FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Contacts below)
APRIL 7, 2022
Long-standing Legal Nonprofit in Silicon Valley Releases Election Platform For the First Time
SAN JOSÉ – The Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, a long-standing legal services organization in Santa Clara County, has published its first-ever election platform as a guide for candidates running for local office in 2022. Read the Law Foundation’s election platform here or on its website, www.lawfoundation.org/2022-election-platform.
The election platform outlines policies that should be adopted at the local, state, and federal levels to benefit low-income communities of color throughout Silicon Valley in the areas of housing, health, the unhoused community, and children and youth. The elections platform stems from the community-based advocacy that the Law Foundation engages in every day and includes prioritizing creating more spaces for Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other people of color to share their needs in policy settings.
“We hear the barriers that low-income communities of color face through the over 10,000 individuals we provide free legal services to every year,” said Law Foundation CEO, Alison Brunner. “The policies in our elections platform address these systemic barriers with the overall goal of a more equitable Silicon Valley. We encourage candidates to commit to advancing these policies when elected and adopting these policies as part of their campaign platforms.”
Policy recommendations in the election platform include:
Housing: Policies rooted in preservation, production, and protection such as expanding community benefits agreements such as the Google Community Benefits Agreement, increasing tenant protections, and passing laws that put back wealth in the community such as the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act.
Health: Reimagining mental healthcare and crisis response, such as removing law enforcement from mobile crisis responses and prioritizing access to quality mental healthcare, as well as eliminating barriers to accessing government disability benefits. Reimagining justice, including removal of carceral settings and better carceral conditions.
Children & Youth: Addressing the disproportionate representation of Black and Latino families in the child welfare system, identifying solutions for children’s access to behavioral health services, and creating a safe environment at schools for all students by eliminating school resource officers from K-12 campuses.
Unhoused Community Needs: Ending the practice of encampment sweeps that further destabilize unhoused people and prioritizing access to healthcare, wrap-around services, and safe alternatives to housing while developing more low-income housing stock.
This year, the Law Foundation has also joined the SV@Home Action Fund and other housing justice organizations to host candidate forums for local elections, focused on affordable housing and our unhoused community.
“The issues our client communities are facing in Silicon Valley demand urgency”, said Ms. Brunner. “Low-income families, our unhoused neighbors, children in foster care – they can’t afford a learning curve. We need newly elected officials to take action from the start if we want to have the greatest impact in communities that have too long been underrepresented and marginalized.”
"The Law Foundation has long been a leader in advancing local policies that improve the lives of low-income families and communities of color in Silicon Valley – such as protections for tenants, people who are unhoused, foster youth, and those with health challenges,” said Kyra Kazantzis, CEO of the Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits. “This election platform puts the critical and missing voice of low-income families of color into the 2022 local elections," added Ms. Kazantzis.
Read the Law Foundation’s election platform here or on its website, www.lawfoundation.org/2022-election-platform.
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About the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley
The Law Foundation of Silicon Valley advances the rights of underrepresented individuals and families in our diverse community through free legal services, strategic advocacy, and educational outreach. LawFoundation.org | Facebook | Twitter
More information about the SV@Home Action Fund Candidate Forums can be found here: https://siliconvalleyathome.org/action-fund/candidate-forum-series/
Contacts:
Housing: Nadia Aziz, Director - Nadia.Aziz@lawfoundation.org
Children & Youth: Andrew Cain, Director - AndrewC@lawfoundation.org
Health: Abre’ Conner, Director - Abre.Conner@lawfoundation.org
Unhoused Community Needs: Becky Moskowitz, Supervising Attorney - Becky.Moskowitz@lawfoundation.org