Razing the Bar holds the lease on homes across Santa Clara County, so a credit check, a rental history, or a missing co-signer never stands in the way.
Nothing has to be proven first. The home comes first, and everything else is built inside it.
What we build inside it
A home, and eight services inside it.
Housing
A home Razing the Bar holds the lease on, with a private room, while the young person works toward a lease in their own name.
Mentoring and case management
One named Community Mentor for the whole stay, working toward goals the young person chooses.
Life skills
Cooking, budgeting, and running a home, taught where the young person already lives, plus the cooking workshops.
Housing search and counseling
Finding the next home, understanding a lease, and moving into a home in their own name.
Education
Enrollment, financial aid, and credentials, from a first class to a certificate.
Employment
Paid work experience as a host site for the County’s Intern & Earn program, and a career pathway into community health work.
Food
The Friday Community Market and shared meals, so no one is choosing between food and everything else.
Transportation
Getting to work, school, appointments, and the people who matter.
Outreach
Finding young people where they are and connecting them to the door that opens.
WHAT WE DO
A home first.
Then everything
a home needs.
A home that Razing the Bar holds the lease on, and eight services built inside it, until the lease is in the young person’s own name.
Housing.
Razing the Bar holds the lease on homes across Santa Clara County, so a credit check, a rental history, or a missing co-signer never stands in the way.
Nothing has to be proven first. The home comes first, and everything else is built inside it.
A home, and eight
services inside it.
Housing
A home Razing the Bar holds the lease on, with a private room, while the young person works toward a lease in their own name.
Mentoring and case management
One named Community Mentor for the whole stay, working toward goals the young person chooses.
Life skills
Cooking, budgeting, and running a home, taught where the young person already lives, plus the cooking workshops.
Housing search and counseling
Finding the next home, understanding a lease, and moving into a home in their own name.
Education
Enrollment, financial aid, and credentials, from a first class to a certificate.
Employment
Paid work experience as a host site for the County’s Intern & Earn program, and a career pathway into community health work.
Food
The Friday Community Market and shared meals, so no one is choosing between food and everything else.
Transportation
Getting to work, school, appointments, and the people who matter.
Outreach
Finding young people where they are and connecting them to the door that opens.
Eligible supportive services: 24 C.F.R. § 578.53(e).
The order
is the method.
Move in.
A young person referred through the County’s Coordinated Entry System moves into a home Razing the Bar holds the lease on.
Meet their mentor.
A mentor is assigned for the whole stay and meets with them every week.
Build the skills.
Documents, benefits, food, money, health coverage, and school, one step at a time.
Earn.
Paid work experience, a credential, and a path to a career.
Sign their own lease.
The lease moves into their own name, and the people stay.
The goal is permanence.
Every part of the model points to four outcomes that last after Razing the Bar steps back.
A home in their own name, without a return to homelessness.
People who stay, who are not paid to be there.
School, financial aid, and credentials within reach.
Income, a job, and a career path.
Local work.
Global goals.
The model contributes to eight of the seventeen United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
No Poverty
Income, benefits, and a bank account.
Zero Hunger
The weekly market and shared meals.
Good Health
Health coverage and a connection to care.
Quality Education
Enrollment, financial aid, and credentials.
Decent Work
Paid work experience and a career pathway.
Reduced Inequalities
Lived experience valued across the team.
Sustainable Communities
Homes held in the community.
Partnerships
Public agencies, foundations, and collaborators.
Source: United Nations, The 17 Goals.
Why it works.
How we know.
Fund the whole model.
A home, and the eight services that keep it. One gift builds all of it.