Santa Clara County Homelessness Prevention System Launches Financial Assistance Program for Low-Income Residents Impacted by COVID-19 as part of Silicon Valley Strong

Update:
Sadly, within 3 days of launching this initiative, we reached the maximum capacity of households that we will be able to serve with the initial $11 million in contributions collected for this initiative.

As we work to process this first batch of applications as quickly as possible, we continue to aggressively raise the money we need to help more families and individuals during this time of crisis. 

While Sacred Heart Community Service is not currently accepting new applications for financial assistance, eligible households can add their names to an Interest List. For more information on eligibility criteria and to add your name to the Interest List, please visit: https://sacredheartcs.org/covid19/.

March 23, 2020

Assistance available to Santa Clara County residents earning less than 80% of AMI with a documented loss of income resulting from COVID-19 due to health, employment, or school/child care closures

More than $11 million in combined public and private funding has been pledged or proposed to-date

SAN JOSE, CALIF. – As part of the Silicon Valley Strong effort, the Santa Clara County Homelessness Prevention System has announced the launch of a COVID-19 financial assistance program, thanks to a public-private partnership between Destination: Home, Sacred Heart Community Service, Cisco, Western Digital, Adobe, Zoom Video Communications, Inc., Broadcom, Micron, Facebook, Infosys, Silver Lake, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the County of Santa Clara and the City of San Jose.

The program will provide vulnerable, low-income residents in Santa Clara County with immediate financial assistance to help pay rent or meet other basic needs. The program is being administered by Sacred Heart Community Service in conjunction with county-wide Silicon Valley Strong partners, and will utilize existing infrastructure to receive applications, verify eligibility, and disburse funds.

This emergency assistance program has received several significant private funding commitments:

  • $2 million from Cisco
  • $1.5 million from Western Digital
  • $1 million from Adobe
  • $1 million from Destination: Home
  • $500,000 from Zoom
  • $500,000 from Broadcom
  • $300,000 from Micron*
  • $150,000 from Facebook
  • $100,000 from Infosys
  • $100,000 from Silver Lake
  • $100,000 from Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In addition, the County of Santa Clara and City of San Jose will be considering proposals to add an additional $2 million each to the Silicon Valley Strong fund at their respective March 24 meetings 

*Note: Micron’s contribution was made as part of a broader $500,000 commitment to the Silicon Valley Strong Fund

Eligibility Criteria & How to Apply

To qualify for financial assistance, a household must meet 3 criteria: 

  1. You must be a resident of Santa Clara County
  2. Your household income must be less than 80% of the average median income (see table below)
  3. You must have a documented loss of income related to COVID-19 impacts due to health, employment, or school/child care closures
Size of Household  Maximum Income
1 person$72,750
2 people $83,150
3 people $93,550
4 people $103,900
5 people $112,250
6 people $120,550
7 people $128,850
8 people $137,150

Eligible households will receive direct financial assistance, based on documented loss of income as a result of COVID-19 impacts (maximum of $4,000 per month). Assistance may be requested once per month for the duration of the public health emergency, as long as the household continues to experience an economic impact and funds are available. Basic information and referral to area services will also be available for households. (Editor’s Note: Due to the extraordinary number of households who have sought assistance since the launch of this initiative, we are modifying the way we calculate the amount of assistance that eligible households will receive; please visit the Sacred Heart COVID-19 webpage for the latest program information)

Residents can apply:

  • Online: sacredheartcs.org/covid19
  • By Phone: 408-780-9134  
  • In-person: Appointments can also be arranged by calling the hotline.

Households will need to submit basic documentation to verify eligibility, including: ID, income verification, and documentation of the COVID-19 related loss of income.

Due to the large volume of requests expected, households with internet access are encouraged to apply for assistance online. While staff will be working to respond as quickly as possible, it could take up to two to three business days to notify residents on the status of their application.

View the English flyer , Spanish flyer or a dual Vietnamese & English Flyer.

Addressing an Urgent Need in the Community

While the COVID-19 crisis is affecting our entire community, our lowest-income residents are facing the most severe impacts. Low-income and hourly-wage workers are finding it harder to earn income as events are cancelled, workplaces are closed, classes are suspended, and more people are forced home to take care of themselves or their loved ones. In fact, according to Politico, an NPR/Marist poll conducted March 13-14 found that 18% of U.S. households already reported being laid off or having hours reduced because of COVID-19. Given that most of these individuals are already severely rent-burdened and living paycheck-to-paycheck, any sustained period of unemployment will cause significant hardship.

Silicon Valley Strong’s COVID-19 response, utilizing the framework of the Homelessness Prevention System, is designed to deploy assistance immediately to help Santa Clara County’s most vulnerable households cover rent and other basic needs, and serve as a temporary bridge until the federal and state governments are able to develop and deploy a more robust and comprehensive economic assistance package.

While the funding currently committed will allow the system to begin deploying assistance immediately, significantly more funding will be needed to meet the needs of our region’s most vulnerable residents. 

Silicon Valley corporations, philanthropic organizations, and residents can help assist more of our region’s low-income and vulnerable residents by donating through the Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s COVID-19 Coronavirus Response Fund:

  1. Go to: https://www.siliconvalleycf.org/coronavirus-fund
  2. Click on the button to “Donate to Bay Area Counties”
  3. Designate your gift to Santa Clara County.

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