With the defeat of Prop 5 and other unfortunate election results, 2024 did not end well.  Nevertheless, 2024 was a year full of exciting accomplishments for SV@Home:

• Affordable Housing Month: Affordable Housing Month 2024 (AHM) was another great success!  SV@Home was the lead for 5 main events throughout the month, with a total attendance of approximately 320 people for the events that we hosted.  SV@Home also supported and promoted partner organizations to host 20+ additional AHM events, reaching hundreds of additional attendees. 
• Community Roots Collaborative:  We launched the Community Roots Collaborative (CRC) in 2024.  CRC is a learning cohort, where interested Santa Clara County community-based nonprofit organizations learn about and build capacity towards engaging in community development activities. 
• Civic Leadership Program:  The SV@Home Action Fund, our 501(c)(4), launched its Civic Leadership Program (CLP) in December 2023, a training program for local community members interested in running for local elected office, running a political campaign, or serving on local public boards or commissions.  Throughout this year, the inaugural cohort re-connected, deepened relationships, and expanded their knowledge base.
• Housing Element Support/Tracking:  Building upon our work in 2023 to both provide support and hold jurisdictions accountable for creating compliant, pro-housing, community-informed Housing Elements, over half of jurisdictions in Santa Clara County received certification in 2024 from the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for their 6th Cycle Housing Elements with only Santa Clara County currently out of compliance.  
• Public Education about Affordable Housing:  “Foundations of Affordable Housing” and “How We Talk about Affordable Housing” are two, new public education initiatives that SV@Home launched in late 2023 with the goal of using direct engagement to build support for affordable housing.  In 2024, we lead approximately 15 workshops throughout the County from partnerships with the Cities of Gilroy and Milpitas to community events in Cupertino and Palo Alto, averaging 25 attendees at each event.
• Proposition 5:  In this time of reflection on the past year, we want to express our deepest appreciation to our partners (especially Working Partnerships USA), allies, friends, and colleagues – everybody in Santa Clara County who came out in support of California State Proposition 5, in whatever role that you played.  

SV@Home is a membership organization and we accomplish nothing without our members, partners, allies, and supporters.  More than anything else, we want to thank everybody who has attended our events this year, supported our actions, worked in partnership with us, and/or who has pushed us to better serve all of the communities in this place that we call home.  If you are not a member (or if you have not yet renewed your membership), please join us!

With gratitude,

Regina Celestin Williams

Executive Director