The day after Juneteenth, I am thinking of my ancestors, the people of African ancestry who were brought to this country through enslavement and remained enslaved until the news of their freedom reached throughout the Confederate states years after the Emancipation Proclamation. I think of those who came before me who endured racism, murder, imprisonment, and poverty in this country and throughout the African diaspora. And I draw power and inspiration from their stories of resilience, brilliance, and fortitude. 

I am educated, a real estate developer, a changemaker, a homeowner, a wife, and a mother to two beautiful Black daughters, and I am also exhausted. As a Black woman in leadership, I often find myself in rooms or on zooms as the only Black person or the only woman-identifying, and certainly the only one whose identity resides at the intersection of the two. While challenging, I continue to lead because I seek not just my own liberation but our collective liberation. An inclusive and thriving community requires housing justice, and realizing a Silicon Valley where housing is accessible and affordable to everyone will benefit us all for generations.  

This equity, justice, and liberation remain elusive here in Santa Clara County, as revealed to us by the Silicon Valley Pain Index once again, which was released earlier this week. In fact, we continue to move further away from a community where there is shared prosperity or equitable access to resources. The Silicon Valley Pain Index captures data speaking to the current inequities, such as 17% of African Americans in Silicon Valley live in poverty, which is a significantly higher percentage than any other racial or ethnic group, and there were 5,500 evictions in Silicon Valley in 2023, the equivalent of 15 evictions per day. The economic inequality of the region shows up in many ways, but we can so visibly and consistently see it in our inability to provide safe, stable, and affordable housing to everyone in our community.

SV@Home strives towards a transformational form of solidarity. We know that creating a place where everyone has a safe and stable home requires healing from the injustices that have created this broken and harmful housing system. We also know that caring about people recognizing and appreciating their humanity is required to envision and create something that is fundamentally different from the inequitable housing system that we have now.

So, I implore you to reflect on our shared history, how far we have come, how far we still need to go, and what you will commit to doing to get us to a place of collective liberation. 

In solidarity,

Regina