Senate District 15’s Woman of the Year/COVID-19 Rent Relief
Join me on Wednesday March 24th at 6:00pm to honor this year’s Senate District 15 Woman of the Year!
The California Senate’s annual “Woman of the Year” event is a tradition that began in 1982 by Assemblywoman Bev Hansen and Assemblywoman Sally Tanner when they noticed that the Legislature had no events planned during Women's History Month.
This year, I will be honoring a distinguished leader in our very own community - Rhonda Berry, President and CEO of Our City Forest.
Rhonda has been instrumental in expanding tree stewardship and reforestation projects across Santa Clara County to protect our environment, combat climate change, and ensure our ecological beauty. Rhonda and I have previously partnered on efforts to cultivate more trees in our County and create a comprehensive urban forest here in Silicon Valley, including Our City Forest’s Urban Forestry Education Center at Martial Cottle Park.
These are only a few of her accomplishments that will be highlighted on March 24th, so come and join to recognize our SD 15 Woman of the Year!
Register for the event at this link here and we will see you there.
The event will be live-streamed and made available for later viewing through my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/davecortesegov and my website at https://sd15.senate.ca.gov. Closed captioning options will be made available through the livestream on my Facebook page and website.
Join me on Friday March 26th at 1:30pm for a Town Hall with the Healthier Kids Foundation and the Behavioral Health Contractors' Association of Santa Clara. Together they'll highlight this year’s groundbreaking mental health bills and answer your questions on the next steps in California’s mental health advocacy. Register for the event at this link.
I will be discussing the following bills I am co-authoring as well as my budget priorities around school-based mental health support for students:
• AB 568 - AB 568 will establish a statewide dashboard that consolidates racial health, access, enrollment, and exclusion data to identify and tackle the state’s equity gaps in early learning and care (ELC) programs based on race, gender etc.
• SB 224 - SB 224 will ensure that students receive mental health education from a qualified instructor at least once during elementary school, once during middle school, and once during high school.
I hope to see you there!
This past week, I joined the “Stop AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) Hate” rally hosted by Assemblyman Evan Low and San Jose City Councilmember Pam Foley to stand in solidarity with our Asian American community, denounce the distributing rise of anti-Asian hate crimes we’ve seen amid the pandemic, and reject hate of all forms.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, almost 3,000 hate crimes against Asian Americans have been reported. We must remain in solidarity united against hate and all forms of discrimination, xenophobia, and violence.
Read More: NBC News – South Bay Leaders Rally Against Anti-Asian Discrimination
Thank you to those of you who joined our Town Hall last week with the Silicon Valley Law Foundation to discuss and educate the community about relief available under the state’s new COVID-19 Rent Relief program established through Senate Bill 91. If you’re an eligible renter who has experienced a financial hardship due to COVID-19 and have past due rent, or you’re a landlord who has experienced a loss in income because of unpaid rent, you may be eligible to get financial assistance now through the CA COVID-19 Rent Relief program.
Landlords can get reimbursed for 80% of past due rent accrued between April 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021, if they agree to waive the remaining 20% of unpaid rent, while eligible renters whose landlords choose not to participate may still apply on their own and receive 25% of unpaid rent accrued between April 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021 through a direct payment to their landlord.
Priority will be given to households at the greatest risk of eviction.
To check eligibility requirements, apply or find a Local Partner Network organization who can assist you further, visit HousingIsKey.com or call 833-430-2122, toll free.
In case you missed the latest news coverage of our work here in the Office, I have provided the below links to the most recent reporting.
Over the past several days, I have been working with State Legislators, Community Health Centers, CBO’s and community leaders to send a strong message that our vaccine distribution formula must prioritize local response efforts that have been working to reach our most hard-hit areas in Santa Clara County, the Bay Area, and the entire state.
Twenty Bay Area State Legislators, as well as hundreds of community leaders and community-based organizations, are urging the state to reformulate the latest state vaccine distribution plan unveiled late in the week of March 1st. Even though the Bay Area accounts for 20% of the population of California and includes many hard-hit communities with COVID-19 infection rates that are twice that of the state's overall rate, only 2% of Bay Area residents fall under zip codes being prioritized for nearly half of the available doses of the COVID-19 vaccine through the state's new vaccine distribution formula. This plan needs to be reformulated immediately.
Read the below news coverage to learn more:
San Francisco Chronicle - Bay Area lawmakers pressure Newsom administration after vaccine equity talks hit 'standoff'
KRON 4 - Bay Area lawmakers call for changes to new vaccine distribution plan
KTVU 2 - Lawmakers urge California give more vaccine priority to Bay Area's most vulnerable
Mercury News - COVID: Bay Area officials pushing state to change vaccine distribution plan
• Saturdays - Community Workdays at the Heritage Rose Garden are back! This is an opportunity to practice safe volunteerism, so please sign-up for an upcoming session at this link to help get the rose garden back in shape. Learn more and sign-up here.
• First Saturday of the Month - Community Workdays are also back at the Historic Orchard at Guadalupe River Park. These workdays will focus on litter removal in and around the orchard, pulling and removal of weeds, minor repairs to infrastructure as needed, and generalized care and maintenance of the orchard itself. Learn more and sign-up here.
• Mar 13, 10:00 AM PST – Apr 16, 10:00 PM PST - The School of Visual Philosophy, in partnership with The Alameda Business Association and the Knight Foundation, are presenting their "On the Alameda Window Display Competition" to highlight the fabulous businesses we have along this strip outside Downtown San Jose. They have invited 10 artists to complete a display for 10 businesses and want YOU to be the judge of your favorite. Learn more here.
American Rescue Plan/Federal Income Tax Extension
Thank you to President Biden and our members of Congress for their leadership in passing the “American Rescue Plan Act” which includes a much-needed boost of $350 billion of state and local fiscal COVID-19 recovery funds to be used to respond to our public health emergency and support for our essential, frontline workers. This will ensure critical investments in school broadband, housing infrastructure, childcare and early learning, student loan forgiveness, small business support, and more. Learn more here.
Also this week, the Treasury Department and IRS announced that the deadline for individuals to file their 2020 federal income taxes has been extended from April 15th, 2021 to May 17th, 2021. Learn more here.
COVID-19 Update for Senate District 15
Thank you to everyone for staying safe and getting vaccinated when they are eligible. You are protecting yourself and your community around you. Even if you are vaccinated, please do continue to get tested, especially if you have symptoms, are exposed to a known case, or before/after traveling. To schedule a test, visit www.sccFreeTest.org.
Vaccine Eligibility Expanded
Beginning March 15th, those that are 16-64 with pre-existing health conditions, disabilities, illness, living spaces, or work environments that put them at higher risk for serious COVID-19 illness are eligible, subject to supply, for the COVID-19 vaccine. Contact your health care provider to see if you're now eligible. Learn more at https://covid19.ca.gov/vaccines/
COVID-19 Cases and Hospitalizations in Santa Clara County
The total number of deaths due to COVID-19 in Santa Clara County is 1,875 as of March 17th, 2021. The total case count has now reached 113,044 with a 7-day rolling average of testing positivity at 1.4%, down from 2.1% the week of March 2nd.
As of March 17th, there were 135 COVID positive patients hospitalized in Santa Clara County (down from 178 the week of March 2nd, 274 the week of Feb 15th, 377 the prior week and 487 the week before that). More data can be found through the Santa Clara County Public Health Department’s Data Dashboards.
County COVID-19 Testing
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center continues to offer free drop-in and appointment-based COVID-19 testing at several locations across the county. Residents can book an appointment for various sites in Vietnamese, Chinese, Spanish, or English. Visit www.sccfreetest.org to search for an available site by City or Date, or to see the complete list of available County testing sites.
County COVID-19 Vaccination
On Friday, March 12th, the County of Santa Clara and the Santa Clara County Office of Education announced that all K-12 education and school employees in the County had now been offered the opportunity to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
The County’s COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboard continues to be updated daily with information about vaccine allocation and administration by healthcare providers throughout the county. The latest updates on vaccine eligibility and how to schedule an appointment are available on the County’s website at sccFreeVax.org. In addition, residents without internet access or who need additional assistance can make appointments for the County Health System vaccine sites through the Valley Connection Call Center at 408-970-2000. The Call Center is open Monday through Friday from 7am to 9pm and Saturday and Sunday from 8am to 4:30pm. Assistance is available in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and other languages.
State Resources Posted on My Website
State resources and services available during the pandemic have been posted on my new website: sd15.sen.ca.gov. Just click on the "COVID-19" link under the “Resources” tab of my website to get connected to some of the most frequently used state resources, including resources for businesses and employers, students, those in need of housing and financial assistance, and more.
As always, please feel free to reach out to me with any questions, comments, or concerns. I can be reached at senator.cortese@sen.ca.gov.
Thank you,
Dave Cortese
