Meet Cindy
Accomplishments
In collaboration with her Board of Supervisors colleagues, Chavez led Santa Clara County’s response to COVID-19. Shed helped raise funds for healthcare institutions needing protective gear and other medical supplies. She worked with colleagues, cities, the business community, neighborhood groups, professional sports teams, and schools to get more coronavirus testing sites in our neighborhoods. She also raised money to make sure people could pay rent and their mortgages.
Cindy made sure our families and children had access to chromebooks and Wi-Fi for distance learning during COVID-19. Cindy also worked to provide shelter and food for our most vulnerable community members.
Supervisor Chavez was a primary architect of Santa Clara County's groundbreaking $950 million affordable housing bond which was approved by two-thirds of the voters in November 2016. 4,400 homes have been built or are in the pipeline to be built. The new housing under construction will house and support people who are homeless, mentally ill, disabled, seniors, veterans, and families.
Getting residents and workers out of single-occupancy vehicles would have major benefits for both the environment and quality of life. As Supervisor, Cindy Chavez was an instrumental leader of expanding BART to Berryessa and is leading the effort to extend BART to Downtown San Jose. As a Board member, Cindy is playing a leadership role in the electrification of Caltrain. Moreover, Cindy is working to protect the Bus line as a Board Member for VTA.
Supervisor Chavez also enacted policies to protect wage equality and expanded the Office of Labor Enforcement to address wage theft in Silicon Valley, while supporting wage standards are met.
Under Chavez's leadership, the county developed the nation's third LGBTQ-focused homeless shelter in San Jose. Cindy helped move forward County funding for the Office of LGBTQ Affairs and the creation of an LGBT wellness center that is equipped with beds, showers and meals for LGBTQ youth and adults.
Throughout Cindy's career, she has worked to advance the rights for women and create better protections for survivors and women in the workplace. As Supervisor, she made Santa Clara County a national model for tracking down rapists by quickly processing their DNA. She increased services to victims of domestic violence, increased funding to address human trafficking, ensuring equal pay, and hiring and promoting women.
Chavez also organized groups and got funding approved for the 100th anniversary of a woman's right to vote in 2020. The anniversary was used to increase voter registration and produce accurate Census numbers. She also expanded the local Voting Rights Act and made voting free and accessible to voters by providing universal absentee balloting.
Branding
In 2017, Chavez supported the County in filing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration—Santa Clara County vs Trump (2017)—when the administration threatened to withhold federal funds affecting hospitals, social services and thousands of children, seniors and the disabled. The Trump Administration targeted Santa Clara County. A federal judge ruled in Santa Clara County's favor in July 2018.
In 2018 the Board of Supervisors also unanimously approved Supervisor Chavez's proposal to increase funding by an unprecedented 400 percent for intimate partner violence services—educational, mental health, housing, childcare and employment—. Supervisor Chavez—who established and co-chaired the Intimate Partner Violence Blue Ribbon Commission in 2016 with Supervisor Ken Yeager to transform services for domestic violence survivors—said the boost in funding will change the trajectory of many survivors' lives.
Supervisor Chavez was instrumental in the development and construction of the Santa Clara County Vietnamese American Service Center (VASC) which broke ground in Fall 2019. The Service Center in San Jose is the first of its kind in the nation and serves the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam. The VASC is a one stop shop of vital County services centralized in one location delivered in a culturally competent and language accessible manner based in the heart of our Little Saigon area.
Consulting
Supervisor Chavez and the Santa Clara County Office of Education are partnering to streamline and improve the Santa Clara County foster care system to include schools and improve the dually involved youth system merging child welfare with juvenile justice. Under Chavez's leadership, the Board of Supervisors approved $6 million to construct a new resource center for the housing of foster youth. The Hub provides basic services to assist foster your h to complete their education and achieve efficiency.