When Google announced it wanted to come to San José and build a huge new downtown campus, we made clear that the project cannot destabilize our communities: it must include affordable homes, protection for tenants, and good jobs so that renters, low-wage workers, and people of color can stay here and thrive.
After years of campaigning by Silicon Valley Rising and other community groups, Google has agreed to put millions of dollars into a San José Community Fund to help keep families in their homes and promise community economic development.
Now, we need to persuade key decision makers at City Hall that our community must be empowered to decide how we spend these community funds.
Individuals with firsthand experience living through and fighting against racial injustice in areas like housing, workers’ rights, and public health know better than anyone what their communities need.
Grassroots leaders from Black, Brown, Indigenous and Asian communities must make up the Fund’s board, with real decision-making power over strategic and annual plans and yearly budgets, and the authority to monitor and evaluate the project’s impact.