Tom Myers reaches 25-years leading Community Services Agency

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Community Services Agency Executive Director Tom Myers in his office during an interview on Dec. 2, 2019. Photo by Magali Gauthier.

For a quarter of a century, Tom Myers has been the face of Mountain View’s social safety net services. The longtime executive director of Community Services Agency in Mountain View, Myers has stuck around through everything from the dot-com bust to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The nonprofit is looking to celebrate the milestone next month, with an event planned on Oct. 24 to commemorate his work to support underserved residents in Mountain View and Los Altos.

Before joining CSA in 1999, Myers had served in the Peace Corps in West Africa, later working as a community organizer in the Bay Area during the AIDS epidemic. During his tenure, CSA has grown to serve thousands of residents each year. Clients range from the chronically homeless to those at risk of displacement, with a more recent focus on seniors who face social isolation or are stretched thin on fixed incomes.

Even during economically prosperous times, CSA has faced a higher demand for services and had to pivot to meet changing needs under Myers’ leadership, particularly with climbing rates of homelessness in the Bay Area. Hardly the soup kitchen of years past, the nonprofit’s headquarters on Stierlin Road is now the bustling site of daily food pantry services and frequent visits by clients in need of financial support.

Though geared towards supporting low-income residents, CSA also operates one of the largest senior nutrition programs in the county, providing tens of thousands of cooked meals each year.

Myers was particularly involved in CSA’s response to COVID and the subsequent rental assistance program. Just days after the pandemic lockdowns went into effect, the city launched a rental assistance program aimed at keeping renters housed as unemployment spiked, with CSA the sole agency responsible for carrying it out. The program ran independently of county-level assistance programs, which quickly ran dry, and ballooned from $500,000 in funding to $2.6 million.

Myers wrote at the time that CSA had to drastically scale up its operations, going from about 20 rental assistance cases per month to over 1,100 applications for assistance in April 2020.

Though historically cautious about advocating on policy and political issues, Myers was vocal in asking local officials to extend the eviction moratorium during the worst of the pandemic, with the stay on evictions frequently extended just days before expiring.

Outside of CSA, Myers serves on the board of directors for Hope’s Corner, a nonprofit meal service operating out of Trinity United Methodist Church, and Alta Housing, a nonprofit housing developer with projects in Mountain View. In the past, he served as chair of the board for the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce, and was the first chair on the city’s Human Relations Committee.

“Myers’ empathy, dedication, and ability to connect with people from all walks of life have made him an invaluable asset,” according to a CSA statement. “As CSA celebrates Myers’ remarkable 25 years of service, the organization looks forward to continuing to build on his legacy.”

The 25th anniversary event will be held on Thursday, Oct. 24, with Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian speaking at the gathering.