Agenda Item # 8.1 - Trista Bauman | Received 05/04/2022CAUTION: This email originated from an External Source. Please use proper judgment and caution when opening
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From:Tristia Bauman
To:City Clerk
Subject:EXTERNAL - Fund the South County Compassion Center
Date:Wednesday, May 4, 2022 10:41:58 AM
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Hello,
My name is Tristia Bauman, and I am a resident of Gilroy, CA. I am also the senior attorney at
the National Homelessness Law Center and have become familiar with the South County
Compassion Center in my professional and personal capacities. I write to provide my strong
recommendation that the Compassion Center be funded by available CDBG and HTF funding.
The Compassion Center is a critical resource for our Gilroy community. They not only serve
our poorest and most vulnerable neighbors, but they also help to mitigate the effects of
unsheltered homelessness in our community by helping people meet their basic human needs
and access housing. The Compassion Center has a proven track record of moving around 100
people from homelessness to homes each year. That work is invaluable, for the people served
and for the quality of our community. There is no other service provider in south Santa Clara
County that offers their vital services.
The Compassion Center uses its resources efficiently, and it fulfills its contract obligations.
Reducing funding to the Compassion Center at a time when unsheltered homelessness is
dramatically increasing will only result in more people living outside, more burden on our
emergency services infrastructure, more suffering by our poorest residents, and more
complaints about unsheltered homelessness in the City of Gilroy.
The Compassion Center is a good investment, and I urge you to support their work with
available federal funding.
Sincerely,
Tristia
Tristia Bauman (she/her) | Senior Attorney
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a: 2000 M Street NW, Suite 750-E, Washington, DC 20036
e: tbauman@nlchp.org | w: homelesslaw.org
p: 202-638-2535 Ext. 102
This information is not offered as legal advice and should not be used as a substitute for seeking
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