From: C L
To: Clerk; Karen Hardy; Kevin Park; Kathy Watanabe; Raj Chahal; Sudhanshu Jain; Anthony Becker; Adam Marcus; Glen Googins; Lisa Gillmor; Nora Pimentel
Subject: ABC News at 6pm regarding the Benton Shelter Proposal Date: Thursday, April 27, 2023 3:11:46 PM
Dear Mayor Gillmor and City Councilmembers,
I am writing to express my concern about the recent report on ABC News at 6pm regarding the Benton Shelter Proposal. As a resident of Santa Clara and someone who attended the public hearing on April 25th, I was surprised and upset to hear that the proposal had been approved, since we were clearly told at the hearing that the decision would be made on May 2nd.
I would like to know how ABC News obtained this information and who their sources were.
As a resident who has spent a lot of time opposing this proposal, I feel that it is important to have accurate and timely information about the decision-making process.
While I understand the news organizations strive to report accurately, it is possible that the report was based on incomplete or incorrect information. I urge you to provide accurate information to the public.
In addition, I would like to reiterate my opposition to Benton Shelter Proposal and to ask you to vote NO on May 2nd, 2023. As a resident of Santa Clara, we have entrusted you with the responsibility of making decisions that will make our city a better place to live. Please consider our voices and concerns.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Best regards,
Chen
--
Sent from Gmail Mobile
From: J Pan
To: Clerk; Lisa Gillmor; Kevin Park; Karen Hardy; Kathy Watanabe; Raj Chahal; Sudhanshu Jain; Anthony Becker; Adam Marcus
Subject: How can City approve the Benton Shelter proposal before Voting? Date: Thursday, April 27, 2023 9:46:31 AM
Dear Mayor Gillmor and City Councilmembers,
When I watched ABC News at 6 pm on April 26, 2023, I was surprised, upset, and felt cheated to see that without the discussion and vote by Council members, the City of Santa Clara had approved, or delayed the approval of the Benton Shelter Proposal.
We were at the hearing on April 25
th, 2023. And we all heard Mayor Gillmor said the hearing will be continued on next Tuesday evening, May 2nd, 2023. City Councilmembers will discuss the proposal and vote on May 2nd. However, before all these happened, ABC news already got inside information and aired the result of approval, or delayed approval. How could ABC news already know the result is an approval not a rejection? Who told them? Please investigate who the information source is.
Have you already made your decision? If so, why pretend to continue the discussion next week? We, Santa Clara residents, feel being fooled and are deeply disappointed.
If you haven’t made your decision, please vote NO to the Benton & Lawrence interim housing project. There are so many uncertainties about its fundings. A bipartisan group already called for an audit to the HomeKey program. LifeMoves cut their expenses by removing security and onsite services, but still get their profits. The City of Santa Clara will be the only one who is hurt. When the housing market and local business were impacted by the Shelter, the tax income of the City will be impacted for sure. Not to mention the increase of cost and manpower to maintain the safety of shelter and its surrounding community. This project will worsen the fiscal deficit of the City of Santa Clara.
If you haven’t made your decision, please vote NO on May 2 nd, 2023! Let's work together to
make Santa Clara a better place to live.
Best Regards,
Pan Family
Residents of Santa Clara
From: Jiayi Pan
To: Clerk; Lisa Gillmor; Kevin Park; Karen Hardy; Kathy Watanabe; Raj Chahal; Sudhanshu Jain; Anthony Becker; Nora Pimentel; Adam Marcus
Subject: Please Vote No to the Interim Housing at Benton St. & Lawrence Expy Date: Thursday, April 27, 2023 12:25:47 PM
Good afternoon Mayor Gillmor and City Councilmembers,
Please vote NO to the Homekey Benton street Interim Housing proposal! Don’t ignore 5293 petitions from local residents who strongly oppose this proposal.
LifeMoves' proposal, presented at the April 25th hearing meeting, gave false or misleading information. Their plan and budget are unrealistic with contradictory statements and discrepant figures. Majority of LifeMoves' ex- clients didn't get the service they deserved in LifeMoves' shelters. 74% of them are still homeless. LifeMoves's performance shows they are incapable of achieving the objective of the proposal.
Please vote NO. Please don't go against the opinion of the local community and don't waste our tax dollars on LifeMoves!
Best Regards,
Megan Katz
Residents of Santa Clara
From: Mayor and Council
To: Santa Clara Housing Advocates
Cc: Clerk
Subject: RE: Materials for City Council Meeting April 25 Date: Friday, April 28, 2023 8:57:22 AM
Attachments: image001.png
image002.png
Hello,
Our office confirms receipt of your email. Included in this reply is the Clerk’s Offce who can address your request.
Thank You,
Melissa Lee | Executive Assistant
Mayor & Council Offices | City of Santa Clara
(408) 615-2252 |
www.santaclaraca.gov
From: Santa Clara Housing Advocates <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2023 1:48 PM
To: Mayor and Council <[email protected]> Cc: Clerk <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Materials for City Council Meeting April 25
PLEASE REDACT MY ADDRESS DUE TO SAFETY CONCERNS
On Sun, Apr 23, 2023 at 2:52 PM Mayor and Council <[email protected] >
wrote:
Hello,
Our office confirms receipt of your email regarding the Public Hearing/General Business item:
Consideration and Possible Actions on a Proposed 30-Unit Homekey Interim Housing Development on County-Owned Land Located at Lawrence Expressway and Benton Street, Including City Sponsorship and Partial Funding of Project Operations (CEQA: Statutory Exemption under Government Code Section 65913.4, SB 35 Affordable Housing Projects), which has been forwarded to the full City Council for their review.
Please note this correspondence will form part of the public record for the April 25, 2023, Special City Council meeting.
Thank You,
Melissa Lee | Executive Assistant
Mayor & Council Offices
(408) 615-2252 |
www.santaclaraca.gov
From: Santa Clara Housing Advocates <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, April 22, 2023 4:51 PM
To: Clerk <[email protected]>; Mayor and Council
<[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Materials for City Council Meeting April 25
On Sat, Apr 22, 2023 at 1:21 PM Santa Clara Housing Advocates <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi,
Attached are materials that we would like to be delivered to City Council PRIOR to the meeting on April 25, if possible.
Thank you,
Elysa Gurman
Santa Clara Housing Advocates
869 Bing Dr
From: [email protected]
To: Clerk; Mayor and Council
Subject: RE: Proposed Temporary Housing at Benton Street at Lawrence Expressway. How can city approve the Benton shelter proposal before voting?
Date: Friday, April 28, 2023 9:51:34 AM
Dear Mayor Gillmor and City Council
Members,
When I watched ABC News at 6 pm on April
26, 2023, I was shocked, angrily, and felt
betrayed to see that without the
discussion and vote by Council members,
the City of Santa Clara had approved the
proposal already, and later ABC News
modified it to "delayed the approval" of
the Benton Shelter Proposal. Why is ABC
News so sure of the approval? Did they get
insider information?
We were at the hearing on April 25th,
2023. And we all heard Mayor Gillmor said
the hearing will be continued on next
Tuesday evening, May 2nd, 2023. City
Councilmembers will discuss the proposal
and vote on May 2nd. However, before all
these happened, ABC news already got
inside information and aired the result of
approval, or "delayed approval". How could
ABC news already know the result is an
approval not a rejection? Who told them?
We demand an investigation on the leaked
information source.
Have you already made your decision? If
so, why pretend to continue the discussion
next week? We, Santa Clara residents, feel
being fooled and are deeply disappointed.
Please vote NO to the Benton & Lawrence
interim housing project. There are so many
uncertainties about its fundings. A
bipartisan group already called for an
audit to the HomeKey program. LifeMoves
cut their expenses by removing security
and onsite services, but still get their
profits. The City of Santa Clara will be
the only one who is hurt. When the housing
market and local business were impacted by
the Shelter, the tax income of the City
will be impacted for sure. Not to mention
the increase of cost and manpower to
maintain the safety of shelter and its
surrounding community. This project will
worsen the fiscal deficit of the City of
Santa Clara.
Please vote NO on May 2nd, 2023! Please
don’t ignore 5293 petitions from local
residents who strongly oppose this
proposal. Let's work together to make
Santa Clara a better place to live.
Sincerely,
BP Huang Family
Residents of Santa Cara
PS: Attached a news clip for you to
consider. Homelessness and Drugs come hand
in hand. Our family is certainly not ready
for the National Guards to come in.
Putting 250 Most Challenging homeless in
our residential community, are you ready
for our City going down that route?
Gavin Newsom is sending California’s National Guard to
help San Francisco fight fentanyl
Gavin Newsom is sending California’s National
Guard to help San Francisc...
San Francisco has seen a more than 40% increase in overdose deaths between January and March 2023. What is fenta...
From: Benny Fong
To: Mayor and Council; Clerk
Subject: RE: Proposed Temporary Housing at Benton Street at Lawrence Expressway Date: Thursday, April 27, 2023 10:16:38 AM
Dear Mayor Gilmore, City Councilmembers:
We strongly oppose the low-barrier interim housing
proposed at Benton Street & Lawrence Expressway.
In light of the many issues raised during the public
hearing, and the overwhelming opposition from the
community, we ask that the City of Santa Clara vote NO
on the Benton Street & Lawrence Expressway.
Sincerely,
Kat & Alex
Residents of Santa Clara
From: B W
To: Mayor and Council; Clerk
Subject: RE: Proposed Temporary Housing Benton Street at Lawrence Expressway.
Date: Thursday, April 27, 2023 1:40:04 PM
Dear Mayor Gilmore, Council Members:
We strongly oppose the low-barrier interim housing
proposed at Benton Street & Lawrence Expressway.
# Topic Context
1 Voice of the
Residents
A vast majority (80-95%) of residents voted in opposition in all 4 public hearings
>95% of comments on the 4/25 agenda were in
opposition
Residents living in the immediate neighborhood have
submitted ~5200+ wet signatures with their names, real
address and contact information.
2 Safety There is no background check or screening to exclude folks with criminal records or active drug addiction or Sex offense history
No ID verification to validate family or age of minor
So making it family priority facility does not make any difference, it just creates illusion of safety
Just 300 ft away we have a condominium community
where 76 families and many include kids and elderly.
Since we do not have any operational shelter in Santa
Clara county which is so close to schools and residential neighborhoods and schools - Which public safety
experts were consulted? What were the raw inputs from
them? We want full, unfiltered information.
In first public meeting county official did not know how many schools are nearby which created huge concern
majority of
residents
Santa Clara city staff shared their grave concerns
regarding safety and being able to manage such a large
site in our private meetings between residents and police staff. Police staff also pointed us to Milpitas data. They mentioned that they have shared their concerns with
council and county staff through private communication.
Nobody published that data to public
2 Funding City would need to fund [XYZ] for next [X] years and after that there is no clarity on operational cost coverage Drawing funds from FLHA implies the city would have
lesser funds to build affordable housing and other
programs for the housing crisis
It was mentioned that the construction overrun budget
will be covered from the operational budget that
HomeKey provides which will create more gap budget to
run this facility. Eventually it will result reduced amount of services offered and staffing or will increase burden on city to fill the gap - Palo Alto Deja Vu
4 CEQA The proposed site is in Flood Zone and hence can not be assumed to be CEQA exempt
We strictly recommend city to not provide HomeKey
application support letter till full CEQA evaluation is done and environmental impact is known to city council and
public
5 Falsified data? Bus stops are >0.5 miles away. This measured from end of the lot not from entrance
7/11 can not be classified as a grocery store. In the
report it is shown as Market place which is misguided.
Number of schools nearby is deliberately reduced not
counting preschools and daycares as it will reduce
HomeKey points
6 Lack of Trust FAQs are still not fully answered and for quite a few, the text is cut out so we don’t see the entire answer
County produced a highly biased community
engagement report - feedback cards are deliberately
cherry picked and all the cards showing opposition are
not included. Any emails sent after 3/21 to demonstrate opposition of this project are not included in report
In the presentation it was presented as a family only
facility but in the proposal it has clear provision to house single adults. Also it is being constructed as flex style configurable units which can be all separate 90 rooms - so it being constructed with full intent to either converting it to adult only facility, just like original proposal or mixing adults and families together and leave city to manage it It was also presented based on community feedback
county & LifeMoves reduced the scope of the project to 1/4th - 30 units from 80-120 units. Technically this facility is being constructed as 90 configurable rooms across 30 modular units. Each room can host 2 adults or maybe 3
people if there is a mother with small kids. So there is no scope change at all - 90 rooms and the total population can be anywhere from 160 to 270 people.
Susan Ellenberg is a big proponent and a face behind
this project. There were numerous attempts made by
many many residents to contact or meet her over the
period of nearly 2.5 months. Never received a single
response
7 Huge burden
on Santa Clara
County is gifting an elephant to our city
Board of supervisors asked the search for land to be
done exclusively in Santa Clara and Sunnyvale (and not
other cities like Los Gatos, Saratoga etc.)
Santa Clara already has a very high ratio of shelters or beds per homeless at a city level as compared to most
of the other cities of the county
8 Police Staffing Bella Vista is already going down the Hillcrest (Milpitas) route with respect to crime and service calls. Once it
converts into permanent housing it would be even more
comparable to the Milpitas site and having an interim
housing in close proximity to it without increase in Police staffing doesn’t seem appropriate. Milpitas PD had to
make reactive measures. SCPD should be proactive.
9 Drugs We are already seeing increased activity in our neighborhood due to Bella Vista
In light of the many issues raised during the public
hearing on 5/25/23, and the overwhelming opposition
from the community, we ask that the City of Santa Clara vote NO on the Benton Street & Lawrence Expressway.
Sincerely,
West Household
Residents of the City of Santa Clara
From: Xinxin Jin
Subject: Say No to the Benton Shelter Proposal
Date: Thursday, April 27, 2023 1:53:05 PM
Dear Mayor Gillmor and City Councilmembers,
I'm a resident living in Santa Clara near the Benton site. I'm utterly shocked and disappointed when I heard ABC News at 6 pm on April 26, 2023 announcing Santa Clara approved the temporary housing project, without the discussion and vote by Council members. We, our whole family, feel being fooled. At the hearing on April 25th, we all heard Mayor Gillmor said the hearing will be continued on next Tuesday evening, May 2nd and city Councilmembers will discuss the proposal and vote on the same day. How come it has already been approved before that? Where is justice and transparency? Please investigate the source of the fake news.
Please vote NO to the Benton street Interim Housing proposal. Please listen to 5293 local residents who strongly oppose this proposal.
Best Regards,
Xinxin Jin
Resident of Santa Clara
From: [email protected]
To: Mayor and Council; Clerk
Subject: Urgent Concerns Regarding Approval of Benton Shelter Project Date: Friday, April 28, 2023 10:17:40 AM
Dear Mayor Gillmor and Council Members,
I am writing to express my grave concern about the recent approval of the Benton Shelter. The decision raises serious questions about the City Council's decision-making process and the trustworthiness of our elected officials.
Despite months of community outreach meetings
and public comments, the county and LifeMoves
have consistently ignored our valid and critical
questions, provided false and misleading
information, and given vague proposals. During
the recent hearing, the City's representatives
were unable to provide any solid
explanations to the community's concerns,
including critical flaws in the funding
calculation, price per unit, unit design,
family unit size, site design, occupancy
composition and numbers, location
selection, and more. They even failed to
answer the simplest question such as how
many people will live onsite, and if the site
will be “family-only”.
As a law-abiding resident, I find it shocking that
supporters of the Benton Shelter, majority of
whom are students and professional housing
advocates, have resorted to politically
motivated speeches and baseless accusations
against the community. Their lies and distortions
of facts have no place in our community and have
only served to further damage our trust in the
City's decision-making process.
Furthermore, the recent news from ABC7 has only added to our suspicions that the decision may have already been made and that the City Council's discussion and voting next Tuesday are merely a formality. If this is the case, the community will not hesitate to take legal action to protect our rights and interests.
We must confirm with the city whether the
approval of the Benton project has already been
decided, and if the discussion and voting next
Tuesday are just a formality. If so, the
community will immediately prepare for legal
action. If not, the city needs to explain who the
source of ABC's information is and why they
insisted on approval even after being
reminded by the community, only to delay
it. Some neighbors in the community have
already started the process of requesting public
records of the city council members' behavior and
communication regarding the Benton proposal.
We will not let go of any possible evidence of
violations of regulations and laws.
If the city council still has not yet voted, please vote “NO” to this proposal and project to save the city and its law-abiding, hard-working residents.
Sincerely,
Ross
Resident of the City of Santa Clara
From: Phil Zhao
To: Clerk
Subject: Vote NO to Temporary Housing at Benton in Santa Clara Date: Thursday, April 27, 2023 2:03:31 PM
Hello,
This is Phil, a father with two elementary school kids living in this neighborhood with my family. I strongly oppose building a homeless facility at Benton, to jeopardize the safety of so many kids living nearby.
Only the people who LIVE in this neighborhood have the right to make the decision, NOT those who live miles away. Please vote NO to this temporary housing at Benton in Santa Clara.
Thanks,
Phil