In recent months, the Los Gatos Anti-Racism Coalition has received many questions about our Rental Assistance Program. With a 750-word limit, I cannot write an article that will answer all questions; but my team and I will be happy to answer others when they are asked, as time permits.
The Coalition was established in 2020 after a peaceful protest in front of Los Gatos High School. We began as a handful of neighbors. As we organized and worked with local schools on history curriculum, we wanted to act directly on the poverty and homelessness issues that disproportionately affect communities of color.
Informed by my economics education at UC Berkeley, I began reading research on cost-effective responses to homelessness. One of the cheapest ways to address homelessness is prevention, often through direct cash aid to people on the brink of eviction (rental assistance). Paying a few hundred dollars in back rent can cost far less than the thousands—sometimes tens of thousands—needed to move someone who is unhoused into a shelter or a new unit. Yet, in our region, rental assistance is among the hardest, most time-intensive, forms of aid to apply for.
Understanding this, we incorporated as a 501(c)(3) to build an accessible, rapid-rental assistance program, consistent with our bylaws’ purpose of “providing financial support for costs of living, such as food, housing and other human needs.” Our program serves people of every racial and ethnic background. From June 2023 to February 2024, I was the program’s only case manager, responsible for communicating with every applicant. I also developed its operating guidelines: approval criteria, document handling, a five-step process from application to payment and a voting team that evaluates applications. As our reputation grew, other organizations and government agencies began referring applicants, and I could no longer do it alone. The team grew to two, then three, and has expanded since.
The work is difficult, unceremonious, and not for the faint of heart. Applicants share intimate details documenting the most hellacious moments of their lives. Our first applicant was a cancer survivor who needed a few hundred dollars to pay the rent she owed. Others have included single mothers working three part-time jobs while leaving physically abusive situations, and a senior on a fixed income who was left with five dollars to their name after buying heart medication and groceries.
‘The work is difficult, unceremonious, and not for the faint of heart.’
This is not work for the casual volunteer. Our volunteers must be available nearly every day, ready to act at a moment’s notice—and willing to help without compensation. I did this alongside a job that often demanded 90-hour weeks. I would love to say I handled it all with serenity and grace. But there were moments of such sorrow and stress that I broke down in tears. Then, I would return to work, reminding myself that the people I was helping had it far worse.
During one especially stressful stretch, I delegated. I asked our former treasurer to file our 2023 financials with the California Attorney General. I should have reviewed it. The numbers were imprecise, miscategorized and inconsistent. One error listed all our rental assistance payments as compensation for officers. In reality, 99 percent of our 2023 spending went directly to rental assistance, and everyone in the Coalition is an unpaid volunteer, though we do sometimes wish otherwise.
We have submitted a corrected report through the Attorney General’s amendment process, signed by our current treasurer, Kinsey Lee. It will be public once processed, reflecting our actual 2023 financials. To prevent a recurrence, both the President and Treasurer now validate all reporting before filing. We have not had similar problems since. This year, the Town audited every grant recipient, including us. We produced three-years-worth of expenditures, payments made to help Los Gatos residents remain housed. Discussing the audit, the administrator of the Community Grants Program said the Coalition’s submitted documents were “a good example of reporting. It’s probably what I’m going to use as a template for the other organizations of what we would like to see.”
Our work has added up to well over $100,000 delivered to more than 110 households across Santa Clara County in three years. We also received the 2026 Presidential Community Hero Award for Santa Clara County’s District 5. And we were named California Nonprofit of the Year for our State Senate district. We are most proud of directly tackling one of the most urgent challenges of our time: homelessness. As a community manager at the Walnut Grove senior living community put it, we bring “professionalism, dedication, humanitarianism and commitment” to our work. We will continue to do so as long as we are able.
Jeff Suzuki is a Los Gatos Complete Streets and Transportation commissioner who is running for Council (P1). He writes here as the president of the Los Gatos Anti-Racism Coalition, a nonprofit that provides rental assistance in Los Gatos. The piece has been edited for space and clarity.
