Bramson: Don’t wait for the other shoe 

The wildfires in Los Angeles last month burned more than 12,000 homes and structures, displacing 100,000 people. This happened over the course of just a few devastating weeks. Around the same time on the other side of the country, the federal government briefly issued an executive order that froze funding for more than 2,000 programs that could have resulted in millions of Americans not being able to pay their rent, buy food for their families or meet their basic needs. This happened overnight.

It might just be me, but these days I’m hearing the old lyrics of Tennessee Ernie Ford playing in my head: “If the right one don’t get ya, the left one will…”

And whether it’s the hand of God or the stroke of a bureaucratic pen, the bottom line is too many residents live on the precipice of some kind of economic disaster everyday. And because of a lack of affordable housing, an insane cost of living and an underfunded safety net system, the poorest among us are at the greatest risk when things go bad.

Eight years ago this month, Coyote Creek flooded parts of San Jose. It hit the Rock Springs neighborhood the hardest and more than 300 families lost their homes. Most were renters without flood insurance, while many more were in worse circumstances, without even proof of residence to claim the few available benefits. The folks who lived there had been in that area for some time, and despite lacking the six-figure incomes necessary to live they had figured out a way to make it in Silicon Valley for years. Then, in a blink of an eye, it was all gone. If not for the incredible generosity of the community and the efforts of nonprofit organizations and dedicated volunteers, who knows what would’ve happened to those families.

Now, imagine there are tens of thousands of households who suddenly can’t pay their rent. This happened when the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered businesses and kept so many of us on lockdown. Without a way to make money to pay the bills, many people soon began to wonder how they would feed their loved ones and stay in their homes. But then federal stimulus funding arrived to bring families back from the brink, and local governments went into overdrive to coordinate one of the largest community responses to that we’ve ever seen.

But these are different times. With massive budget deficits looming locally and across the state, fiscal chaos in Washington, D.C. and too many popular causes around the world for philanthropy to sort out, it’s hard to see where we’ll find relief when the going gets tough this time around. A perfect storm is forming of dwindling resources and too much need that will undoubtedly wreak havoc if we don’t prepare for it.

So, that means now more than ever before we need to think, act and give where we can do the most good for as many people as possible. That’s locally in our case.

Fortunately, we have government agencies like Santa Clara County, the Housing Authority and San Jose that are absolutely committed to doing whatever is possible to help here at home. But we need to do our part too. We have to use our voice to support those actions. Then, we have to give what we can of our time, talent, and treasure to make a difference in our own backyard.

It is a time for action, but not just for any faceless issue across the globe. It is a time to show up for our neighbors and let them know we’re all in this together. It is through collective power that we’ll work hard to find a way out.

San José Spotlight columnist Ray Bramson is the chief operating officer at Destination: Home, a nonprofit that works to end homelessness in Silicon Valley. His columns appear every second Monday of the month. Contact Ray at [email protected] or follow @rbramson on X.