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
A crowd cheering at an election night watch party in San Jose, California
November 10, 2025November 10, 2025by

Bramson: Counting wins amid a crisis

November is National Homelessness Awareness Month — a time when we confront the uncomfortable truth that in the richest place on earth, too many people still live without a home. More than 770,000 Americans are unhoused nationwide, the highest number ever recorded. But here’s the part we often miss: homelessness is not inevitable. It’s not...

Columns
A woman speaks at a podium with a crowd of people behind her holding signs
October 13, 2025October 10, 2025by

Bramson: A measure for community health

When people talk about ending homelessness, the conversation almost always starts with housing. And for good reason—without a safe, stable home, it’s nearly impossible for anyone to rebuild their life. But there’s another piece of this crisis we don’t talk about enough: health. You can’t recover from homelessness if you can’t access health care. You...

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