Legislators in Florida, Georgia, and Utah are fed up, and took steps this year to redirect funds away from the deeply flawed Housing First approach to homelessness, and towards policies built on rehabilitation and behavioral health services, with the ultimate goal of independence from government support. Devon Kurtz from the Cicero Institute explains in City Journal.
Read MoreThirty-four. That's how many felonies with which the fired boss of the scandal-plauged SF SAFE nonprofit was recently charged. Allegations include misappropriation of public money, submitting fraudulent invoices, theft, wage theft and check fraud. Recent state and federal audits have also daylighted irregularities with South Bay-based non profits regarding taxpayer-funded housing programs. SF Standard continues to show how local news should be covered.
Read MoreSF City staff has started towing RVs from a controversial encampment near the San Francisco Zoo. The move is part of Mayor Breed's commitment to get more "aggressive" about addressing inhumane, illegal, and unsafe homeless encampments. SF Standard is on the story.
Read MoreIt's only early August, but change is in the air. Days a little shorter. Kids going back to school. Calibunga only open on weekends. But still--summer lingers. And Peter Coe Verbica catches it all in his rooted-in-the-South-Bay-foothills free verse. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreA measure on the November ballot that would double LA County's quarter-cent homeless sales tax does not yet have enough support to pass. Doug Smith reports for the LA Times.
Read MoreThe Los Angeles City Council approved a motion last Friday allowing the immediate towing of illegally parked vehicles, including RVs, across large areas of the city. Previously, the LAPD was required to ensure vehicles were unoccupied and to offer housing outreach services before towing. The always-enlightening Westside Currents reports.
Read MoreWhat was the BAHFA board thinking when they tried to muscle through RM4--a clearly misguided and mis-timed mammoth new tax? Marc Joffe of the California Policy Institute suggests arrogance and hive-mind may have blinded the board from what citizens were really thinking.
Read MoreThe defeat of RM4 showed that regular people of all political stripes can come together in the Bay Area and defend taxpayers from poorly designed policy measures, says Gus Mattammal, President of 20BillionReasons, the victorious grass-roots group that opposed RM4. {Ed. note: And let's ponder this: just one Bay Area resident found an embarrassing math error that played a huge role in knocking RM4 off the ballot.} In this Opp Now exclusive, Mattammal stresses how important it is for concerned Bay Areans to organize across party lines early and build a strong ground game.
Read MoreIn honor of CSO Long Pham's life and service, the office of Councilmember Bien Doan will be holding a candlelight vigil on Thursday, August 22, at 7:30 PM at the Vietnamese Heritage Garden, located at 1499 Roberts Ave, San Jose, CA 95112. Below, comments from Doan.
Read MoreWhile local pols, SJ City staff, and housing 'advocates' clamor for more and more destructive rent control, the facts on the ground undermine their arguments. Newsweek reports on how the reform-minded admin in Argentina put a chainsaw to the country's pernicious rent control regime, and affordable housing flourished.
Read MoreA critical new federal audit calls out California for doing too little to prevent fraudulent spending of homelessness funds. Nearly $320 million was at risk. Calmatters explains.
Read MoreEven though County Supe Susan Ellenberg is peddling wild conspiracy theories to explain the demise of the ill-conceived regional housing bond, RM4, the reasons for why it was pulled from the ballot are pretty straightforward: Bay Area voters are already taxed to the breaking point. The bond wouldn't make much of a dent in local affordable housing. And most of the huge monies requested wouldn't even go to building new housing. Thomas Buckley explores in California Globe.
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