(Platonic) Date Night: July 14 Santa Clara Benton Interim Housing Vote

You're invited! The Benton Project (now the Santa Clara Family Community) FINALLY after 3 years FINALLY has a FINAL vote scheduled for one week from today! Santa Clara City Council will discuss and vote on this project for the 3+ time, and we need your help.

Tuesday's YES vote will approve the agreements between the City of Santa Clara, Santa Clara County, and LifeMoves (service provider), accept the offer of the HomeKey grant from the state, and give the go ahead so that a facility serving 30+ families at a time in interim housing can be built and operated. 

What You Can Do:

1. Email City Council

Even if you aren't a resident of Santa Clara, you can send an email to our City Council to share your support of this project. Housing is a regional issue, so everyone's input matters! Send your emails to: mayorandcouncil@santaclaraca.gov, lgillmor@santaclaraca.gov, agonzalez1@santaclaraca.gov, rchahal@santaclaraca.gov, khardy@santaclaraca.gov, kpark@santaclaraca.gov, sjain@santaclaraca.gov, kcox@santaclaraca.gov. Please also CC or BCC schousingadvocates@gmail.com, or send us your letter separately so we can include it in our materials. If you have direct connections to any of our Council Members, it would be a huge help to use those relationships now.

2. Show up to City Council on Tuesday, July 14

If you attend, please wear green! SCHA has been wearing green (means go) for every related Council meeting since 2023. This will help show the strength of our support. We are still finalizing our strategy for public comment, so if you would like to speak please let us know.

3. Public Support (not endorsement)

Allow us to include you in our Supporters Packet and on the Supporters page of our website to demonstrate how much support this project has! Organizations should ideally write a letter to be included. The physical size of the packet seemed to have an impact in the past. Individuals can join the list through this form. 

4. Share this email

Please pass this along to anyone you know who supports addressing the housing crisis in our community, especially residents of the City of Santa Clara. We'd love to also add them to our email list as we grow the SCHA network. 

5. Give us advice!

Do you have an idea for what our main talking points should be? Have you talked with a Council Member or city staff lately? Please share with us so we can strategize and be as effective as possible.