Saving the Last Mobile Home Park in Palo Alto

In case you missed it, last month the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park Resident's Association prevailed in its lawsuit challenging the closure of Buena Vista Mobile Home Park, Palo Alto's last mobile home park.

This past holiday season, the 400 mostly Latino and low-income residents of Buena Vista were given the gift of hope that their diverse and affordable community will be saved. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Brian Walsh found in favor of the Resident's Association, requiring the City to go back to the drawing board and delay closure until the relocation assistance plan complies with the applicable law.

Additionally, the Housing Authority of Santa Clara County approved a plan to acquire Buena Vista through eminent domain. The Resident's Association, represented by the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, Western Center on Law & Poverty, and pro bono partner, Sidley Austin LLP, is now more hopeful than ever that their community will be saved.

Your Vote is Creating Affordable Housing in the Bay Area

Did you hear? We won! Last November, we advocated for critical funding for affordable housing through Measure A. The passage of Measure A makes available $950 million to be invested in affordable housing for homeless veterans, those with special needs, seniors, along with low-income working families and first-time home buyers.

This adds to the good news last fall that Measure K in San Mateo County and Measure A1 in Alameda County also passed. Together, these three measures will generate about $2 billion in funds for affordable housing in the Bay Area in the coming years.

Thank you to everyone who voted for these game-changing measures and who supported them as campaign staff, volunteers, donors and champions.  Measure A would not have been possible without the leadership of Santa Clara County Supervisors Cindy Chavez and Dave Cortese, and many of our partner nonprofit organizations in the South Bay.

You're a Champion for our Youngest Clients!

It's #ThrowbackThursday and we'd like to give a final thanks to our amazing supporters at last November's LACY Honors luncheon who raised over $210,000 for the Law Foundation's Legal Advocates for Children & Youth program! Because of you, we can continue to provide life-changing legal help for children and teens dealing with serious issues like physical and sexual abuse, human trafficking, entry into the foster care system and homelessness.

Missed the luncheon? Meet a former client, we shared Macaulay, whose story we shared. He was only 13 years old when he came to the Law Foundation in need of a lawyer to advocate for him after the death of his father.  

We also honored Mary Ritter, a Certified Physician's Assistant at Valley Medical Center who has served as the coordinator of the Center for Child Protection's Pediatric Sexual Assault Response Team (PediSART) for nearly 30 years; and the Juvenile Justice Commission, a state-mandated, court-appointed authority dedicated to the promotion of an effective juvenile justice system operated in an environment of credibility, dignity, fairness and respect for the youth in our community. 

Check out our photos from the event and see if you can spot your friends and colleagues in ourFlickr album!

Special thanks to Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, our 2016 partners, and event co-chairs Alexis Coll-Very, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, and Natasha Innocenti, Innocenti Partners.