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Some of the legislation would be the first of its kind in the nation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The fire-insurance provider of last resort\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One measure would put the state’s top two lawmakers on the governing committee of the FAIR Plan, the association of insurance companies that’s required by law to provide fire insurance to property owners who can’t find it anywhere else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FAIR Plan \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2025/02/homeowners-insurance-costs-rising-in-california-fair-plan/\">said last month that it was at risk of running out of money\u003c/a> due to claims from the L.A. fires and asked for a $1 billion lifeline. Its member insurance companies were on the hook for that amount, and could try to pass along up to half of the cost to their customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan has become more important over the past several years as insurance companies have stopped renewing or writing new policies in California, so state officials have a keen interest in its solvency and ability to serve a growing number of customers. But the plan is not run by the state, it is run by a management team that’s accountable to the pool of insurers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers hope that adding state officials to the group of people overseeing the FAIR Plan will help it run better and improve the lives of its customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The association has grown to such an extent that its financial capacity to pay claims after a catastrophic fire is unlikely,” says \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab234\">Assembly Bill 234\u003c/a>, a bill by Assemblymember Lisa Calderon, a Democrat from the Los Angeles area. “Increased transparency is imperative.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Calderon’s bill calls for the speaker of the Assembly and the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Rules to immediately become non-voting members of the FAIR Plan’s governing committee. Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, who has limited authority over the plan, backs the bill. The FAIR Plan has not taken a position on the legislation, according to plan spokesperson Hilary McLean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the bill passes, California could be the first state to put lawmakers on a FAIR Plan board, although several states have insurance department representatives on boards for their own FAIR Plan equivalents, said Stephen Jablonski, president of Property Insurance Plans Service Office, a nonprofit that tracks state residual property insurance plans.[aside postID=news_12021019 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/CAWildfireSoCal4AP-1020x680.jpg']California’s FAIR Plan would not disclose the members of its governing board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Concerns about the FAIR Plan go beyond its financial stability. As the fire insurance provider of last resort, issues surrounding the way it serves its customers have come up again and again. Placing state officials on the plan’s board could help address some of those issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In early February, Betty Ryder and her husband received a renewal notice for one policy on their Los Angeles-area home but not for their FAIR Plan policy, which is when they discovered that they did not have fire insurance on the property all of last year despite paying for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That meant the couple was uninsured at a time when their home was particularly vulnerable: Ryder and her husband live in Tujunga, a neighborhood that Ryder said was “right between the three fires” that burned in Los Angeles County earlier this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ryder got on the phone with her broker, her mortgage company and a representative from the FAIR Plan to figure out what happened. The agent for the FAIR Plan told her the plan had incorrectly applied someone else’s payment to her account and that it canceled her policy after that realization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So she started writing letters: to the president of the FAIR Plan, to Lara, to her mortgage company, to her broker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was in tears,” she said. “We’re old, we’re in our 70s,” she added, referring to herself and her husband, William.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A week later, a representative from the FAIR Plan told her they found the correct check issued by her mortgage company last year, and that the amount has been applied to her reinstated policy. A relief, but there’s a remaining problem: The Ryders have already paid into their mortgage company’s escrow account for this year’s policy. They have not received a refund for the $5,300 check her mortgage company issued to the FAIR Plan last year, so as of now they have paid double for this year’s policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ryder has not heard back from the FAIR Plan about a possible refund, nor has she received a response from Lara’s insurance department. The department said it has assigned someone to her case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McLean said she would not discuss individual cases with CalMatters. “In the limited instances where the California FAIR Plan is regretfully in error, it works to correct the mistake in its customer’s favor,” McLean wrote in an email. “If the FAIR Plan receives a duplicate payment, the FAIR Plan will refund the duplicate payment with interest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Lili Thompson, an account manager for an insurance agency in Chico, told CalMatters that the FAIR Plan often makes errors, and that she has customers who have had experiences similar to Ryder’s. When they do, it’s hard to get those issues resolved because it’s tough to get the plan to address problems in a timely manner, Thompson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have access to billing information, which is constantly incorrect,” Thompson said. “Payments aren’t applied. Or there’s a balance of 3 cents, or $4 or $10, and they cancel (policies).”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, Thompson submitted a complaint about the FAIR Plan to the Insurance Department in January. It read in part: “Our agency is having significant problems with the FAIR Plan as a whole. Issues with billing, renewals, cancellations have been reoccurring at an alarming rate.”[aside postID=news_12024206 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/240109-CAWindStorm-038-1020x680.jpg']In an emailed response seen by CalMatters, an insurance department compliance officer urged Thompson to tell her clients to file complaints with the department “so we can address their specific situation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/01/california-fire-insurance-2/\">CalMatters wrote about\u003c/a> similar complaints against the FAIR Plan — delays in payments, slow response times, poor customer service — about a year ago. At the time, McLean said the plan was dealing with increased volume and had hired more staff to deal with it all. She also mentioned that the FAIR Plan had transitioned to a new software system and insurance agents and brokers were still learning it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asked what the FAIR Plan has changed in the past year, and why the same types of complaints persist, McLean again pointed to the plan’s “historic growth over the past several years,” and mentioned that it has hired even more staff to deal with claims from the January Palisades and Eaton fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another bill that addresses the FAIR Plan’s financial stability is \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab226\">Assembly Bill 226\u003c/a>, aimed at allowing it to spread out claims payments over time. It would do that by allowing the FAIR Plan to obtain bond financing through the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember David Alvarez, co-author of the bill with Calderon and Democrat from Chula Vista, told CalMatters: “We wanted to make sure if there was an event of (the L.A. fires’) magnitude, insurance companies wouldn’t use that as a reason to not cover California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added that this legislation is just another “tool” to “maintain insurers in California, and get claims paid in a way that doesn’t cost consumers.” Alvarez also noted that the bill, which was first introduced last year, had no opposition. The FAIR Plan supports it.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Paying claims without full inventories\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260sb495\">\u003cstrong>Senate Bill 495\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>, by Sen. Ben Allen, a Democrat from El Segundo, would make California the only state in the nation to require insurers to pay claims in full without first seeing itemized inventories from policyholders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also gives consumers at least 180 days, up from 60 days, to provide proof of loss to their insurance companies after a declared state of emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of insurance companies have already been doing this,” the senator said in an interview with CalMatters. “It’s a hassle for them to go through all the (inventory) lists, too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allen said he has been going to town halls in his L.A.-area community and hearing from “people who have lost everything.” Getting rid of the inventory requirement “really cuts out an important barrier for a lot of people especially during a very difficult moment,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lara backs the bill, and last week his department released a list of insurance companies that have agreed to pay at least 75% of contents coverage without a detailed inventory. A majority of companies operating in the state have — with some agreeing to provide 100%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Insurance industry representatives opposed a similar bill in the 2004–05 legislative session and plan to do so again. Rex Frazier, president of the Personal Insurance Federation of California, said the bill could raise costs for insurance companies, which would pass the higher costs on to consumers. “Why require overpayment and require insurers to increase rates when people are already worried about the affordability of property insurance?” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Insurance premium tax write-offs\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab1354\">\u003cstrong>Assembly Bill 1354\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>, by Assemblymembers Heath Flora and Greg Wallis, would allow California taxpayers to write off the rising costs of their fire insurance premiums for the next five years. Flora, of Ripon, and Wallis, of Rancho Mirage, are Republicans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tax credits would reduce the amount of personal income taxes people would pay to the state. They would be based on the difference between their current premiums and their premiums from 2023, plus any current assessments or charges.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>If passed, the tax credit would apply to individuals with annual adjusted gross incomes not exceeding $150,000, with the limit being $300,000 for joint taxpayers. Owners of individual homes and properties with four dwelling units or less, and individual condos and mobile homes, would qualify as long as their property values do not exceed $3.3 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flora told CalMatters he expects premiums to rise in the short term as the insurance department’s \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/03/california-home-insurance-market/\">new regulations\u003c/a> are implemented, but that he hopes it all means insurers will start writing policies in the state again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our insurance industry is in shambles right now,” he said. “For the next few years it’s not going to be great. If we can allow our constituents to write off some of that increase, maybe they can get some sort of relief.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he doesn’t yet know what it would cost the state — and its taxpayers. Flora said he plans to ask the Legislative Analyst’s Office to look into it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There will be a hit to the general fund,” Flora acknowledged, adding that “in California, we spend a lot of money on a lot of different things. But fundamentally, people cannot buy homes without insurance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amy Bach, executive director of the consumer advocacy group United Policyholders, does not support the bill and said “if we’re going to have insurance companies benefit from taxpayer funds paid toward premiums,” the state should extract some concessions from insurance companies, including getting them to write more policies. Bach said what she is in favor of is tax credits for mitigation expenses. For example, one bill would establish \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab888\">state grants\u003c/a> for fire-rated roofs and other expenses, while another would allow for \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab232\">tax-free savings accounts\u003c/a> for the purposes of mitigation or deductibles in case of a disaster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Douglas Heller, director of insurance at Consumer Federation of America, agreed, saying taxpayer dollars would be better used preventing catastrophe and loss in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fossil-fuel company liability\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260sb222\">Senate Bill 222\u003c/a>, by Sen. Scott Wiener and several co-authors, would allow insurance companies and individuals to sue fossil-fuel companies over damages from climate-related disasters — part of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/climate-change/2025/03/climate-change-california-oil-industry-legal-strategy/\">a wave of efforts\u003c/a> to hold the industry responsible for climate change. Hawaii is also considering \u003ca href=\"https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/sessions/session2025/Bills/SB1166_SD2_.HTM\">a similar bill\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Disasters that are so much more frequent and so much bigger in scale than five to 10 years ago (are) not random,” said Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, during a press conference. “That’s because of climate change being fueled by companies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The idea is that allowing individuals, insurers and the FAIR Plan to try to recoup some costs from disasters would provide an alternative to insurance companies simply raising their rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A business group that represents insurance companies warned against the legislation, \u003ca href=\"https://centerforjobs.org/ca/special-reports/consumer-fiscal-impacts-of-sb-222\">saying it could lead to increased costs\u003c/a> for consumers. Though California Business Roundtable does not publicly disclose all its members, it does include executives from the insurance and fossil-fuel industries, said Brooke Armour, president of the California Center for Jobs & the Economy, the group’s information arm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Center for Climate Integrity, a co-sponsor of Wiener’s bill, has been trying for almost a decade to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for climate change. Iyla Shornstein, political director at the group, said if nobody holds the oil industry responsible for disaster costs, insurance rates will only continue to “skyrocket and overburden victims.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "From pushing for oversight of the FAIR Plan to providing tax breaks for premiums, California lawmakers try to fix insurance market problems.",
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"title": "California Lawmakers Propose Fixes for ‘Insurance Industry in Shambles’ | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The fires that reduced Altadena, Pacific Palisades and other Los Angeles-area neighborhoods to rubble have also shined a harsh light on California’s raging insurance crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers have proposed a variety of bills to address the issues illuminated by the disaster, plus others that predate it. Some of the legislation would be the first of its kind in the nation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The fire-insurance provider of last resort\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One measure would put the state’s top two lawmakers on the governing committee of the FAIR Plan, the association of insurance companies that’s required by law to provide fire insurance to property owners who can’t find it anywhere else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FAIR Plan \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2025/02/homeowners-insurance-costs-rising-in-california-fair-plan/\">said last month that it was at risk of running out of money\u003c/a> due to claims from the L.A. fires and asked for a $1 billion lifeline. Its member insurance companies were on the hook for that amount, and could try to pass along up to half of the cost to their customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan has become more important over the past several years as insurance companies have stopped renewing or writing new policies in California, so state officials have a keen interest in its solvency and ability to serve a growing number of customers. But the plan is not run by the state, it is run by a management team that’s accountable to the pool of insurers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers hope that adding state officials to the group of people overseeing the FAIR Plan will help it run better and improve the lives of its customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The association has grown to such an extent that its financial capacity to pay claims after a catastrophic fire is unlikely,” says \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab234\">Assembly Bill 234\u003c/a>, a bill by Assemblymember Lisa Calderon, a Democrat from the Los Angeles area. “Increased transparency is imperative.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Calderon’s bill calls for the speaker of the Assembly and the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Rules to immediately become non-voting members of the FAIR Plan’s governing committee. Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, who has limited authority over the plan, backs the bill. The FAIR Plan has not taken a position on the legislation, according to plan spokesperson Hilary McLean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the bill passes, California could be the first state to put lawmakers on a FAIR Plan board, although several states have insurance department representatives on boards for their own FAIR Plan equivalents, said Stephen Jablonski, president of Property Insurance Plans Service Office, a nonprofit that tracks state residual property insurance plans.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>California’s FAIR Plan would not disclose the members of its governing board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Concerns about the FAIR Plan go beyond its financial stability. As the fire insurance provider of last resort, issues surrounding the way it serves its customers have come up again and again. Placing state officials on the plan’s board could help address some of those issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In early February, Betty Ryder and her husband received a renewal notice for one policy on their Los Angeles-area home but not for their FAIR Plan policy, which is when they discovered that they did not have fire insurance on the property all of last year despite paying for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That meant the couple was uninsured at a time when their home was particularly vulnerable: Ryder and her husband live in Tujunga, a neighborhood that Ryder said was “right between the three fires” that burned in Los Angeles County earlier this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ryder got on the phone with her broker, her mortgage company and a representative from the FAIR Plan to figure out what happened. The agent for the FAIR Plan told her the plan had incorrectly applied someone else’s payment to her account and that it canceled her policy after that realization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So she started writing letters: to the president of the FAIR Plan, to Lara, to her mortgage company, to her broker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was in tears,” she said. “We’re old, we’re in our 70s,” she added, referring to herself and her husband, William.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A week later, a representative from the FAIR Plan told her they found the correct check issued by her mortgage company last year, and that the amount has been applied to her reinstated policy. A relief, but there’s a remaining problem: The Ryders have already paid into their mortgage company’s escrow account for this year’s policy. They have not received a refund for the $5,300 check her mortgage company issued to the FAIR Plan last year, so as of now they have paid double for this year’s policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ryder has not heard back from the FAIR Plan about a possible refund, nor has she received a response from Lara’s insurance department. The department said it has assigned someone to her case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McLean said she would not discuss individual cases with CalMatters. “In the limited instances where the California FAIR Plan is regretfully in error, it works to correct the mistake in its customer’s favor,” McLean wrote in an email. “If the FAIR Plan receives a duplicate payment, the FAIR Plan will refund the duplicate payment with interest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Lili Thompson, an account manager for an insurance agency in Chico, told CalMatters that the FAIR Plan often makes errors, and that she has customers who have had experiences similar to Ryder’s. When they do, it’s hard to get those issues resolved because it’s tough to get the plan to address problems in a timely manner, Thompson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have access to billing information, which is constantly incorrect,” Thompson said. “Payments aren’t applied. Or there’s a balance of 3 cents, or $4 or $10, and they cancel (policies).”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, Thompson submitted a complaint about the FAIR Plan to the Insurance Department in January. It read in part: “Our agency is having significant problems with the FAIR Plan as a whole. Issues with billing, renewals, cancellations have been reoccurring at an alarming rate.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In an emailed response seen by CalMatters, an insurance department compliance officer urged Thompson to tell her clients to file complaints with the department “so we can address their specific situation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/01/california-fire-insurance-2/\">CalMatters wrote about\u003c/a> similar complaints against the FAIR Plan — delays in payments, slow response times, poor customer service — about a year ago. At the time, McLean said the plan was dealing with increased volume and had hired more staff to deal with it all. She also mentioned that the FAIR Plan had transitioned to a new software system and insurance agents and brokers were still learning it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asked what the FAIR Plan has changed in the past year, and why the same types of complaints persist, McLean again pointed to the plan’s “historic growth over the past several years,” and mentioned that it has hired even more staff to deal with claims from the January Palisades and Eaton fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another bill that addresses the FAIR Plan’s financial stability is \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab226\">Assembly Bill 226\u003c/a>, aimed at allowing it to spread out claims payments over time. It would do that by allowing the FAIR Plan to obtain bond financing through the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember David Alvarez, co-author of the bill with Calderon and Democrat from Chula Vista, told CalMatters: “We wanted to make sure if there was an event of (the L.A. fires’) magnitude, insurance companies wouldn’t use that as a reason to not cover California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added that this legislation is just another “tool” to “maintain insurers in California, and get claims paid in a way that doesn’t cost consumers.” Alvarez also noted that the bill, which was first introduced last year, had no opposition. The FAIR Plan supports it.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Paying claims without full inventories\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260sb495\">\u003cstrong>Senate Bill 495\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>, by Sen. Ben Allen, a Democrat from El Segundo, would make California the only state in the nation to require insurers to pay claims in full without first seeing itemized inventories from policyholders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also gives consumers at least 180 days, up from 60 days, to provide proof of loss to their insurance companies after a declared state of emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of insurance companies have already been doing this,” the senator said in an interview with CalMatters. “It’s a hassle for them to go through all the (inventory) lists, too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allen said he has been going to town halls in his L.A.-area community and hearing from “people who have lost everything.” Getting rid of the inventory requirement “really cuts out an important barrier for a lot of people especially during a very difficult moment,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lara backs the bill, and last week his department released a list of insurance companies that have agreed to pay at least 75% of contents coverage without a detailed inventory. A majority of companies operating in the state have — with some agreeing to provide 100%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Insurance industry representatives opposed a similar bill in the 2004–05 legislative session and plan to do so again. Rex Frazier, president of the Personal Insurance Federation of California, said the bill could raise costs for insurance companies, which would pass the higher costs on to consumers. “Why require overpayment and require insurers to increase rates when people are already worried about the affordability of property insurance?” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Insurance premium tax write-offs\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab1354\">\u003cstrong>Assembly Bill 1354\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>, by Assemblymembers Heath Flora and Greg Wallis, would allow California taxpayers to write off the rising costs of their fire insurance premiums for the next five years. Flora, of Ripon, and Wallis, of Rancho Mirage, are Republicans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tax credits would reduce the amount of personal income taxes people would pay to the state. They would be based on the difference between their current premiums and their premiums from 2023, plus any current assessments or charges.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>If passed, the tax credit would apply to individuals with annual adjusted gross incomes not exceeding $150,000, with the limit being $300,000 for joint taxpayers. Owners of individual homes and properties with four dwelling units or less, and individual condos and mobile homes, would qualify as long as their property values do not exceed $3.3 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flora told CalMatters he expects premiums to rise in the short term as the insurance department’s \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/03/california-home-insurance-market/\">new regulations\u003c/a> are implemented, but that he hopes it all means insurers will start writing policies in the state again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our insurance industry is in shambles right now,” he said. “For the next few years it’s not going to be great. If we can allow our constituents to write off some of that increase, maybe they can get some sort of relief.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he doesn’t yet know what it would cost the state — and its taxpayers. Flora said he plans to ask the Legislative Analyst’s Office to look into it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There will be a hit to the general fund,” Flora acknowledged, adding that “in California, we spend a lot of money on a lot of different things. But fundamentally, people cannot buy homes without insurance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amy Bach, executive director of the consumer advocacy group United Policyholders, does not support the bill and said “if we’re going to have insurance companies benefit from taxpayer funds paid toward premiums,” the state should extract some concessions from insurance companies, including getting them to write more policies. Bach said what she is in favor of is tax credits for mitigation expenses. For example, one bill would establish \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab888\">state grants\u003c/a> for fire-rated roofs and other expenses, while another would allow for \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab232\">tax-free savings accounts\u003c/a> for the purposes of mitigation or deductibles in case of a disaster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Douglas Heller, director of insurance at Consumer Federation of America, agreed, saying taxpayer dollars would be better used preventing catastrophe and loss in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fossil-fuel company liability\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260sb222\">Senate Bill 222\u003c/a>, by Sen. Scott Wiener and several co-authors, would allow insurance companies and individuals to sue fossil-fuel companies over damages from climate-related disasters — part of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/climate-change/2025/03/climate-change-california-oil-industry-legal-strategy/\">a wave of efforts\u003c/a> to hold the industry responsible for climate change. Hawaii is also considering \u003ca href=\"https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/sessions/session2025/Bills/SB1166_SD2_.HTM\">a similar bill\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Disasters that are so much more frequent and so much bigger in scale than five to 10 years ago (are) not random,” said Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, during a press conference. “That’s because of climate change being fueled by companies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The idea is that allowing individuals, insurers and the FAIR Plan to try to recoup some costs from disasters would provide an alternative to insurance companies simply raising their rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A business group that represents insurance companies warned against the legislation, \u003ca href=\"https://centerforjobs.org/ca/special-reports/consumer-fiscal-impacts-of-sb-222\">saying it could lead to increased costs\u003c/a> for consumers. Though California Business Roundtable does not publicly disclose all its members, it does include executives from the insurance and fossil-fuel industries, said Brooke Armour, president of the California Center for Jobs & the Economy, the group’s information arm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Center for Climate Integrity, a co-sponsor of Wiener’s bill, has been trying for almost a decade to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for climate change. Iyla Shornstein, political director at the group, said if nobody holds the oil industry responsible for disaster costs, insurance rates will only continue to “skyrocket and overburden victims.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "j-sei-home-closes-after-30-years-leaving-bay-area-japanese-seniors-in-need",
"title": "J-Sei Home Closes After 30 Years, Leaving Bay Area Japanese Seniors in Need",
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"headTitle": "J-Sei Home Closes After 30 Years, Leaving Bay Area Japanese Seniors in Need | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>[This is the second story of a two-part project that explores the influence and importance of culture in end-of-life care. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027418/japanese-american-seniors-caregivers-say-goodbye-j-sei-home\">Part one was published Sunday\u003c/a>.]\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late January, about a hundred people — mostly East Bay \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021919/bay-area-japanese-americans-draw-on-wwii-trauma-resist-deportation-threats\">Japanese American\u003c/a> community members — gathered at Sycamore Congregational Church in El Cerrito to honor Ruth Sato Fukuchi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fukuchi, a former microbiologist, was remembered for her youthful spirit and for being a consummate learner, even late in life. When she was in her mid-70s, she picked up the ukulele and played with the Sentimental Strummers band for seven years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fukuchi was 90 when she passed away in December at J-Sei Home, a small, tight-knit senior residential care facility in Hayward where she had performed with her ukulele group before she moved in herself in 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, Bay Area Japanese American families have sought culturally sensitive senior care facilities like J-Sei Home for aging loved ones. Community members said that about a decade ago, there were approximately 10 Japanese senior care homes in the region. Today, that number has declined by about half.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most recent closure came in January, when the last residents of J-Sei Home moved out, and the facility permanently closed its doors after 30 years of operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030308\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030308\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_086.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_086.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_086-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_086-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_086-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_086-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_086-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Caregiver Hiroko Okamoto wheels Ruth Fukuchi away as she waves goodbye to the birds in the yard at J-Sei Home in Hayward in February 2024. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A majority of the displaced residents were Japanese Americans in their 90s and had cognitive impairment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“J-Sei Home was a very special place. The caregivers treated each resident like family,” said Matt Fukuchi, Fukuchi’s son, during his closing remarks at the memorial. “The quality of life that she had the last couple of years, she couldn’t have gotten that anywhere else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Families like the Fukuchis appreciated how their loved ones were cared for at J-Sei Home. They had tender caregivers who spoke Japanese. They ate familiar comfort foods like miso soup and pickled vegetables, and they participated in daily activities such as drum circles and singing Japanese songs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027414\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027414\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241215-JSEI-JY-917.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241215-JSEI-JY-917.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241215-JSEI-JY-917-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241215-JSEI-JY-917-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241215-JSEI-JY-917-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241215-JSEI-JY-917-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241215-JSEI-JY-917-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grace Aikawa looks around at her empty room at her new care facility in Castro Valley in December. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Diane Wong, the executive director of J-Sei, an Emeryville-based Japanese American community organization that primarily serves seniors, said the decision to close their Hayward facility, one of its core services, was difficult but necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For the past 13, 14 years, we could never break even,” she said. “We weren’t getting enough people into the facility, costs are rising, and so we could see the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to financial challenges — notably, increased costs in staffing — Wong said that J-Sei Home’s closure could be attributed to significant demographic changes as the Japanese American population has become more diverse and acculturated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030305\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030305\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241215-JSEI-JY-1224.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241215-JSEI-JY-1224.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241215-JSEI-JY-1224-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241215-JSEI-JY-1224-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241215-JSEI-JY-1224-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241215-JSEI-JY-1224-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241215-JSEI-JY-1224-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grace Aikawa eats a turkey sandwich for lunch at the dining hall of her new care facility in Castro Valley. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030309\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030309\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_036_duo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"660\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_036_duo.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_036_duo-800x264.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_036_duo-1020x337.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_036_duo-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_036_duo-1536x507.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_036_duo-1920x634.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Left) A plate of Osechi Ryori is on the menu for Oshogatsu, or Japanese New Year, at J Sei Home in January 2024. Each part of the osechi meal symbolizes good fortune and luck for the coming year. (Right) Sawako Issacs guides Kazue Granich’s hand to her mug at J Sei Home. At J-Sei Home residents would often look after the other residents when caregivers were busy. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After World War II, Bay Area Japanese American organizations formed to serve first-generation Japanese immigrants or the Issei generation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, they’re at a crossroads because the needs of the community have shifted, forcing some organizations to adapt their original missions and shrinking certain services that used to be critical lifelines for the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A comfortable place to age\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>J-Sei Home’s origin traces back to two youth-led organizations that later merged to become J-Sei: East Bay Japanese for Action and East Bay Issei Housing, which were founded in the 1970s by the Sansei, or second-generation Japanese Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young Japanese American student activists in the Bay Area recognized the need for targeted social services for their immigrant elders. They were inspired by the community activism of the late 1960s when the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11830384/how-the-longest-student-strike-in-u-s-history-created-ethnic-studies\">Third World Liberation Front student strikes\u003c/a> established ethnic studies departments at UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030268\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030268\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Community-Meeting-Tad-Hirota.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Community-Meeting-Tad-Hirota.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Community-Meeting-Tad-Hirota-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Community-Meeting-Tad-Hirota-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Community-Meeting-Tad-Hirota-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Community-Meeting-Tad-Hirota-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Community-Meeting-Tad-Hirota-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">East Bay Japanese for Action organizers meet with community leaders to discuss needs of seniors, organizing of future events, community support and how to proceed with an organization in Oakland in 1971. From left are: Murayo Sawai, Tad Hirota, Dennis Yotsuya, Peter Horikoshi and Janice Nakao. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of J-Sei Home)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There was still a lot of racism and distrust,” Wong said. “A lot of young people involved saw their family members who needed help.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peter Horikoshi said that learning Asian American history as a UC Berkeley undergraduate and witnessing the groundswell of student movements opened his eyes to his own community’s needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We clearly saw that we had a lot in common with African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans,” said Horikoshi, a 73-year-old Alameda resident, adding that he and his peers particularly \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13867337/the-black-panther-partys-free-breakfast-program-a-50-year-old-blueprint\">drew inspiration from the Black Panther Party\u003c/a>. “They were offering free [breakfast] for kids and really trying to help out their communities, and we thought that’s a good model to follow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030269\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030269\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Berkeley-Center-Ribbon-Fish-L.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Berkeley-Center-Ribbon-Fish-L.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Berkeley-Center-Ribbon-Fish-L-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dennis Yotsuya, left, leads a craft session on making ribbon fish at the Berkeley Senior Center in 1971. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of J-Sei Home)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030270\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12030270 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/PICT1424_duo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"665\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/PICT1424_duo.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/PICT1424_duo-800x266.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/PICT1424_duo-1020x339.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/PICT1424_duo-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/PICT1424_duo-1536x511.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/PICT1424_duo-1920x638.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Left) PJ Hirabayashi (then Nakanishi), center, stands with Peter Horikoshi, left, playing a guitar wearing an anti-nuclear weapons headband that reads, “No More Hiroshima Nagasaki,” circa 1970s. (Right) A picnic of the Japanese American Issei community. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Tets Maniwa)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Horikoshi was a founding member of EBJA, which began planning field trips for seniors in 1971, including ferry rides to Angel Island and picnics at Lake Temescal in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the elders who participated were survivors of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021919/bay-area-japanese-americans-draw-on-wwii-trauma-resist-deportation-threats\">World War II incarceration\u003c/a>. Some were war brides, Japanese immigrant women who had married American servicemen and left their country and families behind. The women faced language barriers and social isolation, even within the Japanese community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We heard these stories over and over about how they worked so hard when they first came over,” Horikoshi said. “The Japanese American-established organizations at that time were really not doing that much for them either, and so we thought, ‘We’re young, and we have the time.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The East Bay Japanese American population was much more spread out compared to San Francisco, where Japantown served as a community anchor. In the East Bay, Japanese temples and churches were the community’s key congregation points until student activists united the organizations around the common cause of helping immigrant seniors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030323\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030323\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Issei-Terrace-Dedication-2-Nov-4-1984.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1382\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Issei-Terrace-Dedication-2-Nov-4-1984.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Issei-Terrace-Dedication-2-Nov-4-1984-800x553.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Issei-Terrace-Dedication-2-Nov-4-1984-1020x705.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Issei-Terrace-Dedication-2-Nov-4-1984-160x111.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Issei-Terrace-Dedication-2-Nov-4-1984-1536x1061.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Issei-Terrace-Dedication-2-Nov-4-1984-1920x1327.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The East Bay Issei Terrace dedication ceremony was held in Hayward in November 1984. The project was a collaboration of East Bay Japanese for Action, East Bay Issei Housing and Eden Housing, Inc. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of J-Sei Home)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The young organizers established Japanese American senior community centers in Berkeley, El Cerrito and Hayward. EBJA organizers also created bilingual services to help Japanese seniors navigate health and social programs. They began a meal program where seniors would enjoy lunches and socialize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, the students turned to another critical need: housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1978, EBIH was formed to address housing security for Japanese seniors. Wong said community members complained that while there were some senior homes available, “the language, food and activities just didn’t mesh or feel comfortable for people.” Having lived through the racism of World War II, the seniors sought a safe and comfortable place to age.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The whole approach of the work is to create something where people’s histories are celebrated, their sense of being is honored,” Wong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027449\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027449\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/jsei_JY_317.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/jsei_JY_317.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/jsei_JY_317-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/jsei_JY_317-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/jsei_JY_317-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/jsei_JY_317-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/jsei_JY_317-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Japanese-imported roof at J-Sei Home in Hayward, California, on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Robert Sakai, one of EBIH’s co-founders, became aware of the lack of community housing for Japanese seniors when his mother’s friend had a hard time finding a place to live. As a young real estate lawyer, he met with other concerned organizers and formed EBIH to consolidate resources to establish a senior housing program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We felt that we needed to recruit the JACL chapters and Japanese American churches in Alameda and Contra Costa counties,” Sakai said, referring to the Japanese American Citizens League. “As far as I know, that was the first time that the East Bay Japanese American community was united to work on anything, much less a single real estate project.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sakai and others recruited 23 Japanese American organizations to raise money to purchase a property in Hayward, which became an affordable senior housing site that was designed and tailored for low-income Japanese elders. Years later, the group purchased a smaller ranch-style home across the street to address the needs of Japanese seniors who could not live independently. In 1994, the building that became J-Sei Home opened.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘The family’s getting smaller’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When vascular dementia and other medical issues led Fukuchi to require extensive assisted living services in 2021, J-Sei Home was an obvious choice. Multiple generations of the Fukuchi family had already been active in the J-Sei community. Fukuchi participated in the organization’s social activities, and her husband, Tak, was a driver for J-Sei’s meal delivery program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The exorbitant costs and burden of round-the-clock senior caregiving can be overwhelming for any family member, especially when the senior’s quality of life depends on access to familiar cultural comforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030312\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030312\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_083.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_083.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_083-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_083-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_083-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_083-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_083-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The onset of dementia and other medical issues required Ruth Fukuchi’s family to seek an assisted living alternative for her. Her family was already connected to the J-Sei community. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Cathy Fukuchi-Wong, Fukuchi’s daughter, said she’s eternally grateful that the J-Sei Home caregivers could provide for her mother in ways she could not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My mom did express several times that she wanted to come live with me. But the reality is, there’s no way we could’ve done that because she needed so much care,” Fukuchi-Wong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fukuchi lived at J-Sei Home for three years. Her daughter said the personalized caregiving provided by the staff allowed her to enjoy her mother and be present. Fukuchi had almost daily visits from her son, Matt Fukuchi, and Fukuchi-Wong, who commuted to Hayward from their respective homes in San Ramon and Marin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While he sympathizes with J-Sei Home’s financial concerns, Matt Fukuchi said he was upset initially when he learned of the decision to close.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030314\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030314\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_099.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_099.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_099-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_099-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_099-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_099-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_099-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cathy Fukuchi-Wong reads Vogue with her mother, Ruth, at J-Sei Home in February 2024. Fukuchi-Wong said that the J-Sei Home caregivers could provide for her mother in ways she could not. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I was wondering why they didn’t try to find someone else to operate it because it seemed like there were families that were interested in having their parents go to J-Sei,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Wong asserts there’s been declining interest in J-Sei Home in recent years. She cited an organizational survey that was sent to over 550 active J-Sei members in 2024, which gauged whether they needed a facility like J-Sei Home in the future. A majority said no.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong said J-Sei is now focusing on home delivery meals to address food security for Asian seniors in the East Bay and providing more support for family caregivers. She said the shift makes sense to meet the community’s current needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11952398 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2023-05-30-at-4.19.34-PM-1020x571.png']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The cost factor is going to be a big challenge for society in general,” Wong said, referring to senior care. “How are we going to do this at home? What’s the role of the family? We know that public systems of funding aren’t really keeping up with the need.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Families said that J-Sei Home’s costs were significantly more affordable compared to other traditional care homes. Fukuchi-Wong told KQED that the direct, culturally sensitive care her mother received was “a steal” for what they paid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After J-Sei announced the closure, residents and their families were given about five months to find an alternate facility. Before her mother’s death, Fukuchi-Wong anxiously toured homes around the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hit the bricks,” said Fukuchi-Wong, who described the search to find a facility similar to J-Sei Home as a struggle. “Some of those places are pretty ragged and so it was hard to see some of the conditions where these people lived.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030315\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030315\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_326.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_326.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_326-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_326-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_326-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_326-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_326-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Caregiver Amparo Chow helps Kazue Granich rise from her seat at J-Sei Home in Hayward on Nov. 14, 2024. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fukuchi-Wong said her mother needed to engage in social activities and eat traditional foods that would suit her appetite. Fukuchi-Wong’s first choice was Kimochi Home in San Mateo, another Japanese culturally sensitive senior care home, but there was a 40-person waiting list.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fukuchi noticed that her J-Sei Home friends were starting to move out. Caregivers and families shared emotional and tearful goodbyes as residents left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The family’s getting smaller,” Fukuchi, who began eating less and sleeping more, said to her daughter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was one of the last residents at the facility before she passed away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030306\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030306\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241219-JSEI-JY-314.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241219-JSEI-JY-314.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241219-JSEI-JY-314-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241219-JSEI-JY-314-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241219-JSEI-JY-314-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241219-JSEI-JY-314-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241219-JSEI-JY-314-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charles Granich, right, shows his mother, Kazue Granich, left, her room at her new care home, RN3 Loving Care Homes, a senior assisted living facility in the El Cerrito hills in December 2024.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ron Salvador, the former administrator of J-Sei Home, spoke to KQED about a week after J-Sei announced the home’s closure. He expressed concern about the future care of the residents. He said that at J-Sei Home, the caregiver-to-resident ratio was almost one-to-one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just sad when you see a specialty facility like this close down. It affects the whole community,” Salvador told KQED in October. “We’re worried about [the residents] because they became a family here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>J-Sei assisted residents as they searched for new facilities and navigated moving logistics. By January, most of them had moved into traditional assisted living facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 101, Kazue Granich was J-Sei Home’s oldest resident and lived there for over seven years. Though she was mostly quiet, she was known for being the loudest karaoke singer. She relocated to RN3 Loving Care Homes, a senior assisted living facility in the El Cerrito hills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While visiting her mother’s new home from out of town, Granich’s daughter, Sandy Granich, told a KQED reporter that Granich appeared to be skinnier and not as talkative as she used to be. One of her brothers, who is local and visits more often, had warned Sandy that their mother had grown quieter and more listless since leaving J-Sei Home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked how the facility compared to J-Sei Home, Sandy Granich said, “I feel like there was more camaraderie over there,” as she scanned RN3’s living room where other nearby residents sat quietly and alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A niche in the world of senior care\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On a recent morning in San Francisco, a dozen seniors — most of them in their 90s — played a bean bag toss game, cheering for one another as part of their daily 10 a.m. activity at Kimochi Home’s Japantown location. The Japanese senior care facility opened in 1983, about a decade before J-Sei Home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The seniors sat in a circle, and one by one — with the help of staff members and a volunteer — they shuffled or pushed their walkers to the center of the circle to play.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12028194\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12028194\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-07.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-07.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-07-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-07-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-07-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-07-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-07-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Residents participate in a game at Kimochi Home, a senior living community in San Francisco’s Japantown neighborhood, February 2025. Established in 1971, Kimochi provides programs and services to Bay Area seniors, honoring the Japanese tradition of respect and care for elders. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Rooting each other on during the activities and building that sense of community … that’s really important and the foundation of what Kimochi Home wanted to be,” said Linda Ishii, the home’s director of residential services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ishii is a San Francisco Japantown native who has worked with Kimochi for over two decades. She said the seniors at Kimochi Home are mostly Nisei, or second generation, and Shin-Issei, Japanese immigrants who arrived in the U.S. after World War II. The oldest Kimochi resident is 106.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two-story building is cozy and light-filled. There is a dedicated space for activities and exercise, TV lounges play Japanese-language programming and the walls are adorned with traditional Japanese decorations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12028199\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12028199\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-26.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-26.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-26-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-26-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-26-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-26-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-26-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kimochi Home is located in San Francisco’s Japantown neighborhood. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most of the residents are Japanese, but Ishii said Kimochi occasionally has residents who are Black, Latino, Filipino and other races and ethnicities. Though the focus of Kimochi Home is providing care for Japanese and Japanese Americans, Ishii said any senior can benefit from their care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is our niche in the whole world of senior care,” Ishii said. “It is focused on the care their loved one is receiving and if they’re going to feel comfortable within the space.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she was saddened to learn of J-Sei Home’s recent closure and provided tours to a few of the families looking for a new home for their seniors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s always a loss to the community as a whole to have such a well-established home close,” Ishii said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12028196\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12028196\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-17.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-17.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-17-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-17-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-17-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-17-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-17-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Residents participate in Radio Taiso, an exercise routine practiced in Japan, at Kimochi Home where the focus is providing care for Japanese and Japanese Americans. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After their morning activity, the seniors transitioned to chair exercises, where they watched \u003cem>Radio Taiso\u003c/em>, a Japanese exercise program on TV. The residents alternated between seated stretches and raising their arms in unison until it was time for lunch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The residents slowly made their way to the dining room, shuffling down a hallway in a line, some with their walkers, as staff members waited patiently nearby to assist as needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nothing moves fast around here,” Ishii said with a laugh. “There will come a time when they can no longer do it, so it takes them a while to get down the hall, but they’re doing it. That’s the most important thing, to let them have the ability to know that they can do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12028198\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12028198\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-20.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-20.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-20-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-20-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-20-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-20-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-20-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Linda Ishii, director of residential services, speaks with a resident at Kimochi Home, where “[n]othing moves fast,” she said. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Like J-Sei Home, Kimochi Home also faces rising costs and staffing challenges that were accelerated during the pandemic. She said keeping the home afloat is a balancing act because the facility is dedicated to keeping rates low to remain accessible to the community. Costs are out-of-pocket at Kimochi Home, as they were for J-Sei Home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ishii said that she still fields calls daily from families who are looking for a place for their Japanese elders. There are dozens of people on waitlists for both Kimochi Home locations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ishii remains committed to her work, which she said is her way of giving back to elders who “paved the way for us to be here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She considers it her responsibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we see that we’re not getting contacted by families and seniors anymore, then it’s time to look at something else or try to transform to a different program … but I’m hoping that’s many, many, many years down the road.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Photographer \u003ca href=\"https://www.julianayamada.com/\">Juliana Yamada\u003c/a> contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "Sensitive senior care options for Bay Area Japanese American families are dwindling. A decade ago, there were about 10 facilities in the region. Only half remain. ",
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"title": "J-Sei Home Closes After 30 Years, Leaving Bay Area Japanese Seniors in Need | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>[This is the second story of a two-part project that explores the influence and importance of culture in end-of-life care. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027418/japanese-american-seniors-caregivers-say-goodbye-j-sei-home\">Part one was published Sunday\u003c/a>.]\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late January, about a hundred people — mostly East Bay \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021919/bay-area-japanese-americans-draw-on-wwii-trauma-resist-deportation-threats\">Japanese American\u003c/a> community members — gathered at Sycamore Congregational Church in El Cerrito to honor Ruth Sato Fukuchi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fukuchi, a former microbiologist, was remembered for her youthful spirit and for being a consummate learner, even late in life. When she was in her mid-70s, she picked up the ukulele and played with the Sentimental Strummers band for seven years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fukuchi was 90 when she passed away in December at J-Sei Home, a small, tight-knit senior residential care facility in Hayward where she had performed with her ukulele group before she moved in herself in 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, Bay Area Japanese American families have sought culturally sensitive senior care facilities like J-Sei Home for aging loved ones. Community members said that about a decade ago, there were approximately 10 Japanese senior care homes in the region. Today, that number has declined by about half.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most recent closure came in January, when the last residents of J-Sei Home moved out, and the facility permanently closed its doors after 30 years of operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030308\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030308\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_086.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_086.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_086-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_086-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_086-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_086-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_086-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Caregiver Hiroko Okamoto wheels Ruth Fukuchi away as she waves goodbye to the birds in the yard at J-Sei Home in Hayward in February 2024. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A majority of the displaced residents were Japanese Americans in their 90s and had cognitive impairment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“J-Sei Home was a very special place. The caregivers treated each resident like family,” said Matt Fukuchi, Fukuchi’s son, during his closing remarks at the memorial. “The quality of life that she had the last couple of years, she couldn’t have gotten that anywhere else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Families like the Fukuchis appreciated how their loved ones were cared for at J-Sei Home. They had tender caregivers who spoke Japanese. They ate familiar comfort foods like miso soup and pickled vegetables, and they participated in daily activities such as drum circles and singing Japanese songs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027414\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027414\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241215-JSEI-JY-917.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241215-JSEI-JY-917.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241215-JSEI-JY-917-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241215-JSEI-JY-917-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241215-JSEI-JY-917-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241215-JSEI-JY-917-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20241215-JSEI-JY-917-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grace Aikawa looks around at her empty room at her new care facility in Castro Valley in December. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Diane Wong, the executive director of J-Sei, an Emeryville-based Japanese American community organization that primarily serves seniors, said the decision to close their Hayward facility, one of its core services, was difficult but necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For the past 13, 14 years, we could never break even,” she said. “We weren’t getting enough people into the facility, costs are rising, and so we could see the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to financial challenges — notably, increased costs in staffing — Wong said that J-Sei Home’s closure could be attributed to significant demographic changes as the Japanese American population has become more diverse and acculturated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030305\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030305\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241215-JSEI-JY-1224.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241215-JSEI-JY-1224.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241215-JSEI-JY-1224-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241215-JSEI-JY-1224-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241215-JSEI-JY-1224-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241215-JSEI-JY-1224-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241215-JSEI-JY-1224-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grace Aikawa eats a turkey sandwich for lunch at the dining hall of her new care facility in Castro Valley. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030309\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030309\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_036_duo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"660\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_036_duo.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_036_duo-800x264.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_036_duo-1020x337.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_036_duo-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_036_duo-1536x507.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_036_duo-1920x634.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Left) A plate of Osechi Ryori is on the menu for Oshogatsu, or Japanese New Year, at J Sei Home in January 2024. Each part of the osechi meal symbolizes good fortune and luck for the coming year. (Right) Sawako Issacs guides Kazue Granich’s hand to her mug at J Sei Home. At J-Sei Home residents would often look after the other residents when caregivers were busy. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After World War II, Bay Area Japanese American organizations formed to serve first-generation Japanese immigrants or the Issei generation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, they’re at a crossroads because the needs of the community have shifted, forcing some organizations to adapt their original missions and shrinking certain services that used to be critical lifelines for the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A comfortable place to age\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>J-Sei Home’s origin traces back to two youth-led organizations that later merged to become J-Sei: East Bay Japanese for Action and East Bay Issei Housing, which were founded in the 1970s by the Sansei, or second-generation Japanese Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young Japanese American student activists in the Bay Area recognized the need for targeted social services for their immigrant elders. They were inspired by the community activism of the late 1960s when the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11830384/how-the-longest-student-strike-in-u-s-history-created-ethnic-studies\">Third World Liberation Front student strikes\u003c/a> established ethnic studies departments at UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030268\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030268\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Community-Meeting-Tad-Hirota.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Community-Meeting-Tad-Hirota.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Community-Meeting-Tad-Hirota-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Community-Meeting-Tad-Hirota-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Community-Meeting-Tad-Hirota-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Community-Meeting-Tad-Hirota-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Community-Meeting-Tad-Hirota-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">East Bay Japanese for Action organizers meet with community leaders to discuss needs of seniors, organizing of future events, community support and how to proceed with an organization in Oakland in 1971. From left are: Murayo Sawai, Tad Hirota, Dennis Yotsuya, Peter Horikoshi and Janice Nakao. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of J-Sei Home)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There was still a lot of racism and distrust,” Wong said. “A lot of young people involved saw their family members who needed help.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peter Horikoshi said that learning Asian American history as a UC Berkeley undergraduate and witnessing the groundswell of student movements opened his eyes to his own community’s needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We clearly saw that we had a lot in common with African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans,” said Horikoshi, a 73-year-old Alameda resident, adding that he and his peers particularly \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13867337/the-black-panther-partys-free-breakfast-program-a-50-year-old-blueprint\">drew inspiration from the Black Panther Party\u003c/a>. “They were offering free [breakfast] for kids and really trying to help out their communities, and we thought that’s a good model to follow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030269\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030269\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Berkeley-Center-Ribbon-Fish-L.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Berkeley-Center-Ribbon-Fish-L.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Berkeley-Center-Ribbon-Fish-L-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dennis Yotsuya, left, leads a craft session on making ribbon fish at the Berkeley Senior Center in 1971. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of J-Sei Home)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030270\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12030270 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/PICT1424_duo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"665\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/PICT1424_duo.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/PICT1424_duo-800x266.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/PICT1424_duo-1020x339.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/PICT1424_duo-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/PICT1424_duo-1536x511.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/PICT1424_duo-1920x638.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Left) PJ Hirabayashi (then Nakanishi), center, stands with Peter Horikoshi, left, playing a guitar wearing an anti-nuclear weapons headband that reads, “No More Hiroshima Nagasaki,” circa 1970s. (Right) A picnic of the Japanese American Issei community. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Tets Maniwa)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Horikoshi was a founding member of EBJA, which began planning field trips for seniors in 1971, including ferry rides to Angel Island and picnics at Lake Temescal in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the elders who participated were survivors of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021919/bay-area-japanese-americans-draw-on-wwii-trauma-resist-deportation-threats\">World War II incarceration\u003c/a>. Some were war brides, Japanese immigrant women who had married American servicemen and left their country and families behind. The women faced language barriers and social isolation, even within the Japanese community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We heard these stories over and over about how they worked so hard when they first came over,” Horikoshi said. “The Japanese American-established organizations at that time were really not doing that much for them either, and so we thought, ‘We’re young, and we have the time.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The East Bay Japanese American population was much more spread out compared to San Francisco, where Japantown served as a community anchor. In the East Bay, Japanese temples and churches were the community’s key congregation points until student activists united the organizations around the common cause of helping immigrant seniors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030323\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030323\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Issei-Terrace-Dedication-2-Nov-4-1984.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1382\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Issei-Terrace-Dedication-2-Nov-4-1984.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Issei-Terrace-Dedication-2-Nov-4-1984-800x553.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Issei-Terrace-Dedication-2-Nov-4-1984-1020x705.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Issei-Terrace-Dedication-2-Nov-4-1984-160x111.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Issei-Terrace-Dedication-2-Nov-4-1984-1536x1061.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Issei-Terrace-Dedication-2-Nov-4-1984-1920x1327.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The East Bay Issei Terrace dedication ceremony was held in Hayward in November 1984. The project was a collaboration of East Bay Japanese for Action, East Bay Issei Housing and Eden Housing, Inc. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of J-Sei Home)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The young organizers established Japanese American senior community centers in Berkeley, El Cerrito and Hayward. EBJA organizers also created bilingual services to help Japanese seniors navigate health and social programs. They began a meal program where seniors would enjoy lunches and socialize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, the students turned to another critical need: housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1978, EBIH was formed to address housing security for Japanese seniors. Wong said community members complained that while there were some senior homes available, “the language, food and activities just didn’t mesh or feel comfortable for people.” Having lived through the racism of World War II, the seniors sought a safe and comfortable place to age.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The whole approach of the work is to create something where people’s histories are celebrated, their sense of being is honored,” Wong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027449\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027449\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/jsei_JY_317.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/jsei_JY_317.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/jsei_JY_317-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/jsei_JY_317-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/jsei_JY_317-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/jsei_JY_317-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/jsei_JY_317-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Japanese-imported roof at J-Sei Home in Hayward, California, on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Robert Sakai, one of EBIH’s co-founders, became aware of the lack of community housing for Japanese seniors when his mother’s friend had a hard time finding a place to live. As a young real estate lawyer, he met with other concerned organizers and formed EBIH to consolidate resources to establish a senior housing program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We felt that we needed to recruit the JACL chapters and Japanese American churches in Alameda and Contra Costa counties,” Sakai said, referring to the Japanese American Citizens League. “As far as I know, that was the first time that the East Bay Japanese American community was united to work on anything, much less a single real estate project.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sakai and others recruited 23 Japanese American organizations to raise money to purchase a property in Hayward, which became an affordable senior housing site that was designed and tailored for low-income Japanese elders. Years later, the group purchased a smaller ranch-style home across the street to address the needs of Japanese seniors who could not live independently. In 1994, the building that became J-Sei Home opened.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘The family’s getting smaller’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When vascular dementia and other medical issues led Fukuchi to require extensive assisted living services in 2021, J-Sei Home was an obvious choice. Multiple generations of the Fukuchi family had already been active in the J-Sei community. Fukuchi participated in the organization’s social activities, and her husband, Tak, was a driver for J-Sei’s meal delivery program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The exorbitant costs and burden of round-the-clock senior caregiving can be overwhelming for any family member, especially when the senior’s quality of life depends on access to familiar cultural comforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030312\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030312\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_083.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_083.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_083-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_083-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_083-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_083-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_083-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The onset of dementia and other medical issues required Ruth Fukuchi’s family to seek an assisted living alternative for her. Her family was already connected to the J-Sei community. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Cathy Fukuchi-Wong, Fukuchi’s daughter, said she’s eternally grateful that the J-Sei Home caregivers could provide for her mother in ways she could not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My mom did express several times that she wanted to come live with me. But the reality is, there’s no way we could’ve done that because she needed so much care,” Fukuchi-Wong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fukuchi lived at J-Sei Home for three years. Her daughter said the personalized caregiving provided by the staff allowed her to enjoy her mother and be present. Fukuchi had almost daily visits from her son, Matt Fukuchi, and Fukuchi-Wong, who commuted to Hayward from their respective homes in San Ramon and Marin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While he sympathizes with J-Sei Home’s financial concerns, Matt Fukuchi said he was upset initially when he learned of the decision to close.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030314\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030314\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_099.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_099.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_099-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_099-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_099-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_099-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_099-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cathy Fukuchi-Wong reads Vogue with her mother, Ruth, at J-Sei Home in February 2024. Fukuchi-Wong said that the J-Sei Home caregivers could provide for her mother in ways she could not. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I was wondering why they didn’t try to find someone else to operate it because it seemed like there were families that were interested in having their parents go to J-Sei,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Wong asserts there’s been declining interest in J-Sei Home in recent years. She cited an organizational survey that was sent to over 550 active J-Sei members in 2024, which gauged whether they needed a facility like J-Sei Home in the future. A majority said no.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong said J-Sei is now focusing on home delivery meals to address food security for Asian seniors in the East Bay and providing more support for family caregivers. She said the shift makes sense to meet the community’s current needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The cost factor is going to be a big challenge for society in general,” Wong said, referring to senior care. “How are we going to do this at home? What’s the role of the family? We know that public systems of funding aren’t really keeping up with the need.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Families said that J-Sei Home’s costs were significantly more affordable compared to other traditional care homes. Fukuchi-Wong told KQED that the direct, culturally sensitive care her mother received was “a steal” for what they paid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After J-Sei announced the closure, residents and their families were given about five months to find an alternate facility. Before her mother’s death, Fukuchi-Wong anxiously toured homes around the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hit the bricks,” said Fukuchi-Wong, who described the search to find a facility similar to J-Sei Home as a struggle. “Some of those places are pretty ragged and so it was hard to see some of the conditions where these people lived.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030315\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030315\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_326.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_326.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_326-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_326-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_326-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_326-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/jsei_JY_326-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Caregiver Amparo Chow helps Kazue Granich rise from her seat at J-Sei Home in Hayward on Nov. 14, 2024. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fukuchi-Wong said her mother needed to engage in social activities and eat traditional foods that would suit her appetite. Fukuchi-Wong’s first choice was Kimochi Home in San Mateo, another Japanese culturally sensitive senior care home, but there was a 40-person waiting list.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fukuchi noticed that her J-Sei Home friends were starting to move out. Caregivers and families shared emotional and tearful goodbyes as residents left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The family’s getting smaller,” Fukuchi, who began eating less and sleeping more, said to her daughter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was one of the last residents at the facility before she passed away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030306\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030306\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241219-JSEI-JY-314.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241219-JSEI-JY-314.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241219-JSEI-JY-314-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241219-JSEI-JY-314-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241219-JSEI-JY-314-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241219-JSEI-JY-314-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241219-JSEI-JY-314-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charles Granich, right, shows his mother, Kazue Granich, left, her room at her new care home, RN3 Loving Care Homes, a senior assisted living facility in the El Cerrito hills in December 2024.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ron Salvador, the former administrator of J-Sei Home, spoke to KQED about a week after J-Sei announced the home’s closure. He expressed concern about the future care of the residents. He said that at J-Sei Home, the caregiver-to-resident ratio was almost one-to-one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just sad when you see a specialty facility like this close down. It affects the whole community,” Salvador told KQED in October. “We’re worried about [the residents] because they became a family here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>J-Sei assisted residents as they searched for new facilities and navigated moving logistics. By January, most of them had moved into traditional assisted living facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 101, Kazue Granich was J-Sei Home’s oldest resident and lived there for over seven years. Though she was mostly quiet, she was known for being the loudest karaoke singer. She relocated to RN3 Loving Care Homes, a senior assisted living facility in the El Cerrito hills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While visiting her mother’s new home from out of town, Granich’s daughter, Sandy Granich, told a KQED reporter that Granich appeared to be skinnier and not as talkative as she used to be. One of her brothers, who is local and visits more often, had warned Sandy that their mother had grown quieter and more listless since leaving J-Sei Home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked how the facility compared to J-Sei Home, Sandy Granich said, “I feel like there was more camaraderie over there,” as she scanned RN3’s living room where other nearby residents sat quietly and alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A niche in the world of senior care\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On a recent morning in San Francisco, a dozen seniors — most of them in their 90s — played a bean bag toss game, cheering for one another as part of their daily 10 a.m. activity at Kimochi Home’s Japantown location. The Japanese senior care facility opened in 1983, about a decade before J-Sei Home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The seniors sat in a circle, and one by one — with the help of staff members and a volunteer — they shuffled or pushed their walkers to the center of the circle to play.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12028194\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12028194\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-07.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-07.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-07-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-07-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-07-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-07-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-07-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Residents participate in a game at Kimochi Home, a senior living community in San Francisco’s Japantown neighborhood, February 2025. Established in 1971, Kimochi provides programs and services to Bay Area seniors, honoring the Japanese tradition of respect and care for elders. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Rooting each other on during the activities and building that sense of community … that’s really important and the foundation of what Kimochi Home wanted to be,” said Linda Ishii, the home’s director of residential services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ishii is a San Francisco Japantown native who has worked with Kimochi for over two decades. She said the seniors at Kimochi Home are mostly Nisei, or second generation, and Shin-Issei, Japanese immigrants who arrived in the U.S. after World War II. The oldest Kimochi resident is 106.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two-story building is cozy and light-filled. There is a dedicated space for activities and exercise, TV lounges play Japanese-language programming and the walls are adorned with traditional Japanese decorations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12028199\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12028199\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-26.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-26.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-26-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-26-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-26-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-26-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-26-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kimochi Home is located in San Francisco’s Japantown neighborhood. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most of the residents are Japanese, but Ishii said Kimochi occasionally has residents who are Black, Latino, Filipino and other races and ethnicities. Though the focus of Kimochi Home is providing care for Japanese and Japanese Americans, Ishii said any senior can benefit from their care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is our niche in the whole world of senior care,” Ishii said. “It is focused on the care their loved one is receiving and if they’re going to feel comfortable within the space.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she was saddened to learn of J-Sei Home’s recent closure and provided tours to a few of the families looking for a new home for their seniors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s always a loss to the community as a whole to have such a well-established home close,” Ishii said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12028196\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12028196\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-17.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-17.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-17-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-17-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-17-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-17-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-17-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Residents participate in Radio Taiso, an exercise routine practiced in Japan, at Kimochi Home where the focus is providing care for Japanese and Japanese Americans. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After their morning activity, the seniors transitioned to chair exercises, where they watched \u003cem>Radio Taiso\u003c/em>, a Japanese exercise program on TV. The residents alternated between seated stretches and raising their arms in unison until it was time for lunch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The residents slowly made their way to the dining room, shuffling down a hallway in a line, some with their walkers, as staff members waited patiently nearby to assist as needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nothing moves fast around here,” Ishii said with a laugh. “There will come a time when they can no longer do it, so it takes them a while to get down the hall, but they’re doing it. That’s the most important thing, to let them have the ability to know that they can do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12028198\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12028198\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-20.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-20.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-20-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-20-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-20-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-20-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250220-ClosingJSei-20-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Linda Ishii, director of residential services, speaks with a resident at Kimochi Home, where “[n]othing moves fast,” she said. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Like J-Sei Home, Kimochi Home also faces rising costs and staffing challenges that were accelerated during the pandemic. She said keeping the home afloat is a balancing act because the facility is dedicated to keeping rates low to remain accessible to the community. Costs are out-of-pocket at Kimochi Home, as they were for J-Sei Home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ishii said that she still fields calls daily from families who are looking for a place for their Japanese elders. There are dozens of people on waitlists for both Kimochi Home locations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ishii remains committed to her work, which she said is her way of giving back to elders who “paved the way for us to be here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She considers it her responsibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we see that we’re not getting contacted by families and seniors anymore, then it’s time to look at something else or try to transform to a different program … but I’m hoping that’s many, many, many years down the road.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Photographer \u003ca href=\"https://www.julianayamada.com/\">Juliana Yamada\u003c/a> contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "california-is-spending-6-4-billion-on-mental-health-housing-will-it-reach-those-who-need-it-most",
"title": "California Is Spending $6.4 Billion on Mental Health Housing. Will It Reach Those Who Need It Most?",
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"headTitle": "California Is Spending $6.4 Billion on Mental Health Housing. Will It Reach Those Who Need It Most? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Newsom administration is moving swiftly to distribute by May billions of dollars from the 2024 mental health bond narrowly approved by voters, but concerns are emerging about whether areas of the state that have the greatest need will be left behind, according to testimony at legislative oversight hearing this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/mental-health/2024/03/proposition-1-gavin-newsom-2/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Proposition 1\u003c/a>, championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, pledged to inject $6.4 billion into the state’s overburdened mental health and addiction treatment system. Newsom promised voters the move would help the state address its \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2025/01/hud-pit-count-2024/#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20homeless%20Californians,state%20as%20of%20January%202024.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">homelessness crisis\u003c/a>, which is often publicly associated with \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2024/07/california-homelessness-myths/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">unaddressed mental health and substance use issues\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A majority of the money, $4.4 billion, would be used to build treatment facilities to help meet the state’s estimated \u003ca href=\"https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1824-1-v2.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">10,000-bed shortage\u003c/a>. The rest of the bond money would be used on housing and managed by the state’s housing department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom wanted to move as fast as possible. Last year, he announced the state would \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/mental-health/2024/05/mental-health-housing-proposition-1/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">release the bond money months ahead of schedule\u003c/a>. During a press conference last year, Newsom told counties to move with a “sense of urgency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re either part of the problem or you’re not. Period,” he said at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that timeline could neglect counties that have the fewest mental health resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Moving this money out fast does come at a cost, because there will be some who are left behind,” said Susan Holt, Fresno County Behavioral Health director, during the Tuesday Assembly Health Committee hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Small and rural counties say they simply don’t have the manpower or expertise to navigate the complex grant requirements governing this one-time, multibillion-dollar investment. A recent \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/reports/2025/4954/Building-CA-Behavorial-Health-Infrastructure-Progress-Update-020525.pdf\">Legislative Analyst’s Office report (PDF)\u003c/a> found that a majority of money distributed from programs similar to Prop. 1 in the past went to regions of the state that need it least. The area with the highest unmet need, the southern San Joaquin Valley, didn’t get any state money in previous rounds of funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To meet the population need, the region needs to nearly triple its capacity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prior to Prop. 1, Holt testified that Fresno County submitted nine grant applications for primarily acute care beds and did not receive any money from the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can speak with conviction and assurance that we understand the urgency,” Holt said. “Sometimes with this much money we need to go a little bit slower in order to go faster in the end.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Counties are also concerned that the state has provided money for treatment facilities but not for workforce or services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ryan Miller, an analyst from the Legislative Analyst’s Office, examined how the state spent similar building funds in the past. His analysis found that the state has historically awarded funds to “launch ready” projects that can be completed on a quick timeline, a criteria that gives an advantage to more sophisticated counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Which regions got more mental health funding?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For example, a 2022 RAND study found that Los Angeles and the greater Sacramento region have sufficient adult acute care capacity, yet collectively those areas received nearly three-fourths of the funding distributed for acute care beds, roughly $130 million, according to the analyst’s office. Instead, those areas have a higher need for sub-acute care and community residential treatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A great deal of resources and staff are needed to put together a compelling launch ready project,” Miller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other areas of the state that received less money than expected based on need were the Inland Empire, Central Coast and Bay Area, Miller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, who authored the legislation that put Prop. 1 on the ballot, said voters were very skeptical about how the state spends its money and that promises were made to get the money to counties quickly. But the Democrat from Thousand Oaks also questioned whether the accelerated timeline was sensible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/elections/2024/03/election-result-proposition-1/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Prop. 1 passed\u003c/a> by the narrowest of margins last year, 50.2% to 49.8%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Do you think the administration’s … implementation has been too aggressive, or are the goals realistic?” Irwin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>State backs projects it believes will succeed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Marlise Perez, a division chief for the Department of Health Care Services, pushed back against the notion that awards would leave small counties behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want it to appear that we’re only awarding the shiniest applications,” Perez said, pointing to almost $200 million in grants that were awarded to small counties prior to Prop. 1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, the administration must support projects that can actually be completed, Perez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the analyst’s office, 18 small counties received no funding in previous grant rounds. According to Perez, 16 of them didn’t apply. [aside postID=\"science_1995393,news_11986218,news_11980415\" label=\"Related Stories\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately we can only award who applies. That has been a challenge,” Perez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her office is helping those counties with the application and now expects seven to apply for the next round of funding. One of the more difficult grant requirements is that facilities guarantee they can provide services for the next 30 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still with more than $3.3 billion rolling out in two months, there’s little room to pivot how the money will be targeted. This round of grants will focus once again on “launch ready” projects. The remaining $1.1 billion will be awarded by early 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Applicants have submitted projects totaling more than $8.8 billion, double the amount of money available, an indication of the severe needs across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, a Fresno Democrat, said when the system rewards those who have historically been able to provide services there is a risk of “baking in historical inequities and disparities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to see tangible results from the $6.4 billion mental health bond voters approved last year. Moving fast carries a risk of neglecting under-resourced communities.",
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"title": "California Is Spending $6.4 Billion on Mental Health Housing. Will It Reach Those Who Need It Most? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Newsom administration is moving swiftly to distribute by May billions of dollars from the 2024 mental health bond narrowly approved by voters, but concerns are emerging about whether areas of the state that have the greatest need will be left behind, according to testimony at legislative oversight hearing this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/mental-health/2024/03/proposition-1-gavin-newsom-2/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Proposition 1\u003c/a>, championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, pledged to inject $6.4 billion into the state’s overburdened mental health and addiction treatment system. Newsom promised voters the move would help the state address its \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2025/01/hud-pit-count-2024/#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20homeless%20Californians,state%20as%20of%20January%202024.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">homelessness crisis\u003c/a>, which is often publicly associated with \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2024/07/california-homelessness-myths/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">unaddressed mental health and substance use issues\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A majority of the money, $4.4 billion, would be used to build treatment facilities to help meet the state’s estimated \u003ca href=\"https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1824-1-v2.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">10,000-bed shortage\u003c/a>. The rest of the bond money would be used on housing and managed by the state’s housing department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom wanted to move as fast as possible. Last year, he announced the state would \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/mental-health/2024/05/mental-health-housing-proposition-1/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">release the bond money months ahead of schedule\u003c/a>. During a press conference last year, Newsom told counties to move with a “sense of urgency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re either part of the problem or you’re not. Period,” he said at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that timeline could neglect counties that have the fewest mental health resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Moving this money out fast does come at a cost, because there will be some who are left behind,” said Susan Holt, Fresno County Behavioral Health director, during the Tuesday Assembly Health Committee hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Small and rural counties say they simply don’t have the manpower or expertise to navigate the complex grant requirements governing this one-time, multibillion-dollar investment. A recent \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/reports/2025/4954/Building-CA-Behavorial-Health-Infrastructure-Progress-Update-020525.pdf\">Legislative Analyst’s Office report (PDF)\u003c/a> found that a majority of money distributed from programs similar to Prop. 1 in the past went to regions of the state that need it least. The area with the highest unmet need, the southern San Joaquin Valley, didn’t get any state money in previous rounds of funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To meet the population need, the region needs to nearly triple its capacity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prior to Prop. 1, Holt testified that Fresno County submitted nine grant applications for primarily acute care beds and did not receive any money from the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can speak with conviction and assurance that we understand the urgency,” Holt said. “Sometimes with this much money we need to go a little bit slower in order to go faster in the end.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Counties are also concerned that the state has provided money for treatment facilities but not for workforce or services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ryan Miller, an analyst from the Legislative Analyst’s Office, examined how the state spent similar building funds in the past. His analysis found that the state has historically awarded funds to “launch ready” projects that can be completed on a quick timeline, a criteria that gives an advantage to more sophisticated counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Which regions got more mental health funding?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For example, a 2022 RAND study found that Los Angeles and the greater Sacramento region have sufficient adult acute care capacity, yet collectively those areas received nearly three-fourths of the funding distributed for acute care beds, roughly $130 million, according to the analyst’s office. Instead, those areas have a higher need for sub-acute care and community residential treatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A great deal of resources and staff are needed to put together a compelling launch ready project,” Miller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other areas of the state that received less money than expected based on need were the Inland Empire, Central Coast and Bay Area, Miller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, who authored the legislation that put Prop. 1 on the ballot, said voters were very skeptical about how the state spends its money and that promises were made to get the money to counties quickly. But the Democrat from Thousand Oaks also questioned whether the accelerated timeline was sensible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/elections/2024/03/election-result-proposition-1/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Prop. 1 passed\u003c/a> by the narrowest of margins last year, 50.2% to 49.8%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Do you think the administration’s … implementation has been too aggressive, or are the goals realistic?” Irwin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>State backs projects it believes will succeed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Marlise Perez, a division chief for the Department of Health Care Services, pushed back against the notion that awards would leave small counties behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want it to appear that we’re only awarding the shiniest applications,” Perez said, pointing to almost $200 million in grants that were awarded to small counties prior to Prop. 1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, the administration must support projects that can actually be completed, Perez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the analyst’s office, 18 small counties received no funding in previous grant rounds. According to Perez, 16 of them didn’t apply. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately we can only award who applies. That has been a challenge,” Perez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her office is helping those counties with the application and now expects seven to apply for the next round of funding. One of the more difficult grant requirements is that facilities guarantee they can provide services for the next 30 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still with more than $3.3 billion rolling out in two months, there’s little room to pivot how the money will be targeted. This round of grants will focus once again on “launch ready” projects. The remaining $1.1 billion will be awarded by early 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Applicants have submitted projects totaling more than $8.8 billion, double the amount of money available, an indication of the severe needs across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, a Fresno Democrat, said when the system rewards those who have historically been able to provide services there is a risk of “baking in historical inequities and disparities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "state-report-throws-shade-on-one-of-newsoms-key-encampment-clearing-policies",
"title": "Report: California Should Pause Funding for One of Newsom’s Key Programs to Clear Encampments",
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"content": "\u003cp>Lawmakers should hit the brakes on one of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature programs for cleaning up homeless encampments, \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5007\">according to a report\u003c/a> out Wednesday from the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The LAO found lawmakers lack the basic information needed to assess how well the effort — called Encampment Resolution Funding Program — is working and should hold off on further investment until it’s given “compelling evidence that program goals are being met.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom and legislators \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/10/29/california-launches-encampment-resolution-grant-program/\">rolled out the competitive grant in 2021\u003c/a> to help local governments address “specific, persistent encampments” with the aim of moving people into permanent housing or temporary shelter until long-term housing becomes available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state invested $900 million in the program since its launch, according to the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In some communities, this is a really important tool,” said Susannah Parsons, director of policy and legislation for the nonprofit, All Home, “and certainly a means by which local jurisdictions can respond to intense political pressure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom last year \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997352/newsom-orders-state-agencies-to-dismantle-homeless-encampments-across-california\">ordered state agencies\u003c/a> to clear encampments and urged local governments to do the same. The order seized on an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11991340/supreme-court-says-laws-criminalizing-homeless-camping-do-not-violate-constitution\">opening from the Supreme Court\u003c/a>, which issued a ruling that gave cities greater leeway to fine and jail people for camping illegally, even when no alternative shelter is available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parsons agrees that better data on outcomes is essential, but she said holding back new funding could hamper efforts to address homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The prospect of losing access to that funding … is a big deal,” she said, noting that the uniquely flexible dollars are used for everything from medical care to emergency rental subsidies. “And it’s in the context of a funding landscape that is really uncertain, and that is making it really difficult for us to see the kind of progress that we need.”[aside postID=news_12030023 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250210_Unhoused-Ban_DMB_00270_qed-1020x680.jpg']The analyst’s recommendation, part of its 2025–26 budget assessment, echoes a report from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11982237/california-audit-questions-state-homelessness-spending-san-jose\">state auditor last year\u003c/a> that found California has little idea how effective the billions it’s spent addressing homelessness have been.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom and legislators have since put an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12011525/newsom-announces-830-million-in-homelessness-spending-with-strings\">emphasis on accountability\u003c/a>, but when it comes to this program, those efforts have yet to come to fruition. His office did not return requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers haven’t received data on how many people have been housed using the money or even how many encampments have been addressed, according to the LAO, which provides nonpartisan policy advice to the Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without that data, the analyst points out, the Legislature can’t determine whether the funding is resulting in an encampment “resolution” or encampment sweeps, which simply move people from one corner to the next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the report, 70% of grant funds have yet to be spent. Of the $258 million that has been, about a third was used on temporary shelter, with the remainder spent on street outreach, services and permanent housing, among other uses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know what’s most effective — it’s helping people back into housing and providing services to support that transition, instead of measures that just move them around,” Alex Visotzky, Senior California Policy Fellow with the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said. “Voters and folks experiencing homelessness want to see public dollars spent on what works.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legislators added new reporting requirements for the program last year, but those progress reports aren’t due until next month. Until lawmakers have those in hand, the LAO suggests they use spring budget hearings to press the administration for any available data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Lawmakers lack the basic information needed to assess how well one of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature programs for clearing homeless encampments is working and should hold off on further funding, according to a new report from the legislature’s policy analyst.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Lawmakers should hit the brakes on one of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature programs for cleaning up homeless encampments, \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5007\">according to a report\u003c/a> out Wednesday from the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The LAO found lawmakers lack the basic information needed to assess how well the effort — called Encampment Resolution Funding Program — is working and should hold off on further investment until it’s given “compelling evidence that program goals are being met.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom and legislators \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/10/29/california-launches-encampment-resolution-grant-program/\">rolled out the competitive grant in 2021\u003c/a> to help local governments address “specific, persistent encampments” with the aim of moving people into permanent housing or temporary shelter until long-term housing becomes available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state invested $900 million in the program since its launch, according to the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In some communities, this is a really important tool,” said Susannah Parsons, director of policy and legislation for the nonprofit, All Home, “and certainly a means by which local jurisdictions can respond to intense political pressure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom last year \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997352/newsom-orders-state-agencies-to-dismantle-homeless-encampments-across-california\">ordered state agencies\u003c/a> to clear encampments and urged local governments to do the same. The order seized on an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11991340/supreme-court-says-laws-criminalizing-homeless-camping-do-not-violate-constitution\">opening from the Supreme Court\u003c/a>, which issued a ruling that gave cities greater leeway to fine and jail people for camping illegally, even when no alternative shelter is available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parsons agrees that better data on outcomes is essential, but she said holding back new funding could hamper efforts to address homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The prospect of losing access to that funding … is a big deal,” she said, noting that the uniquely flexible dollars are used for everything from medical care to emergency rental subsidies. “And it’s in the context of a funding landscape that is really uncertain, and that is making it really difficult for us to see the kind of progress that we need.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The analyst’s recommendation, part of its 2025–26 budget assessment, echoes a report from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11982237/california-audit-questions-state-homelessness-spending-san-jose\">state auditor last year\u003c/a> that found California has little idea how effective the billions it’s spent addressing homelessness have been.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom and legislators have since put an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12011525/newsom-announces-830-million-in-homelessness-spending-with-strings\">emphasis on accountability\u003c/a>, but when it comes to this program, those efforts have yet to come to fruition. His office did not return requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers haven’t received data on how many people have been housed using the money or even how many encampments have been addressed, according to the LAO, which provides nonpartisan policy advice to the Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without that data, the analyst points out, the Legislature can’t determine whether the funding is resulting in an encampment “resolution” or encampment sweeps, which simply move people from one corner to the next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the report, 70% of grant funds have yet to be spent. Of the $258 million that has been, about a third was used on temporary shelter, with the remainder spent on street outreach, services and permanent housing, among other uses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know what’s most effective — it’s helping people back into housing and providing services to support that transition, instead of measures that just move them around,” Alex Visotzky, Senior California Policy Fellow with the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said. “Voters and folks experiencing homelessness want to see public dollars spent on what works.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legislators added new reporting requirements for the program last year, but those progress reports aren’t due until next month. Until lawmakers have those in hand, the LAO suggests they use spring budget hearings to press the administration for any available data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Controversial Fremont Camping Ban on Hold Amid Legal Challenge",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 5:30 p.m. Thursday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026580/this-bay-area-city-just-passed-the-most-extreme-encampment-ban-in-california\">controversial camping ban\u003c/a> in Fremont was put on hold Thursday amid a legal challenge from advocates for unhoused residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Homeless Union, along with other local unhoused advocacy and faith-based organizations, filed a complaint on Tuesday in federal court seeking an injunction against the ban, which the group alleges is unduly harsh and violates a host of civil rights and religious freedom laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit asked the court to stop “what will otherwise be a completely preventable humanitarian crisis in the city of Fremont.” On Thursday, both parties agreed to pause litigation until the council’s final action on proposed amendments that sought to address the most contentious provision in the law. Fremont’s city attorney also agreed to recommend the city not enforce the ordinance, which goes into effect on March 13, until any changes are finalized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law would make it illegal to store personal property, including camping gear, on public land. Because of this provision, the lawsuit alleges unhoused people who take even “rudimentary precautions against the elements will be arrested and their property will be seized.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This particular ordinance is so broad, far-reaching, and punitive,” said Andrea Henson, one of the attorneys who filed the complaint, noting that the ban also applies to anyone living temporarily outdoors or using “camp paraphernalia.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suit was filed on the same day city leaders voted to support eliminating a clause in the new law that some advocates said would have allowed the city to arrest or fine people for providing tents, blankets, food, or other supplies to people experiencing homelessness, punishable by up to six months in jail or a fine of up to $1,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The provision raised alarms with advocates and volunteers, who said it could have a chilling effect on outreach, food distribution and other efforts to provide much-needed help to unhoused people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But city leaders have pushed back on that characterization, claiming the ordinance’s language was being “weaponized” or misinterpreted. The city also issued a lengthy explanation of its intent after the law’s approval on Feb. 11, saying the ban “does not criminalize service workers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, however, the city council ceded to those concerns, voting to remove the “aiding and abetting” section in an amendment that will need to be formally adopted at an upcoming meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are doing a good thing here by clarifying our intent,” Mayor Raj Salwan said. “We have said it at least 20 times.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite striking the controversial clause from the camping ordinance, the city’s general municipal code contains a similar provision, and some residents and Henson said that could effectively allow for the same enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For us, nothing has been changed, this is all fluid and moving very fast,” Henson said. “People are worried, volunteers are worried.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fremont is one of several cities across California that have cracked down on encampments since the Supreme Court gave local officials more power to do so last summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some residents have embraced the more aggressive laws in the hopes of seeing large, sprawling encampments cleared, many advocates and faith leaders have recoiled at Fremont’s approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is such a poorly crafted ordinance through and through,” Vivian Wan, CEO of Abode Services, said at the council meeting. Abode runs a shelter and other housing programs in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you wanted to actually solve a problem and bring people together like leaders are supposed to, you would have actually had that conversation before this ordinance was passed,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richard Godfrey, a resident, said at the meeting the city is gaining a reputation as one of the harshest in the nation when it comes to homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would suggest that we have been taking baby steps towards an authoritative police state rather than giant steps toward a truly compassionate city,” Godfrey said.[aside postID=news_12026580 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250210_Unhoused-Ban_DMB_00250-1020x680.jpg']Even some council members appeared to be reconsidering elements of the law they voted to support just last month, such as Kathy Kimberlin and Teresa Keng.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They both indicated Tuesday they would support changing the law to remove the threat of a misdemeanor and arrest, and instead make camping ban violations punishable only by citation or infraction. However, the council majority did not support weakening the penalty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just don’t think anything above (a citation) is going to change anything anyway,” Kimberlin said. “The fines probably aren’t going to be paid, anything is not going to be paid, and going to jail is not going to help.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Councilmember Yang Shao asked Police Chief Sean Washington, “Is our citation paper soft enough so they can use it as toilet paper?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kimberlin gasped and said, “Oh my stars.” An audience member was heard saying, “That was inappropriate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some experts said that since the Supreme Court’s ruling, cities and counties have been experimenting with how far their laws policing homelessness can go. Laura Riley, director of the Clinical Program at Berkeley Law, said lawsuits like the one filed by the California Homeless Union can help counterbalance these new ordinances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hopefully, the pushback in the form of lawsuits like this will show that there are legal boundaries that should not be crossed,” Riley said. “What exactly those are; we have to wait to see what the courts do. But I do think it shows that municipalities can’t criminalize homelessness in a way that’s unchecked.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 5:30 p.m. Thursday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026580/this-bay-area-city-just-passed-the-most-extreme-encampment-ban-in-california\">controversial camping ban\u003c/a> in Fremont was put on hold Thursday amid a legal challenge from advocates for unhoused residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Homeless Union, along with other local unhoused advocacy and faith-based organizations, filed a complaint on Tuesday in federal court seeking an injunction against the ban, which the group alleges is unduly harsh and violates a host of civil rights and religious freedom laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit asked the court to stop “what will otherwise be a completely preventable humanitarian crisis in the city of Fremont.” On Thursday, both parties agreed to pause litigation until the council’s final action on proposed amendments that sought to address the most contentious provision in the law. Fremont’s city attorney also agreed to recommend the city not enforce the ordinance, which goes into effect on March 13, until any changes are finalized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law would make it illegal to store personal property, including camping gear, on public land. Because of this provision, the lawsuit alleges unhoused people who take even “rudimentary precautions against the elements will be arrested and their property will be seized.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This particular ordinance is so broad, far-reaching, and punitive,” said Andrea Henson, one of the attorneys who filed the complaint, noting that the ban also applies to anyone living temporarily outdoors or using “camp paraphernalia.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suit was filed on the same day city leaders voted to support eliminating a clause in the new law that some advocates said would have allowed the city to arrest or fine people for providing tents, blankets, food, or other supplies to people experiencing homelessness, punishable by up to six months in jail or a fine of up to $1,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The provision raised alarms with advocates and volunteers, who said it could have a chilling effect on outreach, food distribution and other efforts to provide much-needed help to unhoused people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But city leaders have pushed back on that characterization, claiming the ordinance’s language was being “weaponized” or misinterpreted. The city also issued a lengthy explanation of its intent after the law’s approval on Feb. 11, saying the ban “does not criminalize service workers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, however, the city council ceded to those concerns, voting to remove the “aiding and abetting” section in an amendment that will need to be formally adopted at an upcoming meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are doing a good thing here by clarifying our intent,” Mayor Raj Salwan said. “We have said it at least 20 times.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite striking the controversial clause from the camping ordinance, the city’s general municipal code contains a similar provision, and some residents and Henson said that could effectively allow for the same enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For us, nothing has been changed, this is all fluid and moving very fast,” Henson said. “People are worried, volunteers are worried.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fremont is one of several cities across California that have cracked down on encampments since the Supreme Court gave local officials more power to do so last summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some residents have embraced the more aggressive laws in the hopes of seeing large, sprawling encampments cleared, many advocates and faith leaders have recoiled at Fremont’s approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is such a poorly crafted ordinance through and through,” Vivian Wan, CEO of Abode Services, said at the council meeting. Abode runs a shelter and other housing programs in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you wanted to actually solve a problem and bring people together like leaders are supposed to, you would have actually had that conversation before this ordinance was passed,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richard Godfrey, a resident, said at the meeting the city is gaining a reputation as one of the harshest in the nation when it comes to homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would suggest that we have been taking baby steps towards an authoritative police state rather than giant steps toward a truly compassionate city,” Godfrey said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Even some council members appeared to be reconsidering elements of the law they voted to support just last month, such as Kathy Kimberlin and Teresa Keng.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They both indicated Tuesday they would support changing the law to remove the threat of a misdemeanor and arrest, and instead make camping ban violations punishable only by citation or infraction. However, the council majority did not support weakening the penalty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just don’t think anything above (a citation) is going to change anything anyway,” Kimberlin said. “The fines probably aren’t going to be paid, anything is not going to be paid, and going to jail is not going to help.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Councilmember Yang Shao asked Police Chief Sean Washington, “Is our citation paper soft enough so they can use it as toilet paper?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kimberlin gasped and said, “Oh my stars.” An audience member was heard saying, “That was inappropriate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some experts said that since the Supreme Court’s ruling, cities and counties have been experimenting with how far their laws policing homelessness can go. Laura Riley, director of the Clinical Program at Berkeley Law, said lawsuits like the one filed by the California Homeless Union can help counterbalance these new ordinances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hopefully, the pushback in the form of lawsuits like this will show that there are legal boundaries that should not be crossed,” Riley said. “What exactly those are; we have to wait to see what the courts do. But I do think it shows that municipalities can’t criminalize homelessness in a way that’s unchecked.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Rio Vista Explores Annexing Some of California Forever's Land",
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"content": "\u003cp>On Tuesday, the Rio Vista City Council voted unanimously to explore annexing some of the land owned by a subsidiary of California Forever, making it the second neighbor to consider expanding its boundaries in the wake of the company’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12000185/this-tech-backed-company-tried-to-disrupt-californias-housing-crisis-it-couldnt\">proposal to build a city from scratch\u003c/a> on nearby farmland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In January, Suisun City’s council took a similar action to consider \u003ca href=\"https://www.suisun.com/Departments/Development-Services/Suisun-City-Expansion-Exploration?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery\">annexing land\u003c/a> surrounding its borders. Although the directive didn’t specifically mention California Forever, a large portion of unincorporated land to the east of the city is owned by the company’s subsidiary, Flannery Associates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This decision is about just getting to the table,” Rio Vista Mayor Edwin Okamura said shortly before Tuesday’s vote. “Many of us were content waiting for further studies on the original impacts of the California Forever project before weighing in. Suisun’s bold move requires Rio Vista to take steps to protect our interests.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The council directed staff to start the lengthy process of determining how much land the city could annex, the process for annexation, and how such a move might impact its budget. Included in that process is a request to explore expansion while still maintaining Rio Vista’s character as \u003ca href=\"https://riovista-ca.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=1&event_id=2363&meta_id=59354\">“a quaint river town.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At just \u003ca href=\"https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/dixoncitycalifornia,riovistacitycalifornia,suisuncitycitycalifornia,US/PST045224\">6.6 square miles and 4 square miles\u003c/a>, respectively, Rio Vista and neighboring Suisun City are the county’s two smallest cities. Lisa Duke, who was recently appointed to the city council, said she wants to protect the 700-acre open space buffer between Rio Vista and the proposed city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029957\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029957\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/RioVista1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1346\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/RioVista1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/RioVista1-800x538.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/RioVista1-1020x686.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/RioVista1-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/RioVista1-1536x1034.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/RioVista1-1920x1292.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The small town of Rio Vista, located along the Sacramento River and Highway 12, is viewed from the air on May 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(George Rose/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I wanted to live in a small rural town surrounded by open space, and that’s why I’m here,” she said. “I’m not happy about the position that I’m in tonight, but I was appointed to make the best decisions possible for Rio Vista and the community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, California Forever, a company \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/25/business/land-purchases-solano-county.html\">backed by a cadre of Silicon Valley billionaires\u003c/a>, introduced the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12000185/this-tech-backed-company-tried-to-disrupt-californias-housing-crisis-it-couldnt\">East Solano Plan\u003c/a>. The ambitious ballot measure asked Solano County voters for permission to build a new city that would eventually support some 400,000 new residents, bring “\u003ca href=\"https://californiaforever.com/economic-impact/\">well-paid\u003c/a>” jobs to Solano and \u003ca href=\"https://californiaforever.com/transportation/\">improve the county’s worn-down infrastructure\u003c/a>. In the years leading up to the company’s announcement, its subsidiary quietly bought more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/vacaville/farmers-refuse-sell-to-flannery-associates/103-e02f38f9-8093-43a5-8dc2-79a9b0a98ed6#:~:text=%E2%80%94%20Flannery%20Associates%2C%20investors%20in%20the,land%20owners%20in%20the%20county.\">60,000 acres of farmland\u003c/a>, making it the \u003ca href=\"https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/vacaville/farmers-refuse-sell-to-flannery-associates/103-e02f38f9-8093-43a5-8dc2-79a9b0a98ed6#:~:text=%E2%80%94%20Flannery%20Associates%2C%20investors%20in%20the,land%20owners%20in%20the%20county.\">largest private landowner\u003c/a> in the county.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Company executives were prepared to present the plan to voters in November but \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11996747/california-forever-pulls-bid-to-build-new-city-from-this-years-ballot\">pulled the ballot measure\u003c/a> a few months before the election, instead promising to publish an environmental impact report and a development agreement before bringing the measure back to voters in 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12011148 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-68-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, officials in neighboring cities have been slowly warming up to negotiating with California Forever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a Jan. 21 meeting, Suisun City officials directed City Manager Bret Prebula to study whether expanding the city’s limits could broaden its tax base to bolster its dwindling revenues. During public comment, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kcra.com/article/suisun-city-leaders-conspiracy-theories-california-forever/63509835\">opponents of the East Solano Plan cited concerns about a lack of transparency\u003c/a> in the council and agenda, not mentioning California Forever or acknowledging at the outset that this move would require talking to the company’s representatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This isn’t about Suisun City trying to do a land grab,” Prebula told KQED. “It’s about us doing it for our own survival and for the future for our residents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after the meeting, Fairfield Mayor Catherine Moy and other \u003ca href=\"https://www.dailyrepublic.com/news/moy-city-welcomes-input-from-defense-tech-companies-that-may-be-part-of-california-forever/article_fd5a9ae6-de83-11ef-8942-27748a2b9708.html\">city officials\u003c/a> announced they wanted to work with California Forever to bring defense tech companies to their city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement to KQED, California Forever spokesperson Julia Blystone said the company is “committed to working with all stakeholders to build a stronger Solano County.” If the company receives an invitation to explore annexations from Rio Vista or Suisun City, Blystone said it would “be open to a conversation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029959\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029959\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-88-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-88-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-88-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-88-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-88-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-88-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-88-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sheep graze on farmland west of Rio Vista on May 2, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Neither city has specified how much land it would annex or how the move, if ultimately approved, would impact the company’s proposed East Solano Plan. The land is currently within Solano County’s jurisdiction, but a spokesperson for the county did not return a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://riovista-ca.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=1&event_id=2363&meta_id=59354\">report detailing Rio Vista’s options\u003c/a> for annexation, staff said potential benefits could include broadening the city’s tax base, improving infrastructure and retaining the ability to negotiate with California Forever to ensure the East Solano Plan benefits Rio Vista.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During her presentation to the council, City Manager Kristina Miller reminded the public that annexation would “take years to complete” and that anywhere in the process, the city could choose to \u003ca href=\"https://riovista-ca.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=1&event_id=2363&meta_id=59354\">move in an alternative direction.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A majority of the more than two dozen residents who spoke during public comment encouraged the council to explore annexation, with some speaking in favor of the East Solano Plan’s promises to bring jobs and housing to the county. Sandy Roth, a resident of the city since 2022 who lives in the Trilogy at Rio Vista retirement community, said when she arrived, she said many of the people who do work on her property travel from outside the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s not housing for people who do the jobs here in town,” she said. “So we think it’s very important that we at least have a seat at the table to change things here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029969\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029969\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-99-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-99-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-99-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-99-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-99-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-99-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-99-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A playground in Rio Vista on May 2, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Other residents were frustrated that the city’s general plan could change with a potential annexation and that the council was considering working with California Forever after its subsidiary pursued a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11970694/california-forever-lawsuit-looms-as-solano-county-farmers-fight-back\">bitter antitrust lawsuit against local farmers\u003c/a> who refused to sell their land. The company \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12005460/farmers-who-refused-to-sell-land-to-california-forever-settle-suits-against-them\">settled that suit\u003c/a> with a majority of the farmers in September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sarah Soroken, a local resident and opponent of the East Solano Plan, said she was concerned about the farmland and open space the proposed new city might consume.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I oppose exploring annexation and development of our county’s farmland due to the reality that this will put into process a motion that will cause us to lose so much that we can never get back,” she said. “We could develop smarter within city boundaries with existing infrastructure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Okamura said he would prefer if the city focused on infill development before expanding outwards. But he worried that if Rio Vista decided to do nothing, both California Forever’s proposed new city and Suisun City could grow to reach Rio Vista’s border, potentially depriving the city of its own growth, economic development opportunities and open space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the most aggressive scenario, their project could reach us and pin us between the river and the development,” he said. “That does not necessarily mean that [annexation is] what we need to do, it just means that we’re studying the options that are available.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prebula said he wants to work with Rio Vista officials as both cities navigate their positions in shaping the East Solano Plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It almost seems like a natural path that we would help each other out along the way — we’re the two smallest cities,” he said. “The region benefits broadly if we’re walking together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfZ-ZKtuSHdeWqxooQwfEcr-oiOpdpJcf2RLZInU7aqjjQlRQ/viewform?embedded=true\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "On Tuesday, the Rio Vista City Council voted to explore annexing some of California Forever’s land in Solano County. The company is behind a controversial plan to build a city from scratch on farmland.",
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"title": "Rio Vista Explores Annexing Some of California Forever's Land | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On Tuesday, the Rio Vista City Council voted unanimously to explore annexing some of the land owned by a subsidiary of California Forever, making it the second neighbor to consider expanding its boundaries in the wake of the company’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12000185/this-tech-backed-company-tried-to-disrupt-californias-housing-crisis-it-couldnt\">proposal to build a city from scratch\u003c/a> on nearby farmland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In January, Suisun City’s council took a similar action to consider \u003ca href=\"https://www.suisun.com/Departments/Development-Services/Suisun-City-Expansion-Exploration?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery\">annexing land\u003c/a> surrounding its borders. Although the directive didn’t specifically mention California Forever, a large portion of unincorporated land to the east of the city is owned by the company’s subsidiary, Flannery Associates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This decision is about just getting to the table,” Rio Vista Mayor Edwin Okamura said shortly before Tuesday’s vote. “Many of us were content waiting for further studies on the original impacts of the California Forever project before weighing in. Suisun’s bold move requires Rio Vista to take steps to protect our interests.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The council directed staff to start the lengthy process of determining how much land the city could annex, the process for annexation, and how such a move might impact its budget. Included in that process is a request to explore expansion while still maintaining Rio Vista’s character as \u003ca href=\"https://riovista-ca.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=1&event_id=2363&meta_id=59354\">“a quaint river town.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At just \u003ca href=\"https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/dixoncitycalifornia,riovistacitycalifornia,suisuncitycitycalifornia,US/PST045224\">6.6 square miles and 4 square miles\u003c/a>, respectively, Rio Vista and neighboring Suisun City are the county’s two smallest cities. Lisa Duke, who was recently appointed to the city council, said she wants to protect the 700-acre open space buffer between Rio Vista and the proposed city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029957\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029957\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/RioVista1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1346\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/RioVista1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/RioVista1-800x538.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/RioVista1-1020x686.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/RioVista1-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/RioVista1-1536x1034.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/RioVista1-1920x1292.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The small town of Rio Vista, located along the Sacramento River and Highway 12, is viewed from the air on May 22, 2023. \u003ccite>(George Rose/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I wanted to live in a small rural town surrounded by open space, and that’s why I’m here,” she said. “I’m not happy about the position that I’m in tonight, but I was appointed to make the best decisions possible for Rio Vista and the community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, California Forever, a company \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/25/business/land-purchases-solano-county.html\">backed by a cadre of Silicon Valley billionaires\u003c/a>, introduced the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12000185/this-tech-backed-company-tried-to-disrupt-californias-housing-crisis-it-couldnt\">East Solano Plan\u003c/a>. The ambitious ballot measure asked Solano County voters for permission to build a new city that would eventually support some 400,000 new residents, bring “\u003ca href=\"https://californiaforever.com/economic-impact/\">well-paid\u003c/a>” jobs to Solano and \u003ca href=\"https://californiaforever.com/transportation/\">improve the county’s worn-down infrastructure\u003c/a>. In the years leading up to the company’s announcement, its subsidiary quietly bought more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/vacaville/farmers-refuse-sell-to-flannery-associates/103-e02f38f9-8093-43a5-8dc2-79a9b0a98ed6#:~:text=%E2%80%94%20Flannery%20Associates%2C%20investors%20in%20the,land%20owners%20in%20the%20county.\">60,000 acres of farmland\u003c/a>, making it the \u003ca href=\"https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/vacaville/farmers-refuse-sell-to-flannery-associates/103-e02f38f9-8093-43a5-8dc2-79a9b0a98ed6#:~:text=%E2%80%94%20Flannery%20Associates%2C%20investors%20in%20the,land%20owners%20in%20the%20county.\">largest private landowner\u003c/a> in the county.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Company executives were prepared to present the plan to voters in November but \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11996747/california-forever-pulls-bid-to-build-new-city-from-this-years-ballot\">pulled the ballot measure\u003c/a> a few months before the election, instead promising to publish an environmental impact report and a development agreement before bringing the measure back to voters in 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, officials in neighboring cities have been slowly warming up to negotiating with California Forever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a Jan. 21 meeting, Suisun City officials directed City Manager Bret Prebula to study whether expanding the city’s limits could broaden its tax base to bolster its dwindling revenues. During public comment, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kcra.com/article/suisun-city-leaders-conspiracy-theories-california-forever/63509835\">opponents of the East Solano Plan cited concerns about a lack of transparency\u003c/a> in the council and agenda, not mentioning California Forever or acknowledging at the outset that this move would require talking to the company’s representatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This isn’t about Suisun City trying to do a land grab,” Prebula told KQED. “It’s about us doing it for our own survival and for the future for our residents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after the meeting, Fairfield Mayor Catherine Moy and other \u003ca href=\"https://www.dailyrepublic.com/news/moy-city-welcomes-input-from-defense-tech-companies-that-may-be-part-of-california-forever/article_fd5a9ae6-de83-11ef-8942-27748a2b9708.html\">city officials\u003c/a> announced they wanted to work with California Forever to bring defense tech companies to their city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement to KQED, California Forever spokesperson Julia Blystone said the company is “committed to working with all stakeholders to build a stronger Solano County.” If the company receives an invitation to explore annexations from Rio Vista or Suisun City, Blystone said it would “be open to a conversation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029959\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029959\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-88-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-88-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-88-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-88-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-88-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-88-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-88-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sheep graze on farmland west of Rio Vista on May 2, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Neither city has specified how much land it would annex or how the move, if ultimately approved, would impact the company’s proposed East Solano Plan. The land is currently within Solano County’s jurisdiction, but a spokesperson for the county did not return a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://riovista-ca.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=1&event_id=2363&meta_id=59354\">report detailing Rio Vista’s options\u003c/a> for annexation, staff said potential benefits could include broadening the city’s tax base, improving infrastructure and retaining the ability to negotiate with California Forever to ensure the East Solano Plan benefits Rio Vista.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During her presentation to the council, City Manager Kristina Miller reminded the public that annexation would “take years to complete” and that anywhere in the process, the city could choose to \u003ca href=\"https://riovista-ca.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=1&event_id=2363&meta_id=59354\">move in an alternative direction.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A majority of the more than two dozen residents who spoke during public comment encouraged the council to explore annexation, with some speaking in favor of the East Solano Plan’s promises to bring jobs and housing to the county. Sandy Roth, a resident of the city since 2022 who lives in the Trilogy at Rio Vista retirement community, said when she arrived, she said many of the people who do work on her property travel from outside the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s not housing for people who do the jobs here in town,” she said. “So we think it’s very important that we at least have a seat at the table to change things here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029969\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029969\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-99-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-99-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-99-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-99-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-99-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-99-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240502-CaliforniaForever-99-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A playground in Rio Vista on May 2, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Other residents were frustrated that the city’s general plan could change with a potential annexation and that the council was considering working with California Forever after its subsidiary pursued a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11970694/california-forever-lawsuit-looms-as-solano-county-farmers-fight-back\">bitter antitrust lawsuit against local farmers\u003c/a> who refused to sell their land. The company \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12005460/farmers-who-refused-to-sell-land-to-california-forever-settle-suits-against-them\">settled that suit\u003c/a> with a majority of the farmers in September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sarah Soroken, a local resident and opponent of the East Solano Plan, said she was concerned about the farmland and open space the proposed new city might consume.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I oppose exploring annexation and development of our county’s farmland due to the reality that this will put into process a motion that will cause us to lose so much that we can never get back,” she said. “We could develop smarter within city boundaries with existing infrastructure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Okamura said he would prefer if the city focused on infill development before expanding outwards. But he worried that if Rio Vista decided to do nothing, both California Forever’s proposed new city and Suisun City could grow to reach Rio Vista’s border, potentially depriving the city of its own growth, economic development opportunities and open space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the most aggressive scenario, their project could reach us and pin us between the river and the development,” he said. “That does not necessarily mean that [annexation is] what we need to do, it just means that we’re studying the options that are available.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prebula said he wants to work with Rio Vista officials as both cities navigate their positions in shaping the East Solano Plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It almost seems like a natural path that we would help each other out along the way — we’re the two smallest cities,” he said. “The region benefits broadly if we’re walking together.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe\n src='https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfZ-ZKtuSHdeWqxooQwfEcr-oiOpdpJcf2RLZInU7aqjjQlRQ/viewform?embedded=true?embedded=true'\n title='https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfZ-ZKtuSHdeWqxooQwfEcr-oiOpdpJcf2RLZInU7aqjjQlRQ/viewform?embedded=true'\n width='760' height='500'\n frameborder='0'\n marginheight='0' marginwidth='0'>\u003c/iframe>\u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-jose\">San José\u003c/a> Mayor Matt Mahan is proposing that unhoused people who refuse multiple offers of shelter should face arrest, arguing that they have a “responsibility” to move indoors if the city has a bed available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan’s plan would make San José the latest Bay Area city to escalate criminal enforcement against people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling last year that allowed arrests for sleeping outside. With \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12024327/san-jose-council-taps-engineering-executive-carl-salas-vacant-seat\">a new six-vote majority on the City Council\u003c/a>, Mahan will look to enact the enforcement measure as part of an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026437/san-jose-mayor-proposes-permanent-shift-homeless-funding-from-housing-shelter\">ambitious budget proposal that also includes a shift in city funding\u003c/a> to pay for temporary housing and shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city is making historic investments in expanding interim housing and shelter options,” Mahan told KQED. “And as we do that, we also need to hold our homeless neighbors accountable for coming indoors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal would direct the city attorney to expand the definition of trespassing in the municipal code to include occupying public space after three offers of shelter. Unhoused residents who decline shelter would first be issued a warning or a citation. If they refuse shelter after a third encounter with city staff, they would be subject to arrest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026580/this-bay-area-city-just-passed-the-most-extreme-encampment-ban-in-california\">the Fremont City Council passed an ordinance that banned camping for more than three consecutive nights\u003c/a>, punishable by a fine or jail time. Mahan said he was concerned that those outright bans on camping would push people experiencing homelessness into larger cities like San José. He emphasized that his plan was different because arrests would be preceded by multiple offers of shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Simply banning camping does not end homelessness, but holding people accountable for accepting shelter and housing when it’s available can help us to ultimately end homelessness,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979482/san-jose-mayor-matt-mahan-calls-for-urgent-action-on-homelessness-in-city-budget-plan\">has made the construction of temporary housing and shelter\u003c/a> the centerpiece of his plan to reduce homelessness in San José. The city currently operates more than 1,000 shelter spaces — which include tiny homes, converted motels and parking lots for people living in their vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mayor said his enforcement proposal was motivated by difficulties he said city staff faced in convincing people experiencing homelessness in South San José to move into a new 204-unit interim housing site that opened last month on Monterey Road and Branham Lane. Under current city policy, people living outdoors near a new interim housing site are given first preference for beds when the facility opens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If someone is refusing a brand new apartment with an en-suite bathroom and a kitchenette, as is the case at Branham and Monterey — where we just saw roughly one-third of people encamped in the area say ‘no’ — we are probably beyond the point where the city has the tools to help that person,” Mahan added.[aside postID=news_12028615 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/GettyImages-1150473913-1020x765.jpg'] A report from city staff published in February found a much lower rate of so-called “service resistance” — just 541 people \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026630/san-jose-has-an-idea-to-bring-street-homelessness-to-functional-zero-can-it-work\">out of the estimated 5,477 who are living without shelter in the city\u003c/a>. And the same report found a low vacancy rate of just 5% across all city and county-operated shelter spaces in San José.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For JD Marone, who lives in an encampment along the Guadalupe River in South San José, the barrier to moving indoors — even to a studio-sized tiny home — is the lack of space for his two large dogs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are used to being free, running and protecting my stuff,” he told KQED. “That’s probably why I still have my tools, is because of my dogs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marone would likely get preference for a spot in a nearby interim housing site on Cherry Avenue, which is set to open later this year. But he said he can’t decide between the dogs and a potential housing offer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It stops me from getting work — when I go to work, that’s all I think about all day is ‘Are my dogs okay? It does limit me, it limits me a lot,” he said. “A lot of these people here have animals, so it’s going to be tough on all of us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across California, many cities have adopted tougher approaches to reducing unsheltered homelessness. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that banning encampments, even if no shelter space is available, is not a form of “cruel and unusual punishment” because the laws target an activity, not someone’s personal status. In the months since the ruling, police in cities such as San Diego and San Francisco \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12015125/tentless-amid-encampment-crackdown-unhoused-san-franciscans-storms\">have arrested hundreds of people\u003c/a> for sleeping outside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Assemblymember Alex Lee, a Democrat who represents Fremont and parts of San José, called Mahan’s initiative “immoral, ineffective and stupid,” adding that he would explore writing state legislation to “curb the criminalization of homelessness” on the city level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The choice is you go to this tiny home or you go to jail?” Lee asked. “It’s another clear indication that the mayor is more interested in making homelessness invisible than solving it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José City Councilmember Pamela Campos said she was concerned that the policy would make “a challenging problem more challenging.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With a criminal record, if this policy does pass, that’s only going to make it more difficult to find the jobs and the housing that are going to support self-sustainability,” Campos said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Campos told KQED she wanted to hear more details about how the policy would be implemented — and how it would affect existing police and fire response across the sprawling city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan expressed confidence that the enforcement plan would win support from the city’s police force. It was immediately embraced by police and fire union leaders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe that increasing accountability and actually focusing on getting that population into shelter, housing or a treatment center, or detoxing in the county jail for 30 days, will ultimately save a tremendous amount of police and fire capacity to respond to other calls,” Mahan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The City Council will debate the proposal, along with the rest of Mahan’s spending plan for the 2025–26 fiscal year, later this month. A final city budget will be voted on in June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was updated at 2 p.m. Thursday.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-jose\">San José\u003c/a> Mayor Matt Mahan is proposing that unhoused people who refuse multiple offers of shelter should face arrest, arguing that they have a “responsibility” to move indoors if the city has a bed available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan’s plan would make San José the latest Bay Area city to escalate criminal enforcement against people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling last year that allowed arrests for sleeping outside. With \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12024327/san-jose-council-taps-engineering-executive-carl-salas-vacant-seat\">a new six-vote majority on the City Council\u003c/a>, Mahan will look to enact the enforcement measure as part of an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026437/san-jose-mayor-proposes-permanent-shift-homeless-funding-from-housing-shelter\">ambitious budget proposal that also includes a shift in city funding\u003c/a> to pay for temporary housing and shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city is making historic investments in expanding interim housing and shelter options,” Mahan told KQED. “And as we do that, we also need to hold our homeless neighbors accountable for coming indoors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal would direct the city attorney to expand the definition of trespassing in the municipal code to include occupying public space after three offers of shelter. Unhoused residents who decline shelter would first be issued a warning or a citation. If they refuse shelter after a third encounter with city staff, they would be subject to arrest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026580/this-bay-area-city-just-passed-the-most-extreme-encampment-ban-in-california\">the Fremont City Council passed an ordinance that banned camping for more than three consecutive nights\u003c/a>, punishable by a fine or jail time. Mahan said he was concerned that those outright bans on camping would push people experiencing homelessness into larger cities like San José. He emphasized that his plan was different because arrests would be preceded by multiple offers of shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Simply banning camping does not end homelessness, but holding people accountable for accepting shelter and housing when it’s available can help us to ultimately end homelessness,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11979482/san-jose-mayor-matt-mahan-calls-for-urgent-action-on-homelessness-in-city-budget-plan\">has made the construction of temporary housing and shelter\u003c/a> the centerpiece of his plan to reduce homelessness in San José. The city currently operates more than 1,000 shelter spaces — which include tiny homes, converted motels and parking lots for people living in their vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mayor said his enforcement proposal was motivated by difficulties he said city staff faced in convincing people experiencing homelessness in South San José to move into a new 204-unit interim housing site that opened last month on Monterey Road and Branham Lane. Under current city policy, people living outdoors near a new interim housing site are given first preference for beds when the facility opens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If someone is refusing a brand new apartment with an en-suite bathroom and a kitchenette, as is the case at Branham and Monterey — where we just saw roughly one-third of people encamped in the area say ‘no’ — we are probably beyond the point where the city has the tools to help that person,” Mahan added.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> A report from city staff published in February found a much lower rate of so-called “service resistance” — just 541 people \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026630/san-jose-has-an-idea-to-bring-street-homelessness-to-functional-zero-can-it-work\">out of the estimated 5,477 who are living without shelter in the city\u003c/a>. And the same report found a low vacancy rate of just 5% across all city and county-operated shelter spaces in San José.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For JD Marone, who lives in an encampment along the Guadalupe River in South San José, the barrier to moving indoors — even to a studio-sized tiny home — is the lack of space for his two large dogs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are used to being free, running and protecting my stuff,” he told KQED. “That’s probably why I still have my tools, is because of my dogs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marone would likely get preference for a spot in a nearby interim housing site on Cherry Avenue, which is set to open later this year. But he said he can’t decide between the dogs and a potential housing offer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It stops me from getting work — when I go to work, that’s all I think about all day is ‘Are my dogs okay? It does limit me, it limits me a lot,” he said. “A lot of these people here have animals, so it’s going to be tough on all of us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across California, many cities have adopted tougher approaches to reducing unsheltered homelessness. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that banning encampments, even if no shelter space is available, is not a form of “cruel and unusual punishment” because the laws target an activity, not someone’s personal status. In the months since the ruling, police in cities such as San Diego and San Francisco \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12015125/tentless-amid-encampment-crackdown-unhoused-san-franciscans-storms\">have arrested hundreds of people\u003c/a> for sleeping outside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Assemblymember Alex Lee, a Democrat who represents Fremont and parts of San José, called Mahan’s initiative “immoral, ineffective and stupid,” adding that he would explore writing state legislation to “curb the criminalization of homelessness” on the city level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The choice is you go to this tiny home or you go to jail?” Lee asked. “It’s another clear indication that the mayor is more interested in making homelessness invisible than solving it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José City Councilmember Pamela Campos said she was concerned that the policy would make “a challenging problem more challenging.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With a criminal record, if this policy does pass, that’s only going to make it more difficult to find the jobs and the housing that are going to support self-sustainability,” Campos said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Campos told KQED she wanted to hear more details about how the policy would be implemented — and how it would affect existing police and fire response across the sprawling city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan expressed confidence that the enforcement plan would win support from the city’s police force. It was immediately embraced by police and fire union leaders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe that increasing accountability and actually focusing on getting that population into shelter, housing or a treatment center, or detoxing in the county jail for 30 days, will ultimately save a tremendous amount of police and fire capacity to respond to other calls,” Mahan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The City Council will debate the proposal, along with the rest of Mahan’s spending plan for the 2025–26 fiscal year, later this month. A final city budget will be voted on in June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was updated at 2 p.m. Thursday.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "‘Nowhere to Go’: Unhoused Residents Displaced as Oakland Seals Off Encampment",
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"content": "\u003cp>Gilberto Gonzales was one of the last holdouts on Tuesday, watching as a small army of workers cleared the encampment in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland’s\u003c/a> Fruitvale District, where he’s lived for more than a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clad in a yellow safety vest and a brown fisherman’s cap, Gonzales said that after multiple warnings, the city had given him the final order to move his makeshift compound an hour before the clearing began.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t see nowhere to go,” he said, noting that the city had already confiscated his car. “Now I have to move to the other side of the street.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gonzales, 64, said he would gladly accept housing, but nothing the city has offered so far has been suitable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m a senior already, you know,” he said. “I see a lot of apartments for seniors, and I don’t know why I don’t get one of those apartments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029700\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029700\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gilberto Gonzales, 64, stands outside his shelter on Alameda Avenue in Oakland on March 4, 2025, before crews arrive to clear the area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The city of Oakland last week began sweeping the large encampment that, for years, has occupied a privately owned vacant lot on Alameda Avenue, next to a Home Depot, under the shadow of Interstate 880.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after multiple failed attempts in recent years to remove inhabitants and fence off the area, the city is now partnering with the property owner and a local container business to install a barrier of double-stacked shipping containers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland City Councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents the neighborhood, told KQED the property owner has “re-fenced it five times, but the day or two after we put up the fence, somebody tears it down, breaks in and moves in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gallo said nearby business owners and residents have long complained about the encampment, citing frequent drug activity, abandoned cars and other nuisances. The city, he said, sued the Los Angeles-based property owner multiple times to address the blight, even placing a lien on his property in 2023 for \u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/4200-Alameda-Ave_lien.pdf\">failing to reimburse the city (PDF)\u003c/a> for $6,000 in abatement actions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029703\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029703\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A section of an encampment on Alameda Avenue in Oakland is cleared on March 4, 2025. A shipping container barrier now surrounds the property. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029766\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029766\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: A car sits on top of a shipping container barrier on property leased by Oakland Container Services. Right: A car is towed from an encampment on land leased by Oakland Container Services. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The condition and the environmental surrounding of it was out of control,” Gallo said, adding that people in the encampment were given several months’ notice and offered services and housing options. “And certainly we don’t wanna [see] Home Depot leaving Oakland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vacant land, which was previously used as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/deed_restrict/docs/ekotek_4200alamedaave_oakland.pdf\">waste oil recycling facility\u003c/a> and is listed in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s \u003ca href=\"https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/CurSites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0901737\">Superfund site directory\u003c/a>, can’t be used for housing because of contamination issues, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move to use shipping containers comes as Oakland struggles to address its ongoing homelessness crisis. As of last year, the city counted 5,485 unhoused people, a nearly 9% increase since 2022, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/alameda-county\">Alameda County’s\u003c/a> latest \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Alameda-County-2024-PIT-Homelessness-Report-FINAL-12.9.2024.pdf\">point-in-time count (PDF)\u003c/a>. Gallo said the city’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028114/audit-finds-overtime-waste-in-oakland-suggesting-a-widespread-spending-problem\">ongoing financial challenges\u003c/a> and its lack of available land for RV parking sites have only compounded the problem, as evidenced by the \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/View-Report-15.pdf\">dramatic proliferation of encampments\u003c/a> in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029696\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029696\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sam Itamar (left) speaks with Jeff Alberto, owner of Oakland Container Services, on a property along Alameda Avenue in Oakland on March 4, 2025. The site, formerly an encampment, is now being enclosed by a shipping container wall built by Alberto and his team. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By Tuesday afternoon, a semi-completed wall of containers had already sprung up along Alameda Avenue as workers scrambled to remove the remaining debris, including a plastic baby swing still hanging from the lone tree on the property. A caseworker with a local homeless support group spoke with the few lingering former residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeff Alberto, who owns Oakland Container Services, the business supplying the shipping containers, said he hopes to finish the job on Wednesday. “The plan is to go all the way down [from the freeway entrance] to the end of the street,” said Alberto, who grew up in the neighborhood.[aside postID=news_12029619 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20241217-UnhousedDemonstrations-JY-355_qed.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a scene reminiscent of People’s Park, which UC Berkeley \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11989984/six-months-after-peoples-park-closure-many-former-residents-and-supporters-struggle-to-adjust\">fortified with shipping containers\u003c/a> last January after protesters tore down fencing and destroyed construction equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In exchange for providing the containers, Alberto is leasing the land from the property owner for his expanding container business. He partnered with Caltrans and the city to clear the property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alberto said he also helped transport containers to People’s Park last year, in what has become an unexpected niche for his business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“On my email signatures, it says, ‘We do it all,’” he said. “Like, we don’t say no to anything, especially to make it look better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029769\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029769\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Alberto, owner of Oakland Container Services, walks along Alameda Avenue in Oakland on March 4, 2025, toward the land he is leasing for his container business. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Alberto doesn’t have any misgivings about blocking unhoused people from returning here. Most were offered housing, he said, but didn’t take it. Instead, they relocated a few blocks away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They had six years here to get their act together,” he said. “We shouldn’t suffer for all of this. I think it’s time for a change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Gilberto Gonzales was one of the last holdouts on Tuesday, watching as a small army of workers cleared the encampment in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland’s\u003c/a> Fruitvale District, where he’s lived for more than a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clad in a yellow safety vest and a brown fisherman’s cap, Gonzales said that after multiple warnings, the city had given him the final order to move his makeshift compound an hour before the clearing began.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t see nowhere to go,” he said, noting that the city had already confiscated his car. “Now I have to move to the other side of the street.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gonzales, 64, said he would gladly accept housing, but nothing the city has offered so far has been suitable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m a senior already, you know,” he said. “I see a lot of apartments for seniors, and I don’t know why I don’t get one of those apartments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029700\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029700\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-17-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gilberto Gonzales, 64, stands outside his shelter on Alameda Avenue in Oakland on March 4, 2025, before crews arrive to clear the area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The city of Oakland last week began sweeping the large encampment that, for years, has occupied a privately owned vacant lot on Alameda Avenue, next to a Home Depot, under the shadow of Interstate 880.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after multiple failed attempts in recent years to remove inhabitants and fence off the area, the city is now partnering with the property owner and a local container business to install a barrier of double-stacked shipping containers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland City Councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents the neighborhood, told KQED the property owner has “re-fenced it five times, but the day or two after we put up the fence, somebody tears it down, breaks in and moves in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gallo said nearby business owners and residents have long complained about the encampment, citing frequent drug activity, abandoned cars and other nuisances. The city, he said, sued the Los Angeles-based property owner multiple times to address the blight, even placing a lien on his property in 2023 for \u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/4200-Alameda-Ave_lien.pdf\">failing to reimburse the city (PDF)\u003c/a> for $6,000 in abatement actions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029703\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029703\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A section of an encampment on Alameda Avenue in Oakland is cleared on March 4, 2025. A shipping container barrier now surrounds the property. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029766\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029766\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: A car sits on top of a shipping container barrier on property leased by Oakland Container Services. Right: A car is towed from an encampment on land leased by Oakland Container Services. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The condition and the environmental surrounding of it was out of control,” Gallo said, adding that people in the encampment were given several months’ notice and offered services and housing options. “And certainly we don’t wanna [see] Home Depot leaving Oakland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vacant land, which was previously used as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/deed_restrict/docs/ekotek_4200alamedaave_oakland.pdf\">waste oil recycling facility\u003c/a> and is listed in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s \u003ca href=\"https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/CurSites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0901737\">Superfund site directory\u003c/a>, can’t be used for housing because of contamination issues, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move to use shipping containers comes as Oakland struggles to address its ongoing homelessness crisis. As of last year, the city counted 5,485 unhoused people, a nearly 9% increase since 2022, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/alameda-county\">Alameda County’s\u003c/a> latest \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Alameda-County-2024-PIT-Homelessness-Report-FINAL-12.9.2024.pdf\">point-in-time count (PDF)\u003c/a>. Gallo said the city’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028114/audit-finds-overtime-waste-in-oakland-suggesting-a-widespread-spending-problem\">ongoing financial challenges\u003c/a> and its lack of available land for RV parking sites have only compounded the problem, as evidenced by the \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/View-Report-15.pdf\">dramatic proliferation of encampments\u003c/a> in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029696\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029696\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OAKLANDHIGHSTREETENCAMPMENT-09-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sam Itamar (left) speaks with Jeff Alberto, owner of Oakland Container Services, on a property along Alameda Avenue in Oakland on March 4, 2025. The site, formerly an encampment, is now being enclosed by a shipping container wall built by Alberto and his team. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By Tuesday afternoon, a semi-completed wall of containers had already sprung up along Alameda Avenue as workers scrambled to remove the remaining debris, including a plastic baby swing still hanging from the lone tree on the property. A caseworker with a local homeless support group spoke with the few lingering former residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeff Alberto, who owns Oakland Container Services, the business supplying the shipping containers, said he hopes to finish the job on Wednesday. “The plan is to go all the way down [from the freeway entrance] to the end of the street,” said Alberto, who grew up in the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a scene reminiscent of People’s Park, which UC Berkeley \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11989984/six-months-after-peoples-park-closure-many-former-residents-and-supporters-struggle-to-adjust\">fortified with shipping containers\u003c/a> last January after protesters tore down fencing and destroyed construction equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In exchange for providing the containers, Alberto is leasing the land from the property owner for his expanding container business. He partnered with Caltrans and the city to clear the property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alberto said he also helped transport containers to People’s Park last year, in what has become an unexpected niche for his business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“On my email signatures, it says, ‘We do it all,’” he said. “Like, we don’t say no to anything, especially to make it look better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029769\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029769\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-01-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Alberto, owner of Oakland Container Services, walks along Alameda Avenue in Oakland on March 4, 2025, toward the land he is leasing for his container business. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Alberto doesn’t have any misgivings about blocking unhoused people from returning here. Most were offered housing, he said, but didn’t take it. Instead, they relocated a few blocks away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They had six years here to get their act together,” he said. “We shouldn’t suffer for all of this. I think it’s time for a change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "how-we-rebuild-how-homeowners-in-santa-rosa-oakland-went-all-electric",
"title": "How We Rebuild: How Homeowners in Santa Rosa, Oakland Went All-Electric",
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"headTitle": "How We Rebuild: How Homeowners in Santa Rosa, Oakland Went All-Electric | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Listen to this episode on \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sold-out-rethinking-housing-in-america/id1531354937\">\u003cem>Apple Podcasts\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/show/38dTBSk2ISFoPiyYNoKn1X\">\u003cem>Spotify\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the second in a special series, check out the first installment \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026682/how-we-rebuild-la-recovers-from-wildfire\">\u003cem>here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, and second installment \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027578/how-we-rebuild-what-comes-after-the-la-fires\">\u003cem>here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cathy Crowley and her husband Paul Amlin’s Santa Rosa home wouldn’t stand out to passersby. The light blue house is a single story, with just one bedroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But inside, it has some pretty remarkable features: It’s all-electric, producing zero planet-warming gases. There’s a heat pump and electric coil backup, 20 solar panels on the roof, a backup battery, an induction stove and an electric washer and dryer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12028915\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12028915\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-07.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-07.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-07-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-07-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-07-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-07-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-07-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cathy Crowley in her and Paul Amlin’s home in Santa Rosa on Feb. 25, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029715\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029715\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Cathy Crowley and Paul Amlin’s home in Santa Rosa on Feb. 25, 2025. Right: Paul Amlin in their kitchen. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The reason their home is so state-of-the-art is that their old house burned down in the 2017 Tubbs Fire. When it came time to rebuild, they had to make a lot of choices, among them: gas or electric?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the end, we’re really happy we made the choice we made,” Crowley said, with Amlin adding, “I think everything about the house being all electric worked out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This choice of how to rebuild is one that survivors of this year’s fires in Los Angeles will soon be making. Going electric is one of the best ways for homeowners to reduce the kinds of emissions that increase global warming. But it comes with challenges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12028914\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-03.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12028914\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-03.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-03.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-03-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-03-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-03-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-03-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-03-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Firewise USA sign in front of Cathy Crowley and Paul Amlin’s home in Santa Rosa on Feb. 25, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Climate reporter Laura Klivans joins host Erin Baldassari for the third installment of a special series from KQED’s podcast, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/soldout\">SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America\u003c/a>. Klivans details experiments in both Santa Rosa and Oakland, where residents made the choice to ditch gas appliances.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Building back electric\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When it came time to rebuild, Crowley and Amlin’s power provider, Sonoma Clean Power, \u003ca href=\"https://sonomacleanpower.org/news/advanced-energy-rebuild-program\">offered them incentives\u003c/a> to switch from gas to electric in keeping with state environmental goals to build more electric-ready homes. Going electric allows the couple to rely on solar energy, as well as California’s power grid, which gets more than half of its electricity from nuclear, hydropower and renewables. But it’s also more cost-efficient to use a single electric system since replacing a natural gas infrastructure can cost millions per mile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12028918\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-10.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12028918\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-10.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-10.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-10-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-10-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-10-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-10-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-10-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cathy Crowley and Paul Amlin in their home in Santa Rosa on Feb. 25, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>EcoBlock part 2: Electric boogaloo\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Going electric is easier when the buildings are constructed from scratch. It’s much more difficult to implement a new electric system in homes originally designed for gas. However, that was the problem researchers at UC Berkeley set out to solve when they designed \u003ca href=\"https://ecoblock.berkeley.edu/\">EcoBlock\u003c/a>: a partnership between academics, professionals, government, utilities, private donors and residents. As part of the program, residents of a quiet East Oakland street are receiving free insulation upgrades, electric appliances and solar panels to cut emissions and improve their quality of life. Klivans shared \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1984963/electric-avenue-one-oakland-blocks-improbable-journey-to-ditch-gas\">their story\u003c/a> in the last season of Sold Out. With those upgrades now mostly complete, Klivans checks in with residents to see how they’re adjusting to all the changes on their block.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Listen to this episode on \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sold-out-rethinking-housing-in-america/id1531354937\">\u003cem>Apple Podcasts\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/show/38dTBSk2ISFoPiyYNoKn1X\">\u003cem>Spotify\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the second in a special series, check out the first installment \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026682/how-we-rebuild-la-recovers-from-wildfire\">\u003cem>here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, and second installment \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027578/how-we-rebuild-what-comes-after-the-la-fires\">\u003cem>here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cathy Crowley and her husband Paul Amlin’s Santa Rosa home wouldn’t stand out to passersby. The light blue house is a single story, with just one bedroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But inside, it has some pretty remarkable features: It’s all-electric, producing zero planet-warming gases. There’s a heat pump and electric coil backup, 20 solar panels on the roof, a backup battery, an induction stove and an electric washer and dryer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12028915\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12028915\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-07.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-07.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-07-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-07-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-07-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-07-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-07-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cathy Crowley in her and Paul Amlin’s home in Santa Rosa on Feb. 25, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029715\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029715\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Cathy Crowley and Paul Amlin’s home in Santa Rosa on Feb. 25, 2025. Right: Paul Amlin in their kitchen. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The reason their home is so state-of-the-art is that their old house burned down in the 2017 Tubbs Fire. When it came time to rebuild, they had to make a lot of choices, among them: gas or electric?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the end, we’re really happy we made the choice we made,” Crowley said, with Amlin adding, “I think everything about the house being all electric worked out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This choice of how to rebuild is one that survivors of this year’s fires in Los Angeles will soon be making. Going electric is one of the best ways for homeowners to reduce the kinds of emissions that increase global warming. But it comes with challenges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12028914\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-03.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12028914\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-03.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-03.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-03-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-03-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-03-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-03-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-03-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Firewise USA sign in front of Cathy Crowley and Paul Amlin’s home in Santa Rosa on Feb. 25, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Climate reporter Laura Klivans joins host Erin Baldassari for the third installment of a special series from KQED’s podcast, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/soldout\">SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America\u003c/a>. Klivans details experiments in both Santa Rosa and Oakland, where residents made the choice to ditch gas appliances.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Building back electric\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When it came time to rebuild, Crowley and Amlin’s power provider, Sonoma Clean Power, \u003ca href=\"https://sonomacleanpower.org/news/advanced-energy-rebuild-program\">offered them incentives\u003c/a> to switch from gas to electric in keeping with state environmental goals to build more electric-ready homes. Going electric allows the couple to rely on solar energy, as well as California’s power grid, which gets more than half of its electricity from nuclear, hydropower and renewables. But it’s also more cost-efficient to use a single electric system since replacing a natural gas infrastructure can cost millions per mile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12028918\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-10.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12028918\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-10.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-10.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-10-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-10-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-10-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-10-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250225-Rebuilding-Electric-MD-10-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cathy Crowley and Paul Amlin in their home in Santa Rosa on Feb. 25, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>EcoBlock part 2: Electric boogaloo\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Going electric is easier when the buildings are constructed from scratch. It’s much more difficult to implement a new electric system in homes originally designed for gas. However, that was the problem researchers at UC Berkeley set out to solve when they designed \u003ca href=\"https://ecoblock.berkeley.edu/\">EcoBlock\u003c/a>: a partnership between academics, professionals, government, utilities, private donors and residents. As part of the program, residents of a quiet East Oakland street are receiving free insulation upgrades, electric appliances and solar panels to cut emissions and improve their quality of life. Klivans shared \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1984963/electric-avenue-one-oakland-blocks-improbable-journey-to-ditch-gas\">their story\u003c/a> in the last season of Sold Out. With those upgrades now mostly complete, Klivans checks in with residents to see how they’re adjusting to all the changes on their block.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "california-lawmakers-push-for-speedier-construction-in-housing-and-other-infrastructure-projects",
"title": "California Lawmakers Push for Speedier Construction in Housing and Other Infrastructure Projects",
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"headTitle": "California Lawmakers Push for Speedier Construction in Housing and Other Infrastructure Projects | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>A California legislator wants to solve the state’s housing crisis, juice its economy, fight climate change and save the Democratic Party with one “excruciatingly non-sexy” idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland Democratic Assemblymember Buffy Wicks sees the slow, occasionally redundant, often litigious process of getting construction projects okayed by federal, state and local governments as a chief roadblock to fixing California’s most pressing problems, from \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-housing-costs-explainer/\">housing\u003c/a> to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/water/2025/02/california-groundwater-depleted-slow-recharge/\">water\u003c/a> to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2023/04/public-transit-california/\">public transportation\u003c/a> to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/climate-change/2024/08/california-clean-power-progress-grid/\">climate change\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Wicks helmed a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/committees/1470#bills-and-hearings\">select committee\u003c/a> on “permitting reform” — a catch-all term for speeding up government review at all stages of a project’s development, not just its literal permits. The committee went on a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2024/12/california-clean-energy-red-tape/\">state-hopping fact-finding mission\u003c/a>, taking testimony from experts, builders and advocates on why it takes so long to build apartment buildings, wind farms, water storage and public transit, to name a few notoriously slow and desperately needed project types.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, that committee released its \u003ca href=\"https://a14.asmdc.org/select-committee-permitting-reform\">final report\u003c/a>. The summary, per Wicks, is that “it is too damn hard to build anything in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report stresses the need for the state to build \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/05/california-exodus-housing-cost/\">millions of new housing units\u003c/a> and electric vehicle chargers; thousands of miles of transit; drought, flooding and sea level rise projects; and renewable energy projects “built and interconnected at three times the historical rate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though the jargon-laden technical analysis isn’t likely to go viral, the report tees up what could be one of the biggest legislative battles of the coming year. Wicks said lawmakers in both chambers are hammering out 20 bills on permitting snags for housing construction alone. Other bills to speed approvals for transit, clean energy and water projects are reportedly in the works too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers regularly pass one-off bills aimed at making it easier for favored projects to get built. Nearly every legislative session for the last decade has seen at least a handful of “streamlining” bills for dense housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This political moment may be primed for something bigger, said Wicks. In the capitol, an aggressive red-tape snipping mood seems to have set in. More California officials, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/02/la-fires-building-permits/\">especially in Los Angeles and especially in the wake of January’s wildfires\u003c/a>, want to re-examine how buildings get permitted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>President Trump’s unambiguous, if modest, electoral victory in November, riding a wave of public anger over Biden-era inflation, has pushed many Democrats to reorient their policy platforms toward cost of living issues.[aside postID=news_12014710 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/GettyImages-2167671875-1020x702.jpg']Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Salinas Democrat, kicked off this year’s legislative session by \u003ca href=\"https://speaker.asmdc.org/press-releases/20241202-speaker-robert-rivas-charts-new-path-forward-california-directs-urgent-and\">urging lawmakers\u003c/a> to “consider every bill through the lens” of affordability. Gov. Gavin Newsom more recently acknowledged “the inability of the state of California to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/02/california-affordability-housing-costs-legislation/\">get out of its own way\u003c/a>” on big, important projects. He suspended certain environmental regulations for fire prevention projects \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-03-01/newsom-suspends-environmental-laws-for-wildfire-prevention\">last Saturday\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California and across the country, concurrent housing and climate crises have convinced \u003ca href=\"https://www.axios.com/pro/energy-policy/2024/11/14/rep-peters-presses-for-permitting-bill\">many lawmakers\u003c/a> and Democratic-leaning \u003ca href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/environmentalists-nimby-permitting-reform-nepa/671775/\">policy\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/18/opinion/newsom-california-building-permitting-procurement.html\">commentators\u003c/a> to prioritize building lots and lots of things: apartment buildings, EV charging stations, electric transmission lines, solar and wind farms, rail lines and bus networks. The quicker the better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The catastrophic Los Angeles firestorms from January highlighted just how difficult it can be to rebuild. Newsom has named cutting environmental regulations and speeding up entitlement and permitting processes in the burned areas as \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/02/gavin-newsom-la-fires-test/\">his top priority\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Sacramento, a new batch of state lawmakers, elected partly by mad-as-hell voters and unscarred by past legislative battles over permitting changes, may be newly receptive to making big changes too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of that combined makes, I think, a unique opportunity for us to actually have some pretty significant change,” said Wicks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report itself does not offer precise recommendations, but its analysis is often tellingly specific, offering clues about the changes that lawmakers can expect to debate this spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Described as “opportunities for reform,” these are, in Wicks’ words, often “excruciatingly non-sexy.” For example, the report notes that lawmakers could be more specific about when a certain type of housing application is deemed “complete” in order to shield developers from future legal changes. Another “opportunity”: \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/02/la-fires-building-permits/\">Allow for third-party experts\u003c/a> to sign off on a project’s plans.[aside postID=news_12012489 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/002_KQED_Housing_MountainView_02192020_3308-qut-1020x680.jpg']Current policies that could be a template for regulatory revamping, according to the report: the state’s bolstering of accessory dwelling units, electric vehicle charging stations and certain environmental restoration projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But those “success stories” share a trait that points to what could be the most contentious aspect of the coming legislative package. All three are exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act, a 1970 law that requires governments to study and publish findings on the environmental impact of any decision they make, including the approval of new housing, transit or energy projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The act, pronounced \u003cem>see-kwah\u003c/em>, is among the most fiercely debated in California politics. Opponents contend that the law is regularly hijacked by special interest groups, such as NIMBY property owners or organized labor unions, to stall projects for decidedly non-environmental reasons. They point to high profile court battles as examples of the act’s abuse, such as the case \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/06/berkeley-peoples-park-ceqa-supreme-court/\">resolved by the state Supreme Court last year\u003c/a> in which Berkeley neighborhood groups argued that the noise predicted to come from college student housing amounted to a pollutant under the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we want to reach our climate change goals, CEQA needs to be reformed,” Wicks said. “If we want to reach our housing goals, CEQA needs to be reformed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Defenders of the law say it is vital to deliberation, public input and transparency, keeping local and state governments and developers from running roughshod over vulnerable communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes, for vulnerable communities, the act is the only tool available to have a seat at the decision making table,” said J.P. Rose, a policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “To brush all of that aside to say ‘that’s just permitting,’ I think that’s a misguided lens to address this issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers often carve specific exemptions into the law, but historically, making across-the-board changes to CEQA has been a heavy lift in Sacramento. Two years ago, Newsom rolled out plans to overhaul the law in order to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/05/gavin-newsom-ceqa-reform/\">speed up the approval of big, infrastructure projects\u003c/a>. Many of its most ambitious proposals \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/05/gavin-newsom-ceqa-setback/\">were sidelined\u003c/a>. Last year, the Legislature tried to rush through a bill aimed at getting \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2024/08/california-legislature-governor-energy-package-solar-wind/\">clean energy projects\u003c/a> up and running more quickly (\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202320240sb1272?slug=CA_202320240SB1272\">it failed\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers are likely to spend plenty of time arguing about the act, no matter what happens to the permitting package. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260sb607\">One bill\u003c/a>, already in print, by San Francisco Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener, would make it easier for urban housing projects to exempt themselves from the law and for local and state governments to avoid having to conduct full environmental reviews for every aspect of each project. The senator dubbed it “the fast and focused CEQA Act.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rose, at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the bill “fires a shotgun at the heart of CEQA.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carter Rubin, a public transportation advocate with the Natural Resources Defense Council who testified to the select committee last year, said there ought to be a difference between the way regulators review projects that help achieve the state’s housing and climate goals and those that emphatically do not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We certainly would not support streamlining highway expansion or sprawl development that impacts ecosystems,” he said in a phone interview. “It’s really important that the Legislature focuses on shovel-worthy projects, not just shovel-ready projects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wicks said she will put forward a housing bill on CEQA as part of the overall package.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Right now, there are too many opportunities in the process to put a wrench in the gears,” she said. “There will be a cost for us Democrats on the ballot in the future if we don’t fix that problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Oakland Democrat Buffy Wicks said lawmakers will soon see 20 bills to speed up housing construction, along with more on energy, water and transit.",
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"title": "California Lawmakers Push for Speedier Construction in Housing and Other Infrastructure Projects | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A California legislator wants to solve the state’s housing crisis, juice its economy, fight climate change and save the Democratic Party with one “excruciatingly non-sexy” idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland Democratic Assemblymember Buffy Wicks sees the slow, occasionally redundant, often litigious process of getting construction projects okayed by federal, state and local governments as a chief roadblock to fixing California’s most pressing problems, from \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-housing-costs-explainer/\">housing\u003c/a> to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/water/2025/02/california-groundwater-depleted-slow-recharge/\">water\u003c/a> to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2023/04/public-transit-california/\">public transportation\u003c/a> to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/climate-change/2024/08/california-clean-power-progress-grid/\">climate change\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Wicks helmed a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/committees/1470#bills-and-hearings\">select committee\u003c/a> on “permitting reform” — a catch-all term for speeding up government review at all stages of a project’s development, not just its literal permits. The committee went on a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2024/12/california-clean-energy-red-tape/\">state-hopping fact-finding mission\u003c/a>, taking testimony from experts, builders and advocates on why it takes so long to build apartment buildings, wind farms, water storage and public transit, to name a few notoriously slow and desperately needed project types.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, that committee released its \u003ca href=\"https://a14.asmdc.org/select-committee-permitting-reform\">final report\u003c/a>. The summary, per Wicks, is that “it is too damn hard to build anything in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report stresses the need for the state to build \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/05/california-exodus-housing-cost/\">millions of new housing units\u003c/a> and electric vehicle chargers; thousands of miles of transit; drought, flooding and sea level rise projects; and renewable energy projects “built and interconnected at three times the historical rate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though the jargon-laden technical analysis isn’t likely to go viral, the report tees up what could be one of the biggest legislative battles of the coming year. Wicks said lawmakers in both chambers are hammering out 20 bills on permitting snags for housing construction alone. Other bills to speed approvals for transit, clean energy and water projects are reportedly in the works too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers regularly pass one-off bills aimed at making it easier for favored projects to get built. Nearly every legislative session for the last decade has seen at least a handful of “streamlining” bills for dense housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This political moment may be primed for something bigger, said Wicks. In the capitol, an aggressive red-tape snipping mood seems to have set in. More California officials, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/02/la-fires-building-permits/\">especially in Los Angeles and especially in the wake of January’s wildfires\u003c/a>, want to re-examine how buildings get permitted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>President Trump’s unambiguous, if modest, electoral victory in November, riding a wave of public anger over Biden-era inflation, has pushed many Democrats to reorient their policy platforms toward cost of living issues.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Salinas Democrat, kicked off this year’s legislative session by \u003ca href=\"https://speaker.asmdc.org/press-releases/20241202-speaker-robert-rivas-charts-new-path-forward-california-directs-urgent-and\">urging lawmakers\u003c/a> to “consider every bill through the lens” of affordability. Gov. Gavin Newsom more recently acknowledged “the inability of the state of California to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/02/california-affordability-housing-costs-legislation/\">get out of its own way\u003c/a>” on big, important projects. He suspended certain environmental regulations for fire prevention projects \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-03-01/newsom-suspends-environmental-laws-for-wildfire-prevention\">last Saturday\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California and across the country, concurrent housing and climate crises have convinced \u003ca href=\"https://www.axios.com/pro/energy-policy/2024/11/14/rep-peters-presses-for-permitting-bill\">many lawmakers\u003c/a> and Democratic-leaning \u003ca href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/environmentalists-nimby-permitting-reform-nepa/671775/\">policy\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/18/opinion/newsom-california-building-permitting-procurement.html\">commentators\u003c/a> to prioritize building lots and lots of things: apartment buildings, EV charging stations, electric transmission lines, solar and wind farms, rail lines and bus networks. The quicker the better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The catastrophic Los Angeles firestorms from January highlighted just how difficult it can be to rebuild. Newsom has named cutting environmental regulations and speeding up entitlement and permitting processes in the burned areas as \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/02/gavin-newsom-la-fires-test/\">his top priority\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Sacramento, a new batch of state lawmakers, elected partly by mad-as-hell voters and unscarred by past legislative battles over permitting changes, may be newly receptive to making big changes too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of that combined makes, I think, a unique opportunity for us to actually have some pretty significant change,” said Wicks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report itself does not offer precise recommendations, but its analysis is often tellingly specific, offering clues about the changes that lawmakers can expect to debate this spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Described as “opportunities for reform,” these are, in Wicks’ words, often “excruciatingly non-sexy.” For example, the report notes that lawmakers could be more specific about when a certain type of housing application is deemed “complete” in order to shield developers from future legal changes. Another “opportunity”: \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2025/02/la-fires-building-permits/\">Allow for third-party experts\u003c/a> to sign off on a project’s plans.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Current policies that could be a template for regulatory revamping, according to the report: the state’s bolstering of accessory dwelling units, electric vehicle charging stations and certain environmental restoration projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But those “success stories” share a trait that points to what could be the most contentious aspect of the coming legislative package. All three are exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act, a 1970 law that requires governments to study and publish findings on the environmental impact of any decision they make, including the approval of new housing, transit or energy projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The act, pronounced \u003cem>see-kwah\u003c/em>, is among the most fiercely debated in California politics. Opponents contend that the law is regularly hijacked by special interest groups, such as NIMBY property owners or organized labor unions, to stall projects for decidedly non-environmental reasons. They point to high profile court battles as examples of the act’s abuse, such as the case \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/06/berkeley-peoples-park-ceqa-supreme-court/\">resolved by the state Supreme Court last year\u003c/a> in which Berkeley neighborhood groups argued that the noise predicted to come from college student housing amounted to a pollutant under the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we want to reach our climate change goals, CEQA needs to be reformed,” Wicks said. “If we want to reach our housing goals, CEQA needs to be reformed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Defenders of the law say it is vital to deliberation, public input and transparency, keeping local and state governments and developers from running roughshod over vulnerable communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes, for vulnerable communities, the act is the only tool available to have a seat at the decision making table,” said J.P. Rose, a policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “To brush all of that aside to say ‘that’s just permitting,’ I think that’s a misguided lens to address this issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers often carve specific exemptions into the law, but historically, making across-the-board changes to CEQA has been a heavy lift in Sacramento. Two years ago, Newsom rolled out plans to overhaul the law in order to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/05/gavin-newsom-ceqa-reform/\">speed up the approval of big, infrastructure projects\u003c/a>. Many of its most ambitious proposals \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/05/gavin-newsom-ceqa-setback/\">were sidelined\u003c/a>. Last year, the Legislature tried to rush through a bill aimed at getting \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2024/08/california-legislature-governor-energy-package-solar-wind/\">clean energy projects\u003c/a> up and running more quickly (\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202320240sb1272?slug=CA_202320240SB1272\">it failed\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers are likely to spend plenty of time arguing about the act, no matter what happens to the permitting package. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260sb607\">One bill\u003c/a>, already in print, by San Francisco Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener, would make it easier for urban housing projects to exempt themselves from the law and for local and state governments to avoid having to conduct full environmental reviews for every aspect of each project. The senator dubbed it “the fast and focused CEQA Act.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rose, at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the bill “fires a shotgun at the heart of CEQA.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carter Rubin, a public transportation advocate with the Natural Resources Defense Council who testified to the select committee last year, said there ought to be a difference between the way regulators review projects that help achieve the state’s housing and climate goals and those that emphatically do not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We certainly would not support streamlining highway expansion or sprawl development that impacts ecosystems,” he said in a phone interview. “It’s really important that the Legislature focuses on shovel-worthy projects, not just shovel-ready projects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wicks said she will put forward a housing bill on CEQA as part of the overall package.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Right now, there are too many opportunities in the process to put a wrench in the gears,” she said. “There will be a cost for us Democrats on the ballot in the future if we don’t fix that problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "luries-nonprofit-giving-san-francisco-11-million-prevent-family-homelessness",
"title": "Lurie’s Nonprofit Is Giving San Francisco $11 Million to Prevent Family Homelessness",
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"headTitle": "Lurie’s Nonprofit Is Giving San Francisco $11 Million to Prevent Family Homelessness | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The nonprofit that San Francisco \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/daniel-lurie\">Mayor Daniel Lurie\u003c/a> founded before entering City Hall is now investing millions of dollars to help the city combat homelessness, a key issue on which the mayor has vowed to make progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tipping Point Community on Tuesday announced it will donate $11 million to support a pilot program aimed at preventing family homelessness, which surged by 94% in San Francisco last year, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/reports--september-2024--2024-point-time-count\">latest point-in-time count\u003c/a> of the city’s homeless population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This investment assists families in crisis today while we develop and scale a model to support families in need for decades to come,” Lurie said in a statement. “Creating lasting change in San Francisco requires all hands on deck, and I’m proud to launch this critical public-private partnership with Tipping Point.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 18-month pilot program will run through June 2026 and will fund direct assistance to approximately 1,500 households to support back rent and other living expenses for families at risk of losing their housing. The money will also be used to create a database of the city’s homelessness prevention efforts in an attempt to streamline the city’s network of services, which can be a complicated maze for families seeking support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Perhaps there’s a family member with undiagnosed mental health issues, and that is one of the issues that is putting the family’s housing at risk. These dollars can help pay for health services for the family so that they can stay housed,” Tipping Point CEO Sam Cobbs said. “Just about anything that a family needs to stay housed and to improve, increase their income, these dollars will be used to do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029663\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029663\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shelter beds are set up in an auditorium at Buena Vista Horace Mann Community School on June 10, 2024, which operates as one of San Francisco’s largest homeless shelters. The nonprofit Dolores Street Community Services runs the shelter after hours and during the summer when school is not in session for San Francisco Unified School District students and their families. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lurie \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11999069/what-can-the-sf-mayor-actually-do-about-homelessness\">vowed on the campaign trail\u003c/a> to build 1,500 shelter beds and more affordable housing to significantly reduce homelessness, something many of his predecessors also attempted and struggled to achieve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of his first attempts to steer the homelessness response was a law expanding his powers as mayor to more quickly hire and contract services related to homelessness as well as the drug crisis. The Board of Supervisors \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025495/luries-fentanyl-response-clears-san-francisco-board-of-supervisors\">passed it last month\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That ordinance also makes it easier for the city to solicit and receive private donations — known as behested payments — for such efforts. However, the mayor did not request the Tipping Point funding, according to Cobbs, who said it is not directly tied to his legislative efforts to cut red tape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12029248 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230911-MattieScottFreedomWest-019-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The donation is going directly to the nonprofits working on these issues; none of the dollars are going directly to the city,” Cobbs said, noting that all five of the nonprofits that will receive funds have contracts with the city. “Family homelessness is the fastest growing part of the homeless population in San Francisco, and this is really meant to prevent that from happening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the donation has raised eyebrows by some government ethics watchdogs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sean McMorris, the transparency, ethics and accountability program manager at California Common Cause, said there’s “potentially a slippery slope” around conflict of interest laws if donors close to Lurie see Tipping Point Community as a conduit for footing the city’s bills for contracts and services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Lurie founded this organization and has recused himself; however, you can’t discount the fact that they are giving millions of dollars now after learning that Lurie wanted private enterprises to come in and help solve the homelessness problem,” McMorris said. “I hope the program is successful, but it does raise some new concerns for me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Funding from Tipping Point will go toward five nonprofits working on homelessness prevention and services: Compass Family Services, APA Family Support Services, Booker T. Community Service Center, Mission Neighborhood Centers and Mission Economic Development Agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029666\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029666\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1428\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices-800x571.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices-1020x728.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices-1536x1097.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices-1920x1371.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Staff at Compass Family Services pose for a portrait outside of the organization in San Francisco on Sept. 18, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tipping Point Community will evaluate the results of the program after it concludes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For at-risk families in San Francisco, successfully preventing homelessness requires more than just financial support,” Compass Family Services CEO Erica Kisch said in a statement. “It requires childcare, stable employment, and ongoing wraparound support.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The $11 million donation is part of a broader $100 million fundraising initiative to address San Francisco homelessness that the Tipping Point Community started in 2017 when Lurie was still CEO. The organization donated $50 million to a program with similar goals in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tipping Point is still shy of meeting its $100 million goal, according to Cobbs. Meanwhile, the rate of family homelessness has increased in San Francisco in recent years, especially after the pandemic hit when many families were already struggling to afford the city’s high cost of living and lost employment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "Lurie’s Nonprofit Is Giving San Francisco $11 Million to Prevent Family Homelessness | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The nonprofit that San Francisco \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/daniel-lurie\">Mayor Daniel Lurie\u003c/a> founded before entering City Hall is now investing millions of dollars to help the city combat homelessness, a key issue on which the mayor has vowed to make progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tipping Point Community on Tuesday announced it will donate $11 million to support a pilot program aimed at preventing family homelessness, which surged by 94% in San Francisco last year, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/reports--september-2024--2024-point-time-count\">latest point-in-time count\u003c/a> of the city’s homeless population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This investment assists families in crisis today while we develop and scale a model to support families in need for decades to come,” Lurie said in a statement. “Creating lasting change in San Francisco requires all hands on deck, and I’m proud to launch this critical public-private partnership with Tipping Point.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 18-month pilot program will run through June 2026 and will fund direct assistance to approximately 1,500 households to support back rent and other living expenses for families at risk of losing their housing. The money will also be used to create a database of the city’s homelessness prevention efforts in an attempt to streamline the city’s network of services, which can be a complicated maze for families seeking support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Perhaps there’s a family member with undiagnosed mental health issues, and that is one of the issues that is putting the family’s housing at risk. These dollars can help pay for health services for the family so that they can stay housed,” Tipping Point CEO Sam Cobbs said. “Just about anything that a family needs to stay housed and to improve, increase their income, these dollars will be used to do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029663\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029663\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240610-HomelessFamilies-23-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shelter beds are set up in an auditorium at Buena Vista Horace Mann Community School on June 10, 2024, which operates as one of San Francisco’s largest homeless shelters. The nonprofit Dolores Street Community Services runs the shelter after hours and during the summer when school is not in session for San Francisco Unified School District students and their families. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lurie \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11999069/what-can-the-sf-mayor-actually-do-about-homelessness\">vowed on the campaign trail\u003c/a> to build 1,500 shelter beds and more affordable housing to significantly reduce homelessness, something many of his predecessors also attempted and struggled to achieve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of his first attempts to steer the homelessness response was a law expanding his powers as mayor to more quickly hire and contract services related to homelessness as well as the drug crisis. The Board of Supervisors \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025495/luries-fentanyl-response-clears-san-francisco-board-of-supervisors\">passed it last month\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That ordinance also makes it easier for the city to solicit and receive private donations — known as behested payments — for such efforts. However, the mayor did not request the Tipping Point funding, according to Cobbs, who said it is not directly tied to his legislative efforts to cut red tape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The donation is going directly to the nonprofits working on these issues; none of the dollars are going directly to the city,” Cobbs said, noting that all five of the nonprofits that will receive funds have contracts with the city. “Family homelessness is the fastest growing part of the homeless population in San Francisco, and this is really meant to prevent that from happening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the donation has raised eyebrows by some government ethics watchdogs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sean McMorris, the transparency, ethics and accountability program manager at California Common Cause, said there’s “potentially a slippery slope” around conflict of interest laws if donors close to Lurie see Tipping Point Community as a conduit for footing the city’s bills for contracts and services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Lurie founded this organization and has recused himself; however, you can’t discount the fact that they are giving millions of dollars now after learning that Lurie wanted private enterprises to come in and help solve the homelessness problem,” McMorris said. “I hope the program is successful, but it does raise some new concerns for me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Funding from Tipping Point will go toward five nonprofits working on homelessness prevention and services: Compass Family Services, APA Family Support Services, Booker T. Community Service Center, Mission Neighborhood Centers and Mission Economic Development Agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12029666\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12029666\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1428\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices-800x571.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices-1020x728.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices-1536x1097.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/CompassFamilyServices-1920x1371.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Staff at Compass Family Services pose for a portrait outside of the organization in San Francisco on Sept. 18, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tipping Point Community will evaluate the results of the program after it concludes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For at-risk families in San Francisco, successfully preventing homelessness requires more than just financial support,” Compass Family Services CEO Erica Kisch said in a statement. “It requires childcare, stable employment, and ongoing wraparound support.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The $11 million donation is part of a broader $100 million fundraising initiative to address San Francisco homelessness that the Tipping Point Community started in 2017 when Lurie was still CEO. The organization donated $50 million to a program with similar goals in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tipping Point is still shy of meeting its $100 million goal, according to Cobbs. Meanwhile, the rate of family homelessness has increased in San Francisco in recent years, especially after the pandemic hit when many families were already struggling to afford the city’s high cost of living and lost employment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "san-jose-announces-plan-to-send-some-homeless-residents-out-of-the-city",
"title": "San José Announces Plan to Send Some Homeless Residents Out of the City",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San José leaders have announced a new and controversial plan as part of their efforts to end street homelessness. ‘Homeward Bound’ will offer to send unhoused residents to family or friends who are willing to take them in. Mayor Matt Mahan says it’s an additional tool to get people off the streets, while some homelessness advocates say it’s an ineffective and inhumane approach.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Links: \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028615/san-jose-adopts-controversial-plan-to-bus-homeless-people-out-of-the-city\">San José Adopts Controversial Plan to Bus Homeless People Out of the City\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC3422661440&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:01:07] Homelessness in San Jose is a major problem. Over 6 ,300 people counted as homeless in some of the latest numbers. Usually those counts are considered undercounts, so it’s a significant problem. People have a lot of different feelings about how it should be approached, but most people seem to agree that it’s a major problem that the city should be doing all it can to solve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:01:39] And so what has the city been doing about homelessness, especially the mayor, Matt Mahan?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:01:46] So Mayor Matt Mahan, since taking office and even during his initial campaigns, you know, he’s been pushing for what he called basics, right? Back to basics was one of his campaign slogans about public safety and about homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Matt Mahan \u003c/strong>[00:01:59] I want us to act with a greater sense of urgency. I think we have have a true humanitarian crisis on the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:02:06] And what he’s done now since having the governing power for a couple of years is really push things toward shorter term solutions. The city has said that with their current shelter space, both with places run by the county and by the city, but within the bounds of San Jose, there are several thousand people who still do not have places to go right now, even as the city plans to in the next several months and coming years more than triple its temporary shelter space, there’s still going to be a shortage for a long time, even in some very optimistic projections. And so in the past, while the city has kind of taken a mixed approach towards supporting things like permanent affordable housing and supportive housing with services, so people have a place to live forever, and also supported some short -term solutions like temporary shelters, Mayor Matt Mahan has really pushed it toward a focus almost entirely on short -term. like temporary shelters, like sanctioned encampments, like safe parking sites, and now this latest program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:03:13] We’re talking now, Joseph, speaking of this latest program, because last Tuesday, the city of San Jose announced that it would be launching a pilot program called Homeward Bound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:03:26] Yeah, so the mayor and the city’s director of housing, Eric Solivan, came out and essentially told folks at a press conference that the city is putting up $200,000 of its housing funds to help support a pilot program to buy train or bus tickets for people who are unhoused in the city, so long as they have somewhere to go in another part of the city or another part of the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Matt Mahan \u003c/strong>[00:03:51] Homeward Bound offers one way out. If our outreach workers can offer people family reconnection services immediately, that saves a bed in our shelter system for someone who truly doesn’t have anyone to support them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:04:06] The city is willing to help facilitate their transportation and get them to this place where they may become, you know, housed and more stable. And it’s not a new idea. Other cities have tried this, but in San Jose, this would be the first time the city is officially kind of supporting it from its own housing department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:04:27] I want to know about the details here. Like, how is that going to work? Are they going to take a survey? Like, hey, who has family that could take them in? Who is this intended for? How is this going to work?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:04:38] Yeah so technically anybody who’s currently unhoused is eligible. If you are one of the many thousands living on the streets of San Jose and trying to find a better situation you have the prerequisites already. Outreach workers who work for the city currently or who contract with the city through a non -profit who are already going out to talk to unhoused people on a daily or weekly basis and learn about their living situation and ask them about their needs well they’re essentially just going to be adding one more question into something that they might already be talking with them about, and that question’s going to be, hey, do you think you have a family member or a friend or someone from your past who would be willing to put you up? And if that conversation develops into, you know, the right opportunity being there, that outreach worker can verify some of those details with, like, a phone call to a family member or a friend and try to ensure that all that is correct and that there’s a person willing to accept someone on the other end. And then if that all lines up, they can help them buy a bus or train ticket right there on the spot, or maybe within a couple of days and get this person set up and on their way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:05:44] And this would be a bus or train ticket to potentially anywhere in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:05:49] Anywhere. Yeah, it sounds like anywhere that can be reached by bus or train up to a $1 ,000 limit is what the city said they will spend on each person. At least in the early going here, that’s going to be on the table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:06:01] You know, I know that you can, through this program, get transported to another part of San Jose. It’s not just to get people out of the area. But I do think embedded in this story is this idea that I hear a lot, which is that people come to cities in California, like San Jose, San Francisco, LA, from other parts of the country because it’s a better place to live outside. It’s warmer and there’s more resources to essentially take advantage of. How true is that in San Jose? Do we even know how many people living outside in San Jose are from out of town versus in the city?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:06:40] It’s a common misconception that a lot of people who are unhoused might come to places like San Jose for, you know, more generous handouts or better weather, but the data doesn’t really support that. What we have seen in surveys from city and county officials who who work with the unhoused is that the large majority of people living on the streets of San Jose right now report that their last known physical address was in San Jose or in Santa Clara County, which is a broad place. but certainly they’re not necessarily, you know coming from afar before they became homeless they were living here or living in this region when whatever the circumstances were that occurred to make them lose their houses\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:07:26] As you said, this is new for San Jose, but isn’t new in general. And this certainly isn’t the first time I’ve heard of this idea. Do we have any examples, recent examples or otherwise, of this type of program in action?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:07:42] Absolutely. One of the best programs, I guess, to make a comparison for here in the Bay Area is San Francisco. In San Francisco, they had a program called Homeward Bound, which is the same name as the San Jose program that’s been running for about 20 years. That program was started by then -mayor Gavin Newsom in San Francisco. The issue there is we’ve had some kind of mixed results in terms of understanding how successful it has been. Some of the issues might be, okay, so the person gets set up with this ticket, they end up where they’re going, and maybe even they call the back to let them know. that, yes, I’ve made it to so -and -so’s place, and things are going good. But who knows what happens to them a week, a month, three months, a year out? Are they becoming homeless in another city or another portion of the city? Are they struggling in some way? Is their life improving in a marked way?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Jamie Chang \u003c/strong>[00:08:37] The lack of a bus ticket home is not the root cause of homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:08:41] I spoke with Dr. Jamie Chang, she’s an associate professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare, and she has raised some concerns about whether or not the program does enough to find out if it is a success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Jamie Chang \u003c/strong>[00:08:53] There is very, very little evidence as to the long -term success of these programs. We don’t really know what happens to people once they’re dropped off at their destination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:09:03] And that’s why some people have concerns about whether or not the program is doing what it actually intends to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Jamie Chang \u003c/strong>[00:09:09] While these programs might temporarily be effective at removing people from an area without a system in place to ensure their success elsewhere, I’m skeptical about its overall efficacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:09:27] Okay, so people like Mayor Matt Mahan say, this is just one tool in the toolbox. We’re trying a lot of things. If you have a loved one who can take care of you somewhere else, we will help you get there. People like Dr. Chang are warning that there’s not a lot of data or evidence that this really works, at least based on San Francisco’s experience. I gotta imagine there are critics based in San Jose as well who think that this is a bad idea, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:09:54] Yeah, one of the people I spoke with is Gail Osmer, and she’s a long -time advocate for people who are unhoused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:10:01] I don’t agree with it. Some people do want to go home and it works for them and I think it’s a great idea, but I think mainly it’s going to be a failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:10:12] But her biggest concern when I spoke with her about this is, you know, a few things. First of all, a trust element. She’s not really certain that folks who are in the unhoused community who might have a little bit of, you know, distrust of authority figures and stuff, or someone they may not know in an outreach worker very closely, that they’re just going to start spilling all these details about their friends or family or their past lives or somebody who might be able to take them in. You know, it may not be a subject they want to talk about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:10:37] Do you think the unhoused are going to trust a stranger or somebody they don’t really know to give them information or even talk to them about going home?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:10:47] The second problem she had, of course, is just similar to Dr. Chang, is the verification of where they’re going to end up. And, you know, she raised an example, of course, that the city, even through its best efforts and good faith, may not actually be able to verify what kind of home environment people are going to be sent to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:11:04] But there’s a lot of problems that people have probably at home, you know, and we don’t know the home environment. What if somebody is clean and sober and they send them home or whatever, and they’re in a home where there’s, you know, alcoholism?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:11:21] The connotation with hearing about bus or train tickets being offered for unhoused people to essentially leave the area, it does sometimes strike people the wrong way. One of the concerns that Gail Osmer raised with us was that she believes the mayor might be doing this for the wrong reasons. She said essentially that he wants unhoused people out of sight and out of mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:11:48] I think this is just a way to get rid of the unhoused from the mayor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:11:56] So all that said, Joseph, what’s next for the program? I know it was just announced on Tuesday. What has the city said? How will we know if it’s working?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:12:07] Yeah, so, you know, as far as the city officials have told us, this can pretty much be implemented immediately and get started right away. The city did say it is going to emphasize that upfront verification. It’s gonna do all it can through its teams and its workers to ensure that the person or place that they are helping an unhoused person reach in the end is a good place for them. As far as whether the follow -up is actually going to be there, it sounds like the city is not going to put a lot of resources into that. So what kind of data and what kind of qualitative evaluation the city is gonna put into deciding whether or not to. continue or expand this program in the future after its initial run, it still kind of remains to be seen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:12:53] We should say this is one of many things San Jose is doing. You know, it’s a $200 ,000 pilot program, which is not a lot of money for a city of San Jose size, definitely a lot of money for a regular person. But what does this story tell us about the city’s priorities when it comes to homelessness and housing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:13:13] This program in particular, along with all these other efforts, will kind of fit into a larger picture, so to speak, of what Mayor Matt Mahon has really staked part of his reputation on is his approach to this issue. And I think he wants to be the mayor who says, I ended street homelessness in San Jose in my tenure. I got 5,000 plus people off the street in short order. But if it doesn’t end up working out in the long term, you know, there could be bigger questions. He doesn’t want, as he just said last week, he doesn’t want perfect to be the enemy of good. He openly admitted that it’s easy for folks to poke holes in some of these attempts or some of these programs. It’s easy to say there are problems with this approach or gaps in this approach or it may not be correct for everybody. But he’s saying because of the literal life and death stakes for the people living on the street, that something needs to be done now and the city is willing to try multiple efforts to reach this goal.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San José leaders have announced a new and controversial plan as part of their efforts to end street homelessness. ‘Homeward Bound’ will offer to send unhoused residents to family or friends who are willing to take them in. Mayor Matt Mahan says it’s an additional tool to get people off the streets, while some homelessness advocates say it’s an ineffective and inhumane approach.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Links: \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028615/san-jose-adopts-controversial-plan-to-bus-homeless-people-out-of-the-city\">San José Adopts Controversial Plan to Bus Homeless People Out of the City\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC3422661440&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:01:07] Homelessness in San Jose is a major problem. Over 6 ,300 people counted as homeless in some of the latest numbers. Usually those counts are considered undercounts, so it’s a significant problem. People have a lot of different feelings about how it should be approached, but most people seem to agree that it’s a major problem that the city should be doing all it can to solve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:01:39] And so what has the city been doing about homelessness, especially the mayor, Matt Mahan?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:01:46] So Mayor Matt Mahan, since taking office and even during his initial campaigns, you know, he’s been pushing for what he called basics, right? Back to basics was one of his campaign slogans about public safety and about homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Matt Mahan \u003c/strong>[00:01:59] I want us to act with a greater sense of urgency. I think we have have a true humanitarian crisis on the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:02:06] And what he’s done now since having the governing power for a couple of years is really push things toward shorter term solutions. The city has said that with their current shelter space, both with places run by the county and by the city, but within the bounds of San Jose, there are several thousand people who still do not have places to go right now, even as the city plans to in the next several months and coming years more than triple its temporary shelter space, there’s still going to be a shortage for a long time, even in some very optimistic projections. And so in the past, while the city has kind of taken a mixed approach towards supporting things like permanent affordable housing and supportive housing with services, so people have a place to live forever, and also supported some short -term solutions like temporary shelters, Mayor Matt Mahan has really pushed it toward a focus almost entirely on short -term. like temporary shelters, like sanctioned encampments, like safe parking sites, and now this latest program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:03:13] We’re talking now, Joseph, speaking of this latest program, because last Tuesday, the city of San Jose announced that it would be launching a pilot program called Homeward Bound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:03:26] Yeah, so the mayor and the city’s director of housing, Eric Solivan, came out and essentially told folks at a press conference that the city is putting up $200,000 of its housing funds to help support a pilot program to buy train or bus tickets for people who are unhoused in the city, so long as they have somewhere to go in another part of the city or another part of the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Matt Mahan \u003c/strong>[00:03:51] Homeward Bound offers one way out. If our outreach workers can offer people family reconnection services immediately, that saves a bed in our shelter system for someone who truly doesn’t have anyone to support them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:04:06] The city is willing to help facilitate their transportation and get them to this place where they may become, you know, housed and more stable. And it’s not a new idea. Other cities have tried this, but in San Jose, this would be the first time the city is officially kind of supporting it from its own housing department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:04:27] I want to know about the details here. Like, how is that going to work? Are they going to take a survey? Like, hey, who has family that could take them in? Who is this intended for? How is this going to work?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:04:38] Yeah so technically anybody who’s currently unhoused is eligible. If you are one of the many thousands living on the streets of San Jose and trying to find a better situation you have the prerequisites already. Outreach workers who work for the city currently or who contract with the city through a non -profit who are already going out to talk to unhoused people on a daily or weekly basis and learn about their living situation and ask them about their needs well they’re essentially just going to be adding one more question into something that they might already be talking with them about, and that question’s going to be, hey, do you think you have a family member or a friend or someone from your past who would be willing to put you up? And if that conversation develops into, you know, the right opportunity being there, that outreach worker can verify some of those details with, like, a phone call to a family member or a friend and try to ensure that all that is correct and that there’s a person willing to accept someone on the other end. And then if that all lines up, they can help them buy a bus or train ticket right there on the spot, or maybe within a couple of days and get this person set up and on their way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:05:44] And this would be a bus or train ticket to potentially anywhere in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:05:49] Anywhere. Yeah, it sounds like anywhere that can be reached by bus or train up to a $1 ,000 limit is what the city said they will spend on each person. At least in the early going here, that’s going to be on the table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:06:01] You know, I know that you can, through this program, get transported to another part of San Jose. It’s not just to get people out of the area. But I do think embedded in this story is this idea that I hear a lot, which is that people come to cities in California, like San Jose, San Francisco, LA, from other parts of the country because it’s a better place to live outside. It’s warmer and there’s more resources to essentially take advantage of. How true is that in San Jose? Do we even know how many people living outside in San Jose are from out of town versus in the city?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:06:40] It’s a common misconception that a lot of people who are unhoused might come to places like San Jose for, you know, more generous handouts or better weather, but the data doesn’t really support that. What we have seen in surveys from city and county officials who who work with the unhoused is that the large majority of people living on the streets of San Jose right now report that their last known physical address was in San Jose or in Santa Clara County, which is a broad place. but certainly they’re not necessarily, you know coming from afar before they became homeless they were living here or living in this region when whatever the circumstances were that occurred to make them lose their houses\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:07:26] As you said, this is new for San Jose, but isn’t new in general. And this certainly isn’t the first time I’ve heard of this idea. Do we have any examples, recent examples or otherwise, of this type of program in action?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:07:42] Absolutely. One of the best programs, I guess, to make a comparison for here in the Bay Area is San Francisco. In San Francisco, they had a program called Homeward Bound, which is the same name as the San Jose program that’s been running for about 20 years. That program was started by then -mayor Gavin Newsom in San Francisco. The issue there is we’ve had some kind of mixed results in terms of understanding how successful it has been. Some of the issues might be, okay, so the person gets set up with this ticket, they end up where they’re going, and maybe even they call the back to let them know. that, yes, I’ve made it to so -and -so’s place, and things are going good. But who knows what happens to them a week, a month, three months, a year out? Are they becoming homeless in another city or another portion of the city? Are they struggling in some way? Is their life improving in a marked way?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Jamie Chang \u003c/strong>[00:08:37] The lack of a bus ticket home is not the root cause of homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:08:41] I spoke with Dr. Jamie Chang, she’s an associate professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare, and she has raised some concerns about whether or not the program does enough to find out if it is a success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Jamie Chang \u003c/strong>[00:08:53] There is very, very little evidence as to the long -term success of these programs. We don’t really know what happens to people once they’re dropped off at their destination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:09:03] And that’s why some people have concerns about whether or not the program is doing what it actually intends to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Jamie Chang \u003c/strong>[00:09:09] While these programs might temporarily be effective at removing people from an area without a system in place to ensure their success elsewhere, I’m skeptical about its overall efficacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:09:27] Okay, so people like Mayor Matt Mahan say, this is just one tool in the toolbox. We’re trying a lot of things. If you have a loved one who can take care of you somewhere else, we will help you get there. People like Dr. Chang are warning that there’s not a lot of data or evidence that this really works, at least based on San Francisco’s experience. I gotta imagine there are critics based in San Jose as well who think that this is a bad idea, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:09:54] Yeah, one of the people I spoke with is Gail Osmer, and she’s a long -time advocate for people who are unhoused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:10:01] I don’t agree with it. Some people do want to go home and it works for them and I think it’s a great idea, but I think mainly it’s going to be a failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:10:12] But her biggest concern when I spoke with her about this is, you know, a few things. First of all, a trust element. She’s not really certain that folks who are in the unhoused community who might have a little bit of, you know, distrust of authority figures and stuff, or someone they may not know in an outreach worker very closely, that they’re just going to start spilling all these details about their friends or family or their past lives or somebody who might be able to take them in. You know, it may not be a subject they want to talk about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:10:37] Do you think the unhoused are going to trust a stranger or somebody they don’t really know to give them information or even talk to them about going home?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:10:47] The second problem she had, of course, is just similar to Dr. Chang, is the verification of where they’re going to end up. And, you know, she raised an example, of course, that the city, even through its best efforts and good faith, may not actually be able to verify what kind of home environment people are going to be sent to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:11:04] But there’s a lot of problems that people have probably at home, you know, and we don’t know the home environment. What if somebody is clean and sober and they send them home or whatever, and they’re in a home where there’s, you know, alcoholism?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:11:21] The connotation with hearing about bus or train tickets being offered for unhoused people to essentially leave the area, it does sometimes strike people the wrong way. One of the concerns that Gail Osmer raised with us was that she believes the mayor might be doing this for the wrong reasons. She said essentially that he wants unhoused people out of sight and out of mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:11:48] I think this is just a way to get rid of the unhoused from the mayor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:11:56] So all that said, Joseph, what’s next for the program? I know it was just announced on Tuesday. What has the city said? How will we know if it’s working?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:12:07] Yeah, so, you know, as far as the city officials have told us, this can pretty much be implemented immediately and get started right away. The city did say it is going to emphasize that upfront verification. It’s gonna do all it can through its teams and its workers to ensure that the person or place that they are helping an unhoused person reach in the end is a good place for them. As far as whether the follow -up is actually going to be there, it sounds like the city is not going to put a lot of resources into that. So what kind of data and what kind of qualitative evaluation the city is gonna put into deciding whether or not to. continue or expand this program in the future after its initial run, it still kind of remains to be seen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:12:53] We should say this is one of many things San Jose is doing. You know, it’s a $200 ,000 pilot program, which is not a lot of money for a city of San Jose size, definitely a lot of money for a regular person. But what does this story tell us about the city’s priorities when it comes to homelessness and housing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:13:13] This program in particular, along with all these other efforts, will kind of fit into a larger picture, so to speak, of what Mayor Matt Mahon has really staked part of his reputation on is his approach to this issue. And I think he wants to be the mayor who says, I ended street homelessness in San Jose in my tenure. I got 5,000 plus people off the street in short order. But if it doesn’t end up working out in the long term, you know, there could be bigger questions. He doesn’t want, as he just said last week, he doesn’t want perfect to be the enemy of good. He openly admitted that it’s easy for folks to poke holes in some of these attempts or some of these programs. It’s easy to say there are problems with this approach or gaps in this approach or it may not be correct for everybody. But he’s saying because of the literal life and death stakes for the people living on the street, that something needs to be done now and the city is willing to try multiple efforts to reach this goal.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"soldout": {
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"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
"tagline": "A new future for housing",
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}
