Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, District 5
Sally J Lieber
My vision for our County is one of promotion of health, growth, equity and opportunity. Empowering services based on the holistic needs of children and families in our communities are essential, with wrap around services for those in need, engagement of families, recognition of the strengths of all families, and cross system coordination.
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Over 80% of voters polled say they want elected officials to prioritize children and families. What are the top three issues affecting our children and families and how will you make our region a place where all families can thrive?
The top three issues affecting families in our communities are the high cost of housing, the cost/supply of childcare, and the need for social, health, and environmental justice.
Housing costs are quickly outstripping the ability of families to pay, and short-term shelter space is unavailable. Families facing possible displacement are crowded into inadequate spaces or faced with moving hours away from family and community support. It’s clear that we must create new workforce housing for all family sizes.
Similarly, we must address the affordability crisis in childcare, transit and other necessities, ensure access to green spaces and safe routes for biking and walking, and ensure living wages -
High quality childcare improves school readiness and parents' workforce participation. What will you do to improve access to high quality childcare and preschool programs in our diverse communities?
We must address affordability, supply, quality, and providers quality of life!
Home-based care is culturally proficient and accessible but may need infrastructure improvements and other supports like substitute teachers. A registry of substitutes would help greatly.
Home care will become even more challenged as transitional kindergartens pick up more young children, leaving an imbalance of too many infants and very young children and not enough toddlers and older preschool children to balance workload.
Part of the answer is to develop more childcare spaces and to demand more accountability from large entities such as Alphabet/Google and Stanford, who have reduced or eliminated childcare. -
Much of the student achievement gap has been linked to the opportunity gap that children in low-income families and children of color confront (e.g., lack of access to healthy food, preschool, tutors, and enrichment activities). If elected, what will you do to increase equity of opportunity?
It’s time for the County to convene an all of government and private sector approach to break through silos. We must develop the next workplan to address the fact that work is no longer sufficient to support most families and that families spend an inordinate amount of time qualifying and requalifying for benefits that keep them marginally afloat.
We must look at assets, as currently many families don’t have financial bandwidth to sustain even a modest emergency need for funds, let alone a major one, like having to move.
Families also need open access legal help and social workers need greater capacity in their workload to have the time to really shepherd families in getting needed services. -
What steps will you take to improve inclusion and outcomes for children with disabilities and their families in our community?
We need many more open-door services for children and family members with disabilities in our County and in our state. More pathways to find caregivers are needed and we must do more to provide needed information and improve the capacity of services.
Equity demands that we make more healthcare and childcare services to families living with a disability and do more to ensure that schools are prepared for children with a disability, especially in the earliest grades.
Families living with a disability also need help with housing, employment, and other supports. We can make their lives easier and make a system with huge gaps more seamless. -
If elected, how will you use the resources of your new role to improve children's well-being and access to mental and behavioral health services?
The County must develop an intense rapid response system when learning of local facilities for in-patient care closing. We must also navigate the removal of mental health funds (Prop 63) skillfully and assist community organizations that are feeling this loss.
We must also help our service providers survive the transition to CalAIM, a new way of making payment for services that the State is implementing. Its roll-out has been difficult and service providers are being forced to accept reduced reimbursements from the State for services provided in the community.
We must navigate changes in Medi-Cal coverage in a way that meets the needs of our communities. Open, robust access is the goal.