A Hard-Fought Five Years Brings a Huge Victory

For five years, more than 400 residents of Buena Vista Mobile Home Park, Palo Alto’s last mobile home park, fought to preserve their homes after the park owners announced their intention to sell the property to a developer. 

Earlier this month, a deal was reached that will preserve the park as affordable housing.

Buena Vista families will continue to enjoy their diverse and tight-knit community and benefit from living in a high opportunity area of Silicon Valley, one that has high-quality Palo Alto schools, safe neighborhoods, jobs, and healthcare. 

We thank the Housing Authority of Santa Clara County and its Executive Director Katherine Harasz, who, together with Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian, worked to ensure that Buena Vista will be preserved--and renovated-- and operated on a day-to-day basis by The Caritas Corporation, a nonprofit with a mission of maintaining quality affordable housing.

We worked in partnership with our tireless and courageous clients, the Buena Vista residents' association, and many other community advocates and supporters, including:  the Friends of Buena Vista, a dedicated group of Palo Altans, led by Winter Dellenbach; the Palo Alto School Board; the Palo Alto and regional PTAs, led by Susan Eldredge and Nancy Krop; the Community Working Group; Stanford professors and students, led by Education Professor Amado Padilla; Larry Klein; and Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian and his staff members Micaela Hellman-Tincher and Kristina Loquist. 

Photo by Eric Kuhri, Bay Area News Group

The Law Foundation's Buena Vista preservation team included senior attorneys Nadia Aziz and Diana Castillo, senior outreach coordinators Teresa Magana and Nuemi Guzman, supervising attorney Melissa Morris, former supervising attorney James Zahradka, and directing attorney Kyra Kazantzis.  The team was supported by expert co-counsel Madeline Howard, Navneet Grewal, Sue Himmelreich, and Dick Rothschild at the Western Center on Law & Poverty. The law firm of Sidley Austin LLP provided generous pro bono staffing and financial resources for the litigation effort; Matt Dolan and Norm Blears were the key, hard-working members of the Sidley team.

You Did It!

We had a great time with everyone who came together to create a stronger, more inclusive community at our Celebration of Justice dinner. A heartfelt thank you goes out to our annual partners and individual donors who gave generously to help us continue to use the law as a tool for change in Silicon Valley. Together, we can do so much more for the people in our region who need life-changing legal services -families like the Hernandez-Garfias’, who we introduced to you at the dinner.  

Thank you for an unforgettable night! 

Be sure to check out our photos and see if you can spot your friends and colleagues.

Major Win for Mountain View Tenants

Photo by Nailah Morgank, KQED

Last November, voters in Mountain View passed Measure V, aimed at stabilizing rents and providing just cause eviction protections for certain rental units.

Following the vote, the California Apartment Association (CAA) moved to sue the City to block the law from going into effect. That’s when the Law Foundation, along with Fenwick & West, the Stanford Community Law Clinic, and the Public Interest Law Project, stepped in to represent a group of Mountain View voters, tenants, and organizations.

In a major win for Mountain View tenants, the CAA dropped the lawsuit earlier this month.

Mountain View tenants will now be protected from unreasonable rent increases and unjust evictions. “This is a complete victory for the City of Mountain View and a critical win for Mountain View residents, including the most marginalized in our community,” said Nadia Aziz, senior attorney at the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley. “We were thankful to have Fenwick’s excellent support in ensuring Mountain View tenants do not have to live in fear of unfair rent increases and evictions.”