Last night the Santa Clara City Council voted Unanimously (with the Mayor absent) to reappropriate the money for the Benton / Lawrence project, identical to what was approved in the budget last year.
Also last night, SCHA unanimously became super fans of the city & county staff. Everything the Council asked, they answered. Everything we were worried about, they covered. We watched as they gave clear answers to questions that some members were trying to use as excuses to vote No. A Council Member told me afterwards that the answers to their questions made him change his vote to a Yes.
Thank you to all of our speakers - Shalini, Sarah, Ken, Megan, and Jordan. A Council member told me we did a great job covering our issues without overdoing it, which was exactly our goal! Thank you to Alon, Asha, Jeff, Martin, David, and others who showed up wearing green, creating a clear visual of community support for this project. And thank you to everyone who showed up wearing green in person or watched on Zoom. We're fairly confident that our visual attendance made an impact with at least one vote.
Last night would not have been possible without everyone on this email list who supports this project and SCHA. With less than a week to prepare, we pulled together something great. We flipped the script from 18 months ago and actually outnumbered and out organized the opposition. Thank you to Shalini and Jeff for playing key roles in setting us up for success throughout the week. And we should all thank County Supervisor Susan Ellenberg and Santa Clara Unified School Board Trustee Area 4 Jodi Muirhead for both attending the meeting and speaking strongly in favor.
So what comes next?
SCHA now stands 2 for 2 in the face of killing or building this project. But this isn't the end of the road quite yet.
Early 2025:
- City, County, & LifeMoves staff meet and discuss an agreement with more details of the project and its operations
- City holds a meeting intended to take community input
- City Council votes on a final version of the agreement
- Construction begins
November 2025:
- Construction is intended to be completed! The modular construction combined with requirements attached to the HomeKey funds mean this building is going up fast
February 2026:
- Benton project is operational
- Community Advisory Committee of neighbors will begin holding meetings around this time
Until Then
Take a moment to celebrate our victory, and then gear up for the next one. While we continue to keep an eye on the progress of our first love, we are also only 6 days away from Election Day. SCHA is part of the Yes on Prop 5 coalition, and we encourage you to sign up for some phone banking and / or door knocking before Election Day!
Information on volunteering for the Prop 5 campaign is here.