Comment - 21841 - Maya Paulo

The CalEnviro Screen 5.0 tool does not accurately reflect the population and environmental characteristics that are generating the score that determines if certain communities will get public funding. Certain communities histories and realities are not being accurately reflected for this tool, because the community characteristic factor is outweighing other factors. For example, historically underserved and low-income communities in the Peninsula such as East Palo Alto and Belle Haven have been undergoing extreme gentrification in the past 5 years due to the influx of major tech companies moving in like META, driving up housing prices. These companies bring in more affluent, employed individuals, while the community of older, low-income, disadvantaged folks remain. Just because the characteristics of the community are changing, does not mean the environment is getting better in these regions, the screening tool is just not created to examine these communities as a whole. The screening tool needs to be reworked to take into account the major gentrification of specific historically marginalized urban communities, or the existing DAC categories from 2017 should be honored.