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Sac Investment Without Displacement Legal Fund

Sacramento Investment Without Displacement  (SIWD) is a coalition of social justice advocates, neighborhood associations, labor groups, residents, equity-focused organizations and community partners organized to support building healthy communities, housing affordability, preserving cultural traditions, and the stability of neighborhoods impacted by big development projects. Our coalition works in solidarity to achieve Community Benefit Agreements with developers when such projects will adversely impact the communities they are planned in. We work to find ways to mitigate the impacts on the health, happiness and prosperity of our neighborhoods, particularly when a development is located in a traditionally excluded community of color. We work to make development projects better.

SIWD has identified the potential harmful impacts of University of California Med Center Aggie Square development as a major concern for some of Sacramento’s most under-served and historically excluded neighborhoods, including areas of Sacramento that have already been experiencing gentrification and displacement of residents over the last decade, such as Oak Park, Colonial Heights, Tahoe Park and the Stockton Boulevard corridor.

Let us be clear: We support the Aggie Square development in concept, but we feel that the University of California has not met the minimum required health and housing mitigations to protect the surrounding neighborhoods from further harm.

Why we need your help:

On December 21, 2020, Sacramento Investment Without Displacement (SIWD) filed a Petition for a Writ of Mandate in Superior Court. SIWD and our members had submitted comments on the University of California's DRAFT Environmental Impact Report for the Aggie Square development. Our comments reflected our analysis that their draft EIR was inadequate in discussing and proposing mitigations for the impacts that the Aggie Square development will have on the surrounding neighborhoods. The University of California subsequently certified a FINAL EIR without adequately addressing these concerns. When no action was taken to provide the required mitigations, we had no choice but to file a lawsuit to demand they comply with the CA Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the minimum standards required by law.

The primary causes of action in our petition are as follows:

Inadequate analysis of, and mitigation for significant impacts on housing demand in the immediately surrounding disadvantaged communities and the secondary environmental effects (air quality, GHG, health) of that housing demand impact; and

Inadequate analysis of, and mitigation for, significant impacts on transportation, GHG, air quality and associated health impacts on the surrounding community due to increased vehicular volume of both campus employees living elsewhere in the region and existing community residents who will be displaced.

The University of California’s long-range plans for the Sacramento Campus, including Phase 1, “Aggie Square,” could be an exciting opportunity to benefit the UC Davis Medical Center, the City of Sacramento, and immediately surrounding neighborhoods alike—but only if the appropriate measures are taken to ensure the existing residents of the surrounding communities equitably benefit from the planned improvements. Absent sufficient mitigation of the housing and transportation impacts of Aggie Square and additional phases of the long-range plan, The University of California's actions will exacerbate existing housing inequities and drive further displacement.

Neighborhoods such as Oak Park have experienced historic redlining and unprecedented gentrification and resident displacement, and the lawsuit is necessary to maintain any leverage, to ensure our community does not experience re-segregation. We need the University of California to take appropriate measures to ensure existing residents of these surrounding communities equitably benefit from the planned improvements and are not displaced.

We need your help now to help us with our legal fund. Though the attorney we have retained is very generous and is working with SIWD at a discounted rate, we still need to raise a substantial legal fund because the lawsuit may take many months to reach a resolution in the courts, or through negotiations and a settlement. We need your help to sustain our efforts through the coming months.

Any level of support is appreciated and will go directly to the SIWD Legal Fund. No one organization will benefit from the donations. SIWD is in the process of applying for 501c3 tax exemption. Your contribution will be received by our tax-exempt fiscal sponsor, Organize Sacramento, so it is deductible as a charitable donation. 100% of your contribution minus GoFundMe fees will go directly to SIWD's legal fund." Organize Sacramento's Tax ID# is: 46-1869541

Please make a donation today.

In Solidarity,
The Sacramento Investment Without Displacement Coalition
SIWD Website 

Coalition Partners:

Oak Park Neighborhood Association
Tahoe Park Neighborhood Association
Sacramento Area Congregations Together (SacACT)
Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS)
Organize Sacramento
Walk Sacramento
Latinos United
Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE)
The Sacramento Housing Alliance
UPTE 9119 - University Professional and Technical Employees, CWA 
Sacramento Building Healthy Communities
Sacramento Community Land Trust
Local Residents
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Donations 

  • Anonymous
    • $200 
    • 3 yrs
  • Charlene Jones
    • $100 
    • 3 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $25 
    • 3 yrs
  • Robin Durston
    • $25 
    • 3 yrs
  • Mohammad Kashmiri
    • $100 
    • 3 yrs
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Organizer

Tamie Dramer
Organizer
Sacramento, CA

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