Sunnyvale nonprofit opens bigger digs with clients in mind
As a nonprofit that provides rental and food assistance to low-income residents, Sunnyvale Community Services (SCS) has had its own housing issues over the years.
At an Oct. 28 ribbon cutting to celebrate the opening of its new 36,000-squarefoot facility at 1160 Kern Ave., SCS Executive Director Marie Bernard recalled that the nonprofit was founded in 1970 “in a closet” at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Sunnyvale.
“We worked out of whatever space we could get for free,” she said.
The new facility didn’t come for free, and SCS launched what Bernard called an “unprecedented” capital campaign to raise $20 million for its renovation and operation. To date, the campaign has raised $17 million, with $1 million donations from the Applied Materials Foundation, Google.org, Jay Paul, LinkedIn and Lynn and Bill Crane.
The City of Sunnyvale loaned SCS $2.58 million toward the effort. The city also bought the old SCS building on Kifer Road, then leased it back to the nonprofit for $1 a year until SCS could move into its new digs.
This arrangement proved even more necessary when the pandemic hit and SCS served an all-time high of 10,318 clients, providing $17 million in rental assistance in 2020.
“We never closed,” Bernard said.
“It’s been difficult to see how the community need has increased, especially during COVID,” said Mayor
Larry Klein. “But SCS has met the need.”
The new facility is designed to be client-centric, starting with the food distribution area, which boasts 10 times the freezer space and double the warehouse space of the old building. The Sunnyvale Lions Club and Second Harvest of Silicon Valley both donated forklifts so that staff and volunteers no longer have to unload food palettes by hand.
The office area has hoteling desks for other county agencies to use “so people don’t have to go to San Jose for services,” SCS Development Director Tom Hamilton said during a tour of the building. There are 10 conference rooms for private client meetings.
“I shared my office at old space, so I had very few confidential meetings,” Hamilton said.
Now Hamilton has his own office, and the nonprofit’s 50 staff members all have their own workspaces.
When in 1983 SCS moved to “what seemed to be a huge 12,000-square-foot building on Kifer Road,” staff numbered in the single digits.
We thought we’d never outgrow it,” Bernard said of the old site. “In 2017 our board saw we were bursting at the seams and couldn’t stay where we were.”
Now that the move has been made, Bernard said, SCS is looking to raise the final $3 million of its capital campaign.
“We’re about to launch the public phase of our campaign to reach our goal to be debt-free and have reserves,” she told those gathered at the ribbon cutting.
To donate, contact Bernard at mbernard@svcommunityservices.org. For more information, visit svcommunityservices.org.