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.

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Columns

Tents at an outdoor safe sleeping site for homeless residents in San Jose, California

September 8, 2025September 8, 2025by Ray Bramson

Bramson: We’re triaging homelessness, but not treating its root causes

Walk into any emergency room and you’ll see it: triage. Doctors and nurses move fast to stabilize, assess and keep patients alive. It’s lifesaving work — but no one would confuse it with treatment. That comes later, when the root causes are addressed, not just the symptoms. Right now, our homelessness response is looking more...

Columns

An aerial view of trees and houses in San Jose

August 11, 2025August 11, 2025by Ray Bramson

Bramson: When deep affordability and tax cuts collide

I was at a community meeting in San Jose last month when a housing advocate passed around a photo of families in a newly built affordable complex. The smiles were real. Parents didn’t just gain housing — they gained hope, stability and a foothold in a place where the median home now hovers near $2...

Columns

A homeless encampment along a creek in San Jose

July 14, 2025July 14, 2025by Ray Bramson

Bramson: What federal budgets cuts could mean at home

It’s easy to miss the potential impact of federal budget cuts when you live above the fray. If you’ve got a job, a home and a cushion in your checking account, Washington’s latest budget proposal might sound like just another headline. But if you’re one of the thousands of extremely low-income or homeless residents in...

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