Candidates vying for two open seats on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors are sharing their plans for the region’s top issues: homelessness and housing.
Nonprofits PATH and Destination: Home hosted a candidate forum Wednesday moderated by those with lived experience. The candidates in Districts 2 and 5 discussed a number of topics including the financial limitations of affordable housing, policies that could help make living in the county more affordable and different models of temporary housing that included safe parking and sleeping sites.
Two candidates are running for the District 2 seat to replace Supervisor Cindy Chavez, who is terming out in December — Betty Duong, a first-time candidate for office and chief of staff for Chavez and former San Jose Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen. Two candidates are also vying for the District 5 seat, with Supervisor Joe Simitian terming in out at the end of the year — Mountain View Councilmember and former Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga and Sally Lieber, chair of the State Board of Equalization. She was also a former Mountain View mayor and state assemblymember.
“Housing is a very pervasive issue,” Brenda Brown, one of the moderators, told San José Spotlight. “It is something that is uppermost on a lot of people’s minds. To be able to have a house, to be with their family and to commune with them in peace is an American dream. There is no reason why anyone should be denied that.”
Funding affordable housing
With funding for affordable housing drying up, moderators asked candidates how they intend to seek new revenue streams.
The candidates talked about the need to put together another bond measure and find more dollars through partnerships with private donors to fund affordable housing, after a $20 billion regional affordable housing measure was pulled from the ballot.
Duong, who was the campaign manager on Measure A — a $950 million countywide affordable housing initiative that voters passed in 2016 — wants to build on that success. She also stressed the importance of including supportive services in affordable housing developments.
“When you ask about my approach to homelessness and to providing services and care, it’s the same approach I take with everything I’ve done in life coming from that background, being a county client for most of my childhood,” Duong said.
District 5 candidate Abe-Koga said Proposition 5 needs to pass this November, which would lower the voting threshold for affordable housing measures to pass from 66.7% to 55%.
“Let’s help that campaign to pass and that will help us to be able to pass the other measure down the road,” Abe-Koga said.
Temporary housing
All candidates are in favor of temporary housing for homeless residents, from tiny home sites to sanctioned encampments and want to ensure quality standards are met at all locations.
“Let’s utilize every single tool we have at our discretion,”District 2 candidate Nguyen said. “No matter what option we choose, we need to make sure people are safe, that they have (hygiene), that they can do laundry. Let’s not treat them like they are not a part of our community.”
District 5 candidate Lieber said there have been grave failures when it comes to building tiny home sites quickly and that shelter facilities lack proper management.
“We don’t have an overabundance of providers present in Santa Clara County, particularly shelter providers,” Lieber said. “There have been some massive failures and they’re mostly around safety, communicable diseases … that leave people to really prefer to stay in their car or an encampment rather than in a shelter.”
Santa Clara County only has a handful of nonprofit organizations it partners with for homeless services. The county-owned Sunnyvale shelter managed by Bill Wilson Center has had multiple residents who showed symptoms of scabies. Nonprofit Homefirst has been accused of racial discrimination and a toxic work culture.
Lieber suggested the county could create its own homeless service providers to ensure a greater level of accountability.
“We could incubate it,” Lieber told San José Spotlight.
Policies on affordability
Each candidate presented differing ideas for how to create more affordability and help families stay in their homes.
As a former assemblywoman, Lieber authored laws that increased California’s minimum wage. She stressed her support for rent control measures.
Abe-Koga talked about how she led efforts to increase the minimum wage in Mountain View to $18.75, the highest in the county. She also introduced a pilot guaranteed basic income program, which gave $500 a month to 166 low-income families in the city. 
Duong talked about expanding prevention and intervention measures, stressing that it’s easier to help someone keep their home than house someone after they’ve lost their home.
Nguyen said the county could partner with corporations to provide job training and employee programs, and partner with schools to provide vocational training.
“If we’re living in a place like Santa Clara County (and Silicon Valley) and we don’t utilize the partnerships that we have with these corporations, I think that’s just a lost cause,” Nguyen said. “It’s something that we need to step up.”
Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X, formerly known asTwitter.
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