Author: Michael Eckhart (Michael Eckhart)

You may have noticed that I have been away for a short period. And during my time away recovering from a mishap, I was able to take a little time to look at how we as a community act toward the homeless population. I recognize some neighborhoods reach out and I’ve seen groups of people...

It has been more than one year since the first tenants, including me, moved into the county’s first permanent supportive housing project, Second Street Studios in downtown San Jose. What has changed? I can answer that in three words: Not a thing. Let me start at the beginning. On May 7, 2019, we got keys...

I was asked to write a short story about my experience in the military and then take that experience and write a quick couple of paragraphs on my experience as a homeless vet. I can’t do that easily because we are talking about two different times in my life. I went into the military right...

Two weeks ago we watched in horror the ugly side of the San Jose Police Department. For many of us, the aggression and cruelty was a surprise. For the writers of the In Your Backyard column, this was the police force they’d known for decades. Below are three accounts of what it meant to face...