Archive for August 2023

The Associated Press breaks down a puzzling new development in California’s Labor saga: Local unions are now demanding they receive State unemployment benefits while on strike. However, CA’s post-“surplus” budget has little, if no, wiggle room for the amenity. The bill, introduced this week, would make California just the third state to do this, joining…

Valley Water is introducing two new approaches to combating pollution created by homeless encampments near creeks—portable toilets and debit cards. The water district announced earlier this week that it will place portable toilets and wash stations at 20 key sites near homeless encampments along the creeks through an initiative called the Portable Toilet Facilities Program. It also…

Santa Clara County officials are inching closer to creating a new health clinic in the West Valley that will help underserved community members and offer college students a lens into the field of medicine. The Board of Supervisors is currently in discussion with the Foothill-De Anza Community College District to establish a neighborhood clinic, the…

A long-standing homeless shelter north of downtown San Jose is planning an expansion and Santa Clara County officials are hoping to coordinate support for the project. The Salvation Army’s Emmanuel House shelter at its 359 N. Fourth St. campus is set to grow from 70 beds to 112 during a 10-month renovation project slated for…

Joe Dehn and Brian Holtz—respectively the Santa Clara County Libertarian Party’s chair and secretary—parse last Tuesday’s vote by the SJ City Council to boost city workers’ paychecks by 14.5% over three years. Raising salaries that are, by and large, already competitive creates short-term goodwill between pols/Labor, but needlessly shifts funds away from core services. An…

A South Bay senator is hoping to speed up affordable housing production statewide with a new bill aimed at trimming back red tape in California’s main environmental law. State Sen. Dave Cortese’s bill, SB 406, would grant local agencies who help fund affordable housing an exemption from a provision of California’s Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) that…

San Jose officials are considering banning homeless encampments and RVs around schools even as homeless advocates decry the move, saying it further criminalizes an already marginalized group of people. A proposal to prohibit homeless people and their vehicle dwellings within 150 feet of most city preschools, day cares and K-12 schools will go before the San Jose City Council in coming weeks after it…

Homeless advocates often misread and misinterpret the Martin v Boise legal decision as suggesting that cities can’t get rid of dangerous and unsanitary homeless encampments until some magical number of beds are available. The City of San Diego is leading the way in California with their no-camping ordinance. Irene Smith, president and co-founder of Independent…