There were 437 homelessness families tallied across the city, marking an alarming 94% jump since 2022. The data highlights the daunting challenge of tackling the crisis in an expensive city amid a lack of affordable housing, a surge in migrant families and a fentanyl crisis.
Read MoreDo non profits put their tax-exempt status at risk when they help organize university protests? Or protests outside of SJ City Hall? Eugene Volokh at Reason says: "not for the viewpoints they express." {Full disclosure: Opp Now is a 501(c)(3) non profit}
Read MoreAn exclusive investigation by the Westside Current has uncovered more than 1,200 vacant City-owned apartments and motel rooms that are supposed to be providing interim or permanent supportive housing to homeless people in LA have never been occupied. N.E.V.E.R.
Read MoreCA Policy Center's Lance Christensen says the legal maneuvering to deny citizens the right to vote on the Taxpayers' Protection Act runs contrary to constitutional and democratic norms.
Read MoreWhile our San Jose City Council continues to enable the Housing Department to misspend hundreds of millions of SJ taxpayer dollars every year, real people are left to live in San Jose’s creek and riverbeds, creating massive environmental damage. And state and federal agencies threaten to slap stiff fines on SJ if our waterways are not cleaned up. Dean Hotop, a concerned citizen of San Jose, outlines the steps ordinary citizens can take to compel city government to deliver results, rather than just writing big checks to nonprofits that do little to solve problems.
Read MoreIll-informed spokespeople went to local media this week, falsely saying it's not typical for cities like SJ to get punished with substantial fines if we don't clean up our waterways, which are environmentally damaged by prolific creekside homelessness encampments. While local media accepted the misinformation at face-value, alert Opp Now readers noticed that the spokesperson is peddling untruths. In fact, SJ already has been subjected to more than $100k in fines for polluted waterways, back in June, 2016. Paul Rogers and Ramona Giwargis reported for the Merc.
Read MoreEchoing the blistering critique of SJ's homelessness programs by the state auditor, District 7 CM Bien Doan, in a 5.14 Study Session, called out staff's ongoing dissembling and evasions regarding the humanitarian crisis on our streets and creek beds (Edited for brevity)
Read MoreCA schools were supposed to work in tandem, from UC’s down to CCC’s like Santa Clara’s Mission College. Today, they suffer from “mission creep”—degree inflation, union power grabs, and administrative bloat now cannibalize resources and inflate tuitions. California Policy Center’s Peter Constant (not the former SJ CM) suggests revisiting the Master Plan.
Read MoreLast month, AG Rob Bonta charged LA DA George Gascón’s head of ethics Diana Teran with improperly using confidential police officer personnel information in court or before a trial. Gascón faced recalls in SF and LA for soft-on-crime policies. Despite an informational black hole from the AG’s office Thomas Buckley of California Globe points out that Teran’s alleged misuse of documents could potentially have satisfied the DA’s ideological mission to help inmates get out early.
Read MoreIndependent Leadership Group and United Housing alliance chief Irene Smith continues her call for a local Non Profit Registry by highlighting how local NPO mismanagement of affordable and Permanent Supportive Housing negatively impacts both tenants and neighborhoods with increased crime, fires, and blight. From Medium.
Read MoreSF Standard updates an ongoing story about a parade of nonprofits that have been swept up in investigations by the city, including J&J Community Resource Center, which was barred from funding in February after allegedly swindling at least $100,000 in reimbursements for things like booze, cigars and motorcycles. The newest NPO under the microscope: Providence Foundation.
Read MoreRoberta Moore of SJ's Housing and Community Development Commission (HCDC), takes issue with the hyperbolic comments from the subsidized, affordable housing lobby and calls for greater accountability and cost-effectiveness in SJ's housing policy. From a letter Moore wrote to members of the SJ City Council.
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