We can solve homelessness in San Jose. We have effective, proven solutions but continue to lack the resources needed to scale them to meet the enormous need in our community. But, the good news is that on Tuesday, March 3, San Jose voters can help achieve this goal by voting in support of Measure E....

In my recent State of the County address, I highlighted the county’s success with the voter-approved Measure A housing bond. Measure A is ahead of schedule, almost halfway to building more than 4,000 new permanent homes for the homeless. This week, I called for the county to double down on Measure A — to put...

I was very disappointed that the Mercury News failed to mention me as a San Jose City Council candidate for District 6 in its Jan. 21 endorsement editorial. By not mentioning the only District 6 candidate who grew up in the lower-income neighborhoods of District 6, in which income disparity, affordable housing, public safety and...

In a San José Spotlight op-ed published on Jan. 16, Pat Waite argued that Measure E — a property transfer tax on properties worth over $2 million which is slated for the March ballot — represented a money-grab by the city that would fail to deliver on its promises of increasing the city’s capability to...

Last year, the city of San Jose’s point-in-time count, a federally mandated count of the area’s homeless population, showed that homelessness spiked 42% in the last two years. Today, for every one person we house, three more become homeless. On any given day, there are more than 5,000 residents living on our city’s streets, however,...

On Jan. 7, an inspired group of homeless working mothers called Moms 4 Housing boldly disrupted a press conference by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and other Democratic Party leaders promoting state Senate Bill 50. The moms spoke out because they saw SB 50 as a ploy by speculators like Wedgewood Properties, which was...

The painful evidence of our current housing crisis is in full view in our neighborhoods, on city streets and along creeks as homeless camps continue to grow out of a desperation caused by the lack of affordable housing and temporary shelter. At government meetings and community gatherings, we often hear, “Why isn’t somebody doing something...

As school districts throughout California return for the second half of the school year, every single school district will be forced to continue dealing with a local crisis created by Sacramento, the issue of full funding for California’s schools. As Sacramento continues utilizing its local control funding formula, the truth of the matter is that...

In Sept. 2019, the San Jose City Council unanimously declared a climate emergency in the face of worsening weather conditions and growing concerns about climate change’s effects on the city. Before this declaration, the city instituted Climate Smart San Jose, a climate plan that made San Jose one of the first U.S. cities to align...

Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility strongly encourages San Jose voters to reject San Jose Measure E, the real property transfer tax measure, projected to raise about $50 million annually, purportedly toward addressing our affordable housing and homelessness problems. Our opposition is based on several concerns. For starters, providing affordable housing is not one of San Jose’s...