clara Office of Supportive Housing, the City of San Jose Housing Department, the Santa Clara County Housing Authority, Silicon Valley at Home, community organizations and neighbors throughout the county. Housing Ready Communities is generously supported by Symantec.

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