Ray Bramson

Chief Operating Officer, Destination: Home

Housing and Homelessness Columnist

Column contributed second Monday of every month

Ray works systematically to meet Destination: Home’s goals by addressing key staffing, process, and infrastructure issues, while also overseeing the organization’s housing loan portfolio, grantmaking, and development functions.

Having focused on homelessness and affordable housing issues for the majority of his career, Ray previously worked for the city of San Jose, leading the city’s Homelessness Interventions and Solutions Division for over five years.

Prior to joining the city, he was a philanthropy manager at Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and before that Ray worked with HomeFirst–a Santa Clara County safety net organization–as director of development.

An alumnus of UC Santa Barbara, Ray spent the year following his graduation with the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps serving impoverished communities throughout the southeastern United States. He is a senior fellow with American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley and a board member for Housing Matters. Ray is also currently pursuing his Masters in Liberal Arts from Stanford University.

Socials

Columns

People sit at round tables at a conference on homelessness

December 9, 2024December 9, 2024by Ray Bramson

Bramson: Setting the table

Last month, Destination: Home and the National Coalition for the Homeless co-hosted a lived experience leadership conference in San Jose. It was the first of its kind on the West Coast, welcoming over 350 participants from 40 states and two provinces in Canada. The three-day event was designed by people who had faced homelessness or...

Columns

November 11, 2024November 15, 2024by Ray Bramson

Bramson: Losing the path home

Last year, the U.S. government spent $67 billion on housing assistance for low-income residents. That’s approximately 1% of the total federal budget. This disproportionately small slice of the pie is nothing new. In fact, with the exception of a spike during COVID, the trend of drastic underinvestment actually continues a long-standing practice of little to...

Columns

People at voting booths inside an elections office

October 14, 2024October 14, 2024by Ray Bramson

Bramson: Setting expectations for housing and homelessness on the 2024 ballot

This November you’re not going to see any money for affordable housing on the ballot locally. Nor will you see funding to help support people living on the streets or in deep poverty. There are a lot of reasons for why it ended up this way, but the bottom line is that your vote this...

More news