B'field and Kern County—city and county gov'ts—eschewed scattershot and uncoordinated homelessness efforts (sound familiar?) and instead utilized multi-layered, integrated management techniques familiar to successful tech startups. Result: first big CA city to reach homelessness functional zero. Community Solutions explains.
Read MoreThe California Legislature will not be tightening the state's rent control law this year—but local rent control advocates like Ash Kalra are still trying to keep the deeply misguided concept around. Reason mag reports.
Read MoreJon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Ass'n blames an addiction to short-term thinking and unserious executive leadership. From his HJTA weekly column.
Read MoreAhead of SJ’s State of the City address this Saturday, Opp Now contributors Ron Kirkish and Jim Zito praise Mayor Mahan’s attentiveness to the homelessness epidemic—and ask how we’re measuring success. Ongoing costs. And our target date for “functional zero.” An exclusive.
Read MoreIf we follow online algorithms to value attention over connection, our voice—when discussing politics, culture, etc.—loses its power and depth. Enlightening conversations become banal transactions. Below, an excellent Substack article on reclaiming complex, real, even risky communication (and the Opp Now team smiles behind our glowing laptops :-)).
Read MoreP. W. Robinson is a homeless advocate and was formerly homeless himself. He responds to the misguided criticism that some politicians (including SJ councilpeople) raise about shelters, while offering a clear-eyed perspective on why shelters may not be right—right now—for all our unhoused neighbors. From CalMatters.
Read MoreExcessive biz regulations. Unfunded pensions galore. All while core services—and, um, individual liberty—go to the wayside. Should Mayor Mahan propose a local Gov’t Efficiency revival in his State of the City? An Opp Now exclusive with Peter Verbica, Starchild, and Johnny Khamis.
Read MoreLocal Salvation Army coordinator Major Daniel Freeman believes there’s a place for Permanent Supportive Housing—but it’s not a “cookie-cutter fix” for everyone. With that, he applauds San Jose’s expanding beyond Housing First to explore more interim, sober, and treatment-based options. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreContributors Gregg Dieguez and Lance Christensen recommend that Mayor Mahan discusses (reining in) gov’t bloat and inefficiencies in his State of the City address. Like unproductive churn on homelessness. Or—you guessed it—VTA. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreCA Policy Center’s Edward Ring urges Mayor Mahan, below, to “tell the whole truth” about SJ’s bureaucratic–nonprofit approach to homelessness in his State of the City. Namely, that decades and billions of dollars later, we barely have any (positive) results to show for it. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreMost SCC shelters welcome women with kids, or families, but not single women. Thus, roughly 17% of the County’s homeless single women are left waiting, every night, for a shelter bed to open up for them. Salvation Army’s Major Daniel Freeman unpacks the implications—and some unique needs and opportunities—in this Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreMajor Daniel Freeman in Silicon Valley discusses how drug-free environments promote security and recovery for homeless individuals, while saving (a lot of) money on operations. An Opp Now exclusive.
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