For the third year, the City of San Jose proposes to cut Measure E dollars intended for affordable housing production and shift them to temporary shelters and abatement efforts. Our communities desperately need more affordable housing. Now is the time for us to come together and ensure we are holding the Council accountable for preserving funding for permanent housing and finding sustainable solutions to the costs of temporary shelter.  

We need your help, and it will take all of our united voices to protect Measure E. Here is what you can do: 

• Send a letter of support for affordable housing to City Council using our action tool. All you need is to input your information and the letter will automatically be sent to the Council’s inboxes on your behalf. This takes less than 5 minutes and will make an impact, so please share it widely! 

• Join the REAL Coalition for a rally outside City Hall on Tuesday, May 14th, at 12:30 PM. This coalition of housing advocates and allies will be coming together to make our demands clear to the press before filing into Council Chambers for the meeting. 

• Give public comment at the City Council meeting on May 14th. We expect the meeting to begin at around 2:00 PM.

Public access to the chambers can be found on the second floor of City Hall. Before item 3.3 is heard, fill out a Speaker Card and submit it in the plexiglass boxes at the bottom of the Chambers. When the Council reaches your item on the agenda, the Mayor will open the public hearing, call your name, and direct you to the podium. (FYI, the yellow card signals that no translation from English is required.)

Sample script:

Hi, my name is _____, and I am here on behalf of (your organization or SV@Home) to express my concerns about this year’s budget proposing, once again, to shift critical funding for affordable housing into temporary shelters and abatement efforts. (Choose 1 or 2 of the following points to support)

• The budget proposal cuts $36 million from affordable housing—342 bedrooms in 240 new affordable homes—which would serve thousands of families over 99 years. 
• This budget directly ignores the will of your constituents, who, in the Annual Community Survey, expressed that providing more affordable housing is a top priority.
• The exorbitant cost of housing in our city has left over 70,000 families rent-burdened and struggling to simply get by. We know that this is the primary factor driving more of our neighbors into homelessness every day.
• Affordable housing is essential to the well-being of our communities. It greatly improves health outcomes, educational attainment, and employment stability and helps reduce family and community violence. I know we can agree that these should all be priorities for our city. 
• The temporary solutions being proposed will never work unless we have permanent homes for people to move into. We all know that the true solution to homelessness is housing, and we cannot afford to spend millions on temporary shelters in lieu of long-term solutions. 
• We are looking to the City Council’s leadership to support an alternative sustainable funding source for interim shelters and a realistic and humane approach to supporting our unhoused neighbors living along our creeks.

Thank you for this opportunity.  I believe we can get this right. 

Spanish version: Hola, mi nombre es ___ y estoy aquí en nombre de (tu organización o SV@Home) para expresar mis preocupaciones sobre el presupuesto de este año que una vez más propone desviar fondos críticos para viviendas asequibles hacia refugios temporales y esfuerzos de desalojamiento. (Elige 1 o 2 de los siguientes puntos para apoyar tu comentario) 

• El presupuesto de este año corta 36 millones de dólares para viviendas asequibles, lo que equivale a 342 habitaciones en 240 nuevos hogares, que podrían beneficiar a miles de familias durante 99 años.
• Este presupuesto directamente ignora la voluntad de sus electores quienes en la Encuesta Anual de la Comunidad, expresaron que la creación de más viviendas asequibles es su máxima prioridad. 
• El alto costo de la vivienda en nuestra cuidad ha causado que mas de 70 mil familias paguen alquileres superiores al 50% de sus ingresos, ocasionandoles una lucha por sobrevivir. Sabemos que este es el factor principal que continua intensificando la falta de vivienda para nuestros vecinos.
• Tener acceso a viviendas asequibles es esencial para el bienestar de nuestras comunidades. Esto ayuda a mejorar la salud, el rendimiento educativo, la estabilidad laboral, y ayuda a reducir la violencia intrafamiliar. Estamos conscientes que estas cosas son prioridades y se le tiene que dar seguimiento para la mejora de nuestra cuidad. 
• Las soluciones temporales que se estan proponiendo nunca funcionaran al menos que tengamos los hogares permanentes suficientes para nuestras familias. Todos sabemos que la verdadera solucion a la falta de vivienda es crear mas hogares y no podemos permitir que se gasten millones en soluciones temporales en lugar de soluciones a largo plazo.