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From YouTube: County of Santa Clara Public Health: Housing and Food Insecurity and COVID-19 - August 7, 2020
Description
Josh Selo, Executive Director of West Valley Community Services joins us to discuss the devastating impacts of COVID-19 and how it continues to disproportionately affect community members in our County. We will learn about resources available for community members and find out how WVCS is combating hunger and homelessness, both intensified by a global pandemic.
Recorded August 7, 2020.
The City of Cupertino would like to express its thanks to the County of Santa Clara for the use of their video materials during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For more information regarding the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak in Cupertino, please visit https://www.cupertino.org/coronavirus.
B
Hi
everybody
thank
you
for
joining
us.
I'm
larry
little
public
information
officer
here
at
the
county's
emergency
operations
center.
Today
we
are
talking
about
covet
19
and
how
it
continues
to
exacerbate
existing
housing
and
food
insecurity
challenges
here
in
the
county.
This
morning,
executive,
director
of
west
valley,
community
service,
josh
cello,
joins
me
to
share
information
about
resources
and
his
organization's
role
during
this
global
pandemic.
But
first
we
have
and
are
removing
our
facial
coverings
for
this
segment.
B
So
everyone,
including
our
american
sign
language
interpreters,
can
clearly
understand
and
communicate
the
information
we
will
be
sharing
this
morning.
Also
from
time
to
time,
and
throughout
this
broadcast,
you
will
see
information
from
our
data
dashboard
at
the
bottom
of
your
screen
to
keep
you
updated
on
it.
Josh.
Thank
you
for
being
here.
Thank
you,
larry.
I'm
a
pleasure
to
be
here
today.
So
if
life
was
not
already
difficult
enough
here
in
the
county,
you
know
we're
facing
food
insecurity
and
housing
issues.
We
have
a
global
pandemic.
C
Over
the
past
five
years
since
I've
been
at
west
valley,
community
services
we've
seen
a
steady
increase
in
demand
for
assistance,
particularly
the
area
of
food
and
rental
assistance.
We
all
are
familiar
with
the
housing
crisis
and
the
impact
it's
had
not
only
on
low-income
communities,
but
that
nexus
between
low-income
communities
and
communities
of
color
who
are
already
struggling
going
into
the
pandemic.
What
we've
seen
now
is
another
concern.
We've
been
raising
for
some
time.
C
It's
the
working
poor
folks
who've
been
on
the
edges,
mostly
being
able
to
pay
their
rent,
holding
multiple
jobs,
but
have
no
savings
or
under
400
in
savings.
Many
of
those
folks
work
in
the
service
sector,
so
they
were
in
the
hotel
industry
or
they
were
in
the
car
or
taxi
industry.
One
of
those
who
all
those
industries
were
decimated
in
march
at
the
start
of
the
pandemic.
B
C
Now
sure
so,
west
valley,
community
services
has
been
serving
the
west
valley,
communities
of
saratoga,
los
gatos,
cupertino,
west
san
jose
and
monte
cerino
for
more
than
48
years,
we're
part
of
a
network
that
covers
the
entire
county.
It's
called
the
emergency
assistance
network,
so
we
are
a
partnership
of
seven
agencies
that
provide
a
similar
basket
of
services.
C
What
we've
been
seeing
is
that
steady
increase
in
demand
because
of
the
widening
gap
between
rich
and
poor
in
silicon
valley,
we've
also
been
seeing
a
steady
stream
of
people
leaving
the
area
workers
that
were
are
essential
to
our
economy
because
they
couldn't
afford
to
live
here
anymore.
The
cost
of
housing
got
too
high.
We
also
had
large
delays
in
the
development
of
affordable
housing
in
the
region,
which
made
it
really
hard
for
families
to
survive.
C
We've
also,
we
also
know
if
we've
been
following
the
every
two
year,
point-in-time
studies
that
are
that
are
done
in
this
county
and
across
the
country,
a
steady
increase
in
homelessness.
We
see
it
now
very
clearly
in
cupertino,
where
our
office
is
based
with
with
encampments
that
just
a
few
years
ago,
didn't
exist.
It
was
more
hidden
in
cupertino,
so
we're
seeing
a
steady
increase
in
people
who
need
help
more
families
really
pushed
to
the
edge
unable
to
afford
their
their
monthly
bills.
C
So
families
who
work
in
the
service
sector
in
the
hotel
industry
they
can't
afford
to
live
here,
and
what
we're
starting
to
see
is
our
community
becoming
less
and
less
economically
diverse,
and
what
we
need
is
we
need
economic
diversity
in
order
for
our
community
to
function
at
full
capacity
for
all
the
things
we
all
love
and
care
about,
doing,
and
the
culture
that
we
value
here
in
the
silicon
valley,
we
need
economically
diverse
communities,
but
we're
making
it
hard
for
families
who
don't
earn.
You
know
triple
digit
incomes
to
survive
here.
C
Yes,
so
our
we
brought
our
mobile
food
pantry
online
in
2016,
through
a
partnership
with
second
harvest
of
silicon
valley
who
donated
to
us
our
first
rv.
It's
a
it's
a
38-foot,
fleetwood
bounder,
and
we
had
this
vision
of
taking
our
services
to
folks
where
they
are
one
of
the
things
we
don't
often
think
about
is
people
who
are
falling
into
what
we
normally
think
of
as
low
low
income
or
less
resourced.
They
have
jobs,
often
that
have
less
flexibility.
C
They
can't
just
take
off
time
to
come
to
a
food
pantry
that
may
not
be
close
to
them.
There
also
could
be
transportation
issues.
People
might
not
have
cars
or
access
to
the
bus.
They
often
also
have
families
that
are
depending
on
them,
and
so
they
wouldn't
come
to
us
for
resources
and
services.
So
we
felt
we
needed
to
make
this
less
of
a
stumbling
block.
By
bringing
the
resources
out
into
the
community
and
I'll
be
honest.
C
Mobile
food
pantry
is
a
little
bit
of
a
misnomer
because,
yes,
we
do
provide
food
on
the
mobile
food
pantry,
but
you
can
access
all
of
our
other
services
from
that
resource.
So
rental
assistance,
financial,
coaching
case
management
signing
up
for
special
programs.
All
of
those
things
are
available
from
the
mobile
food
pantry
in
your
community
at
a
location
that
is
much
easier
for
you
to
get
to
than
maybe
going
across
town.
B
C
C
The
way
case
management
works
is
a
client
comes
in
and
we
work
with
them
on
developing
a
case
plan
tailored
to
the
specific
crises
that
they're
facing,
and
then
we
can
refer
them
to
resources,
both
internal
in
our
agency,
but
also
external
in
the
community
that
they
could
benefit
from
so
really
they
get
their
own
for
lack
of
a
better
word
prescription
for
how
best
to
address
the
challenges
they're
facing.
I
want
to
be
clear.
C
Our
clients
are
active
participants
in
addressing
the
situation
that
they're
in,
but
often
they
don't
know
what
resources
are
available
to
them
in
the
community,
and
we
do
that's
our
core
competence,
so
we
can
connect
them
with
those
resources,
so
it
might
be
food
resources,
it
might
be
rental
resources
and
it
might
be
mental
health.
We
do
not
offer
mental
health
at
our
agency,
but
we're
part
of
this
incredible
network
in
santa
clara
county
of
nonprofits
and
county
agencies.
B
C
So
shame
is
a
big
part
of
the
experience
in
general
when
coming
to
an
agency
like
ours.
There
have
been
several
studies
about
why
people
who
are
eligible
for
food,
pantry
assistance,
don't
go
and
shame
is
a
big
one.
I
think
there's
often
a
misconception
that
that
people
might
want
to
take
advantage
or
use
resources
that
are
not
meant
for
them
and
nothing
could
be
further
from
the
truth.
C
It's
so
hard
to
ask
for
help
it's
so
hard,
not
to
feel
that
you
can
be
self-sufficient
with
your
family,
and
we
understand
that
and
for
us
at
west
valley,
community
services,
the
dignity
and
compassion
of
each
of
the
clients
that
come
to
us
is
part
of
our
core
agency
values.
In
normal
times,
our
food
pantry
is
set
up
in
a
way
that
the
clients
actually
shop
for
the
foods
themselves.
C
That
is
why
we're
here
we
are
here
to
provide
you
dignified
support
in
the
most
challenging
of
times,
and
hopefully
you
can
find
your
way
to
an
agency
like
ours
or
one
of
our
partners,
so
that
you
don't
have
to
face
the
risk
of
hunger
or
homelessness
alone.
I'll
I'll
tell
you
larry
we're
really
concerned
about
the
potential
end
of
the
eviction
moratoriums
and
the
anticipated
large-scale
eviction
of
folks
who
are
struggling
in
silicon
valley.
I
think
the
law
foundation
indicated
that
46
000
people
are
at
risk
of
homelessness.
C
C
So
we
are,
we
have
already
experienced
triple
digit
increases
in
requests
for
rental
assistance
and
food,
as
has
all
of
the
agencies
in
our
network
and
all
of
our
partners.
So
everyone
has
been
stretched
to
capacity
at
a
time
when
they
have
fewer
employees
in
the
office
and
fewer
volunteers,
because
many
of
us
are
agencies,
our
volunteers
are
over
the
age
of
60,
so
they
have
not
been
coming
because
we
need
to
keep
them
safe,
we're
doing
the
best
we
can
do.
C
I
anticipate
that
we
will
struggle
with
resources
well,
at
a
time
when
the
county
is
likely
to
run
into
budget
gaps.
Yes,
a
lot
of
us
are
heavily
county
funded.
We
also
know
that
at
some
point,
donors
are
going
to
be
looking
at
other
things
like
the
upcoming
election
and
they're,
going
to
want
to
shift
their
resources
in
that
way.
C
But
I
I
wouldn't
want
the
message
to
be:
don't
come
because
of
concerns
about
capacity,
we're
doing
our
very
best
to
reach
out
to
the
community
and
express
the
needs
that
we
have,
and
I
also
want
to
share.
We
live
in
an
incredibly
compassionate
region
and
community.
I
have
seen
an
outpouring
of
support
and
love
and
assistance
from
our
neighbors
and
our
friends.
People
who've
never
supported
us
before
who
want
to
help,
and
it
gives
me
a
lot
of
hope
for
the
months
ahead.
C
B
C
But
the
message
I
think
that
is
important
for
us
to
know
and-
and
I
think
we
know
now
more
than
we
did
five
years
ago-
is
that
poverty
doesn't
know
a
zip
code.
Poverty
exists
everywhere.
Does
it
look
the
same
in
every
community?
No
there's
less
affordable
housing
in
the
west
valley.
We
see
more
car
dwellers,
and
now
we
see
more
outdoor
dwellers.
We
see
there's
an
encampment
on
wolf
road
by
the
old
valco
site
and
we're
seeing
it
more
visibly.
C
When
I
first
started,
I
had
to
convince
people
that
there
was
a
problem
that
there
was
a
challenge
that
this
existed
at
all,
but
all
the
all
the
stories
that
have
been
in
the
paper
over
the
last
five
years
about
the
housing
crisis
have
really
lifted.
The
scales
from
people's
eyes
and
raised
greater
awareness
about
the
need
in
this
community
and
now
even
more
so
that
we're
seeing
the
physical
impacts,
the
real
physical
impacts.
It
does
concern
me,
though,
about
a
compassion
gap
that
I
think
might
exist
for
some
folks.
C
B
Josh,
thank
you
for
being
here
great
information.
We'll
have
you
back
because
I'm
sure
cove
is
going
to
be
around
for
a
while.
So
thanks
so
much
for
being
here
and
sharing
all
the
important
information
today,
thanks
larry
all
right,
facebook
live
in
spanish
comes
up
at
11
o'clock
today,
and
our
facebook
live
in
vietnamese
is
at
10
a.m.
Every
thursday
be
sure
to
check
those
out
as
we
come
to
a
close.
I
want
to
share
this
sign
with
you.
B
Technology
we'll
have
it
up
in
just
a
moment
here,
so
all
right
there,
it
is
as
we
come
to
close.
I
want
to
share
this
sign
with
you.
I
see
it
every
night
when
I'm
out
walking
my
dogs
and
at
a
san
jose
business
and
every
time
I
see
it.
I
think
it
speaks
to
this
moment
that
we
are
currently
living
in
and
no
matter
how
many
times
I
see
it.
It
renews
my
hope
that
we
will
definitely
get
through
this
together.
Thanks
for
watching
everybody
have
a
great
weekend
be
safe.