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"slug": "this-tech-backed-company-tried-to-disrupt-californias-housing-crisis-it-couldnt",
"title": "This Tech-Backed Company Tried to Disrupt California’s Housing Crisis. It Couldn’t",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]J[/dropcap]an Sramek saw one of California’s biggest challenges — its dire housing shortage — and wanted to propose a big solution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The former investor and startup founder’s bold “East Solano Plan,” headed to the November ballot, would have authorized construction of a dense, walkable city amid eastern Solano County farmland, complete with schools, parks, homes, and offices connected by bike lanes and buses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By approving the entire city at once, rather than adding new homes and offices piecemeal, Sramek sought to cut through the red tape that often slows new development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But 11 months and $9 million later, Sramek’s development company, California Forever, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11996747/california-forever-pulls-bid-to-build-new-city-from-this-years-ballot\">pulled its measure\u003c/a> from the November ballot. Sources close to the company say the abrupt change in course was partly the result of an increasingly meandering campaign that lacked a cohesive strategy. Others pointed to Sramek’s inner circle — dominated by a white, male “bro culture” — as failing to adequately consider constituents’ needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, though, supporters and critics alike agreed the project was stymied by the same foe that tanks countless housing projects across the state: winning neighbors’ approval.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it was clearly a very controversial process we went through, and I think it was a bit too quick on our part,” Sramek said. “There’s this really fine balance between process and delivering results.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Tech City\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Even before California Forever\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/31/business/california-solano-county-city.html\"> first unveiled its proposed new city\u003c/a> last fall, the company was facing an uphill battle wooing would-be voters, who needed to sign off on the plan. Mystery and mistrust had clouded the company for six years as it quietly spent nearly \u003ca href=\"https://abc7news.com/flannery-associates-ceo-jan-sramek-new-solano-county-city-travis-airforce-base-farmland/13832767/\">$1 billion to purchase more than 60,000 acres of farmland\u003c/a>. Some speculated a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957208/near-1-billion-land-purchase-around-california-air-base-under-investigation\">foreign entity was purchasing land\u003c/a> close to the Travis Air Force Base to interfere with military operations. Others thought \u003ca href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/Sacramento/comments/c96bkb/a_mysterious_corporation_has_quietly_bought/\">Disney\u003c/a> was trying to build a new theme park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12000220\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12000220 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-43-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"A map with different areas highlighted.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-43-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-43-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-43-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-43-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-43-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-43-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maps show California Forever’s potential location at the California Forever office in Rio Vista on May 2, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t until a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/25/business/land-purchases-solano-county.html\">\u003ci>New York Times\u003c/i> story\u003c/a> revealed the identity of the venture’s investors — a cadre of some of the most wealthy and influential tech elite — that California Forever was forced to go public. And when it did, it was with a plan that few had anticipated: a master-planned city larger and more ambitious than any in recent memory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anna Kirsch, a Vallejo resident with the group Artists Against Billionaires, immediately distrusted the company and its plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It showed that they had something to hide because of the secrecy,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11991978\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11991978 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Men and women wearing green shirts sit inside a building facing the camera with several people in the background.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-09-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-09-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-09-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-09-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jan Sramek (second from right), CEO of California Forever, listens to public comments during a Solano County Board of Supervisors meeting in Fairfield on June 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That distrust was on display during California Forever’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11968825/can-silicon-valley-investors-win-over-solano-county\">first town hall meetings\u003c/a> held late last year. Sramek faced a barrage of questions about his background in Silicon Valley’s tech industry and how that would influence the project. He had intended for the meetings to foster productive discussions about what residents wanted out of the project. Instead, angry opponents heckled him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The distrust was compounded by news that, in May\u003cspan style=\"margin: 0px;padding: 0px\"> 2023, California Forever \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11970694/california-forever-lawsuit-looms-as-solano-county-farmers-fight-back\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">had sued\u003c/a> a group of farmers who had refused to sell their land, accusing them of colluding \u003c/span>to drive up prices. While farmers are not Solano County’s largest employers, they hold a significant amount of cultural capital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You just don’t sue farmers — it’s a bad look,” said Chris Rico, president of the Solano County Economic Development Corporation. “It shows a lack of understanding of the geography that you’re trying to work in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12000222\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12000222 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-14_qed-1.jpg\" alt='A white woman wearing glasses and a light-colored suit sits behind a desk with a sign that reads \"Monica Brown, Supervisor, District 2.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-14_qed-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-14_qed-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-14_qed-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-14_qed-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-14_qed-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-14_qed-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Solano County Supervisor Monica Brown speaks at a Solano County Board of Supervisors meeting in Fairfield on June 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Solano County Supervisor Monica Brown, who represents southern Vallejo, Benicia and parts of Fairfield, said the company’s secret land purchase and subsequent lawsuit against farmers “didn’t make a lot of sense” to her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was one of the project’s most ardent opponents, sharply criticizing it when it came up during county discussions. But Brown said her constituents commended her for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Of all the emails I got, I only got two who were not happy with what I had to say, but I got a lot of, ‘Thank you, Monica, you smacked them down,” she said, adding that even in the months since the project was first proposed, her opinion hasn’t changed. “We’re just going to have to keep our eyes open. I don’t trust them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the deep skepticism surrounding the project early on, some prospective voters kept an open mind. It was a novel, bold solution to some of residents’ biggest problems: long commutes, unaffordable housing and a general lack of job opportunities within the county.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sam Houston, a tech worker who moved to Vallejo in 2018 to find relatively more affordable housing, was on the fence about the project during those first town hall meetings. However, once his son, Jasper, was born in December, his perspective completely changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Jasper being a real thing now definitely makes me think about the future and take it more to heart,” he said. “What is the future of Solano County and of Vallejo and this regional economy? This is basically a startup as a city; it’s an exciting opportunity. Maybe my son could be in that place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Campaign\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In January, California Forever \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11972769/not-just-a-crazy-idea-california-forever-releases-ballot-details-for-new-bay-area-city\">formally presented voters\u003c/a> with its proposed ballot measure, the East Solano Plan. With it came a suite of grand promises: ten “guarantees” that included 15,000 jobs that pay 125% of the county’s average wage; down payment assistance programs of up to $50,000, vocational training and loans for new businesses; money for parks and wildland preservation; highway widenings, street improvements and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12000226\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12000226 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-11-BL_qed.jpg\" alt='An office with a sign that says \"California Forever.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-11-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-11-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-11-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-11-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-11-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-11-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A California Forever office in the Solano Town Center mall in Fairfield on April 2, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It opened campaign offices in malls and downtown squares, hired local residents to serve as ambassadors, plastered billboards with the East Solano Plan’s guarantees and aggressively hired the state’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/newsletters/california-playbook/2023/12/19/meet-california-forevers-a-team-00132372\">most well-connected campaign strategists and consultants\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company seemed open to changing its plan to work with its neighbors. When Travis Air Force Base objected to the project’s development map and said it would interfere with military training, California Forever obliged and rewrote its ballot language several times to comply with the base’s demands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within the first three months, the campaign \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11984830/california-forever-shells-out-2m-in-campaign-to-build-city-from-scratch\">spent some $2 million\u003c/a>, mostly on campaign consultants and signature gatherers, to qualify its measure for the November ballot. But despite its spending and cooperation with the county, the company’s plan didn’t appear to be gaining enough ground with would-be voters and local elected officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A former California Forever consultant who asked to remain anonymous told KQED that political strategists urged Sramek and other company leaders to stay focused on the project’s initial plan. But as the campaign inched closer to November, Sramek tacked on even more promises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A regional sports complex. A beach-lined lagoon built by the same company that constructed a Disney theme park. A series of regional medical clinics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11991974\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11991974 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt='Several people wearing green clothing stand outside. A Black man holds a sign that reads \"Vote \"Yes\" Opportunity for the people. East Solano Plan.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-02-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-02-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Proponents of the California Forever/East Solano Plan wait in line to get into a Solano County Board of Supervisors meeting in Fairfield on June 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Rico, a member of the company’s community advisory committee, said some of these new promises distracted from the original ten guarantees, which were already lacking detail. And without any binding legal agreement to ensure that California Forever would actually deliver on all of those “guarantees,” he said voters remained skeptical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I would like to see as we move forward in this process is how do we take those big shiny things that they were dangling in front of people to try to get them to vote for this and say no, this is actually what people want,” Rico said. “How do we codify those things into a plan in a way that they are binding?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to another person who worked directly with the company but was not authorized to speak publicly, California Forever also perpetuated a type of exclusive “bro culture,” where most high-level decisions and conversations were steered by white men who held top leadership positions at the company. The source said that culture overlooked some of the project’s most ardent supporters: young, working-class families of color.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anthony Summers, an African American pastor at Impact Vallejo Church, was excited about the East Solano Plan but wanted to make sure communities of color were included in the grand vision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe it’s a fresh idea and a chance to revitalize this area,” he said. “We just have to make sure that the partnership is such that people are afforded the opportunities that are being talked about and that we can hold the founders of the company accountable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sramek acknowledged his company has “more work to do when it comes to diversity” and pointed to its community advisory committee, a diverse group of Solano County residents, as one way the company strived to better represent the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Urban planning and real estate is an industry that, historically, has not had the kind of diversity and representation that you would expect,” he said in response to the makeup of the company’s leadership. “We are working on that, but we do have team members who are from different ethnicities and different parts of the region. We are excited to do more in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A Close Race\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12000213\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12000213 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-94-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"Farmland with a large white windmill in the background.\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-94-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-94-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-94-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-94-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-94-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-94-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmland west of Rio Vista on May 2, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, California Forever spent $9 million on its campaign, according to campaign finance records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But despite that spending, Sramek said internal polling revealed a close race. Though he thought it was likely the measure would still pass, he said it would be far from a landslide victory. And, it lacked the one thing that would ensure the city could actually get built: support from elected officials. [aside postID=\"news_11991788,news_11991234,news_11996747\" label=\"Related Stories\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A California Forever employee who was not authorized to speak publicly told KQED that the company attempted to work with city council members and county supervisors multiple times throughout the campaign, but the project became so politicized that few wanted to be associated with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11985711/fairfield-officials-wife-returns-money-from-campaign-for-new-california-city\">KQED reported that a Fairfield city council member’s wife\u003c/a> had received $4,000 for connecting the company with Asian-American community groups, she returned the money because she didn’t want to appear to be partnering with the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t fully appreciate the extent to which putting this on the ballot would make it harder for people to work with us locally,” Sramek said. “There’s a lot of people who wanted to work with us who felt that, because this was such a political issue in November, they couldn’t.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without cooperation from county supervisors, the company would have a hard time building its ideal city because all of the infrastructure — roads and utilities — would first need county approval, even if voters had signed off on the larger plan. And if California Forever wanted to use property taxes or other public funds to pay for that infrastructure, it would also need supervisors’ approval.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12000221\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12000221 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-04_qed.jpg\" alt='A white man wearing glasses and a suit sits behind a desk with a sign that reads \"Mitch Mashburn Chair District 5.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-04_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-04_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-04_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-04_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-04_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-04_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Solano County Supervisor Mitch Mashburn speaks at a Solano County Board of Supervisors meeting in Fairfield on June 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Board of Supervisors Chair Mitch Mashburn is one of the few on the board who has expressed an openness to California Forever’s plan. But, he remains skeptical of its current form.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I still don’t feel that this project itself is a good thing for the county or a viable project, given the impacts to the area or the need for huge, massive investments in infrastructure that would have to take place,” Mashburn said. “Show us how this is planned to do no harm. How it’s planned to truly help and not hinder or hurt our county.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A source close to California Forever told KQED that when company leaders saw unanimous dissent from the board, they decided to pull the initiative and spend the next two years bettering those relationships. The company plans to reintroduce its initiative to Solano County voters in 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996755\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11996755 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/20240604_CaliforniaForeverFarms_GC-12_qed.jpg\" alt=\"A sign that says "No to California Forever's East Solano Plan" on the side of the road.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/20240604_CaliforniaForeverFarms_GC-12_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/20240604_CaliforniaForeverFarms_GC-12_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/20240604_CaliforniaForeverFarms_GC-12_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/20240604_CaliforniaForeverFarms_GC-12_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/20240604_CaliforniaForeverFarms_GC-12_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/20240604_CaliforniaForeverFarms_GC-12_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A ‘No to California Forever’ sign is displayed at the entrance of Soul Food Farm in Vacaville on June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Looking ahead, Sramek said he wants to spend more time talking with local leaders, businesses and residents about what they want. He plans to focus more on how local and national media cover his company and speculate about his intentions. And he said he is committed, perhaps more than ever, to bringing his grand vision for a new city to fruition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California is at a kind of turning point — people are deciding whether they believe we can fix many of the challenges we are dealing with or whether we are just going to set the state in amber and make it impossible to build anything,” he said. “I think in two years, this is going to be a referendum on California.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Sources close to the project say California Forever was stymied by some of the same problems that have plagued developers in the state for decades.",
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"title": "This Tech-Backed Company Tried to Disrupt California’s Housing Crisis. It Couldn’t | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">J\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>an Sramek saw one of California’s biggest challenges — its dire housing shortage — and wanted to propose a big solution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The former investor and startup founder’s bold “East Solano Plan,” headed to the November ballot, would have authorized construction of a dense, walkable city amid eastern Solano County farmland, complete with schools, parks, homes, and offices connected by bike lanes and buses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By approving the entire city at once, rather than adding new homes and offices piecemeal, Sramek sought to cut through the red tape that often slows new development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But 11 months and $9 million later, Sramek’s development company, California Forever, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11996747/california-forever-pulls-bid-to-build-new-city-from-this-years-ballot\">pulled its measure\u003c/a> from the November ballot. Sources close to the company say the abrupt change in course was partly the result of an increasingly meandering campaign that lacked a cohesive strategy. Others pointed to Sramek’s inner circle — dominated by a white, male “bro culture” — as failing to adequately consider constituents’ needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, though, supporters and critics alike agreed the project was stymied by the same foe that tanks countless housing projects across the state: winning neighbors’ approval.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it was clearly a very controversial process we went through, and I think it was a bit too quick on our part,” Sramek said. “There’s this really fine balance between process and delivering results.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Tech City\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Even before California Forever\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/31/business/california-solano-county-city.html\"> first unveiled its proposed new city\u003c/a> last fall, the company was facing an uphill battle wooing would-be voters, who needed to sign off on the plan. Mystery and mistrust had clouded the company for six years as it quietly spent nearly \u003ca href=\"https://abc7news.com/flannery-associates-ceo-jan-sramek-new-solano-county-city-travis-airforce-base-farmland/13832767/\">$1 billion to purchase more than 60,000 acres of farmland\u003c/a>. Some speculated a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957208/near-1-billion-land-purchase-around-california-air-base-under-investigation\">foreign entity was purchasing land\u003c/a> close to the Travis Air Force Base to interfere with military operations. Others thought \u003ca href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/Sacramento/comments/c96bkb/a_mysterious_corporation_has_quietly_bought/\">Disney\u003c/a> was trying to build a new theme park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12000220\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12000220 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-43-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"A map with different areas highlighted.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-43-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-43-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-43-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-43-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-43-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-43-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maps show California Forever’s potential location at the California Forever office in Rio Vista on May 2, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t until a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/25/business/land-purchases-solano-county.html\">\u003ci>New York Times\u003c/i> story\u003c/a> revealed the identity of the venture’s investors — a cadre of some of the most wealthy and influential tech elite — that California Forever was forced to go public. And when it did, it was with a plan that few had anticipated: a master-planned city larger and more ambitious than any in recent memory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anna Kirsch, a Vallejo resident with the group Artists Against Billionaires, immediately distrusted the company and its plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It showed that they had something to hide because of the secrecy,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11991978\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11991978 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Men and women wearing green shirts sit inside a building facing the camera with several people in the background.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-09-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-09-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-09-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-09-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jan Sramek (second from right), CEO of California Forever, listens to public comments during a Solano County Board of Supervisors meeting in Fairfield on June 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That distrust was on display during California Forever’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11968825/can-silicon-valley-investors-win-over-solano-county\">first town hall meetings\u003c/a> held late last year. Sramek faced a barrage of questions about his background in Silicon Valley’s tech industry and how that would influence the project. He had intended for the meetings to foster productive discussions about what residents wanted out of the project. Instead, angry opponents heckled him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The distrust was compounded by news that, in May\u003cspan style=\"margin: 0px;padding: 0px\"> 2023, California Forever \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11970694/california-forever-lawsuit-looms-as-solano-county-farmers-fight-back\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">had sued\u003c/a> a group of farmers who had refused to sell their land, accusing them of colluding \u003c/span>to drive up prices. While farmers are not Solano County’s largest employers, they hold a significant amount of cultural capital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You just don’t sue farmers — it’s a bad look,” said Chris Rico, president of the Solano County Economic Development Corporation. “It shows a lack of understanding of the geography that you’re trying to work in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12000222\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12000222 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-14_qed-1.jpg\" alt='A white woman wearing glasses and a light-colored suit sits behind a desk with a sign that reads \"Monica Brown, Supervisor, District 2.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-14_qed-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-14_qed-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-14_qed-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-14_qed-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-14_qed-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-14_qed-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Solano County Supervisor Monica Brown speaks at a Solano County Board of Supervisors meeting in Fairfield on June 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Solano County Supervisor Monica Brown, who represents southern Vallejo, Benicia and parts of Fairfield, said the company’s secret land purchase and subsequent lawsuit against farmers “didn’t make a lot of sense” to her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was one of the project’s most ardent opponents, sharply criticizing it when it came up during county discussions. But Brown said her constituents commended her for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Of all the emails I got, I only got two who were not happy with what I had to say, but I got a lot of, ‘Thank you, Monica, you smacked them down,” she said, adding that even in the months since the project was first proposed, her opinion hasn’t changed. “We’re just going to have to keep our eyes open. I don’t trust them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the deep skepticism surrounding the project early on, some prospective voters kept an open mind. It was a novel, bold solution to some of residents’ biggest problems: long commutes, unaffordable housing and a general lack of job opportunities within the county.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sam Houston, a tech worker who moved to Vallejo in 2018 to find relatively more affordable housing, was on the fence about the project during those first town hall meetings. However, once his son, Jasper, was born in December, his perspective completely changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Jasper being a real thing now definitely makes me think about the future and take it more to heart,” he said. “What is the future of Solano County and of Vallejo and this regional economy? This is basically a startup as a city; it’s an exciting opportunity. Maybe my son could be in that place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Campaign\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In January, California Forever \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11972769/not-just-a-crazy-idea-california-forever-releases-ballot-details-for-new-bay-area-city\">formally presented voters\u003c/a> with its proposed ballot measure, the East Solano Plan. With it came a suite of grand promises: ten “guarantees” that included 15,000 jobs that pay 125% of the county’s average wage; down payment assistance programs of up to $50,000, vocational training and loans for new businesses; money for parks and wildland preservation; highway widenings, street improvements and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12000226\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12000226 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-11-BL_qed.jpg\" alt='An office with a sign that says \"California Forever.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-11-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-11-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-11-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-11-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-11-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-11-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A California Forever office in the Solano Town Center mall in Fairfield on April 2, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It opened campaign offices in malls and downtown squares, hired local residents to serve as ambassadors, plastered billboards with the East Solano Plan’s guarantees and aggressively hired the state’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/newsletters/california-playbook/2023/12/19/meet-california-forevers-a-team-00132372\">most well-connected campaign strategists and consultants\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company seemed open to changing its plan to work with its neighbors. When Travis Air Force Base objected to the project’s development map and said it would interfere with military training, California Forever obliged and rewrote its ballot language several times to comply with the base’s demands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within the first three months, the campaign \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11984830/california-forever-shells-out-2m-in-campaign-to-build-city-from-scratch\">spent some $2 million\u003c/a>, mostly on campaign consultants and signature gatherers, to qualify its measure for the November ballot. But despite its spending and cooperation with the county, the company’s plan didn’t appear to be gaining enough ground with would-be voters and local elected officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A former California Forever consultant who asked to remain anonymous told KQED that political strategists urged Sramek and other company leaders to stay focused on the project’s initial plan. But as the campaign inched closer to November, Sramek tacked on even more promises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A regional sports complex. A beach-lined lagoon built by the same company that constructed a Disney theme park. A series of regional medical clinics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11991974\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11991974 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt='Several people wearing green clothing stand outside. A Black man holds a sign that reads \"Vote \"Yes\" Opportunity for the people. East Solano Plan.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-02-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-02-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Proponents of the California Forever/East Solano Plan wait in line to get into a Solano County Board of Supervisors meeting in Fairfield on June 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Rico, a member of the company’s community advisory committee, said some of these new promises distracted from the original ten guarantees, which were already lacking detail. And without any binding legal agreement to ensure that California Forever would actually deliver on all of those “guarantees,” he said voters remained skeptical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I would like to see as we move forward in this process is how do we take those big shiny things that they were dangling in front of people to try to get them to vote for this and say no, this is actually what people want,” Rico said. “How do we codify those things into a plan in a way that they are binding?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to another person who worked directly with the company but was not authorized to speak publicly, California Forever also perpetuated a type of exclusive “bro culture,” where most high-level decisions and conversations were steered by white men who held top leadership positions at the company. The source said that culture overlooked some of the project’s most ardent supporters: young, working-class families of color.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anthony Summers, an African American pastor at Impact Vallejo Church, was excited about the East Solano Plan but wanted to make sure communities of color were included in the grand vision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe it’s a fresh idea and a chance to revitalize this area,” he said. “We just have to make sure that the partnership is such that people are afforded the opportunities that are being talked about and that we can hold the founders of the company accountable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sramek acknowledged his company has “more work to do when it comes to diversity” and pointed to its community advisory committee, a diverse group of Solano County residents, as one way the company strived to better represent the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Urban planning and real estate is an industry that, historically, has not had the kind of diversity and representation that you would expect,” he said in response to the makeup of the company’s leadership. “We are working on that, but we do have team members who are from different ethnicities and different parts of the region. We are excited to do more in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A Close Race\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12000213\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12000213 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-94-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"Farmland with a large white windmill in the background.\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-94-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-94-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-94-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-94-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-94-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240502-CaliforniaForever-94-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmland west of Rio Vista on May 2, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, California Forever spent $9 million on its campaign, according to campaign finance records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But despite that spending, Sramek said internal polling revealed a close race. Though he thought it was likely the measure would still pass, he said it would be far from a landslide victory. And, it lacked the one thing that would ensure the city could actually get built: support from elected officials. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A California Forever employee who was not authorized to speak publicly told KQED that the company attempted to work with city council members and county supervisors multiple times throughout the campaign, but the project became so politicized that few wanted to be associated with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11985711/fairfield-officials-wife-returns-money-from-campaign-for-new-california-city\">KQED reported that a Fairfield city council member’s wife\u003c/a> had received $4,000 for connecting the company with Asian-American community groups, she returned the money because she didn’t want to appear to be partnering with the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t fully appreciate the extent to which putting this on the ballot would make it harder for people to work with us locally,” Sramek said. “There’s a lot of people who wanted to work with us who felt that, because this was such a political issue in November, they couldn’t.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without cooperation from county supervisors, the company would have a hard time building its ideal city because all of the infrastructure — roads and utilities — would first need county approval, even if voters had signed off on the larger plan. And if California Forever wanted to use property taxes or other public funds to pay for that infrastructure, it would also need supervisors’ approval.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12000221\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12000221 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-04_qed.jpg\" alt='A white man wearing glasses and a suit sits behind a desk with a sign that reads \"Mitch Mashburn Chair District 5.\"' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-04_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-04_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-04_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-04_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-04_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240625-SOLANO-COUNTY-BOARD-OF-SUPES-MD-04_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Solano County Supervisor Mitch Mashburn speaks at a Solano County Board of Supervisors meeting in Fairfield on June 25, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Board of Supervisors Chair Mitch Mashburn is one of the few on the board who has expressed an openness to California Forever’s plan. But, he remains skeptical of its current form.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I still don’t feel that this project itself is a good thing for the county or a viable project, given the impacts to the area or the need for huge, massive investments in infrastructure that would have to take place,” Mashburn said. “Show us how this is planned to do no harm. How it’s planned to truly help and not hinder or hurt our county.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A source close to California Forever told KQED that when company leaders saw unanimous dissent from the board, they decided to pull the initiative and spend the next two years bettering those relationships. The company plans to reintroduce its initiative to Solano County voters in 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996755\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11996755 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/20240604_CaliforniaForeverFarms_GC-12_qed.jpg\" alt=\"A sign that says "No to California Forever's East Solano Plan" on the side of the road.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/20240604_CaliforniaForeverFarms_GC-12_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/20240604_CaliforniaForeverFarms_GC-12_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/20240604_CaliforniaForeverFarms_GC-12_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/20240604_CaliforniaForeverFarms_GC-12_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/20240604_CaliforniaForeverFarms_GC-12_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/20240604_CaliforniaForeverFarms_GC-12_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A ‘No to California Forever’ sign is displayed at the entrance of Soul Food Farm in Vacaville on June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Looking ahead, Sramek said he wants to spend more time talking with local leaders, businesses and residents about what they want. He plans to focus more on how local and national media cover his company and speculate about his intentions. And he said he is committed, perhaps more than ever, to bringing his grand vision for a new city to fruition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California is at a kind of turning point — people are deciding whether they believe we can fix many of the challenges we are dealing with or whether we are just going to set the state in amber and make it impossible to build anything,” he said. “I think in two years, this is going to be a referendum on California.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Bay Area’s $20 Billion Housing Bond Pulled From Ballots, Leaving Advocates ‘Heartbroken’",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">This report contains a correction.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A proposed $20 billion \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11992046/20-billion-affordable-housing-bond-heads-to-bay-area-voters\">affordable housing bond measure\u003c/a> for the Bay Area will have to wait for a future election after it was pulled from the November ballot on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal, called Regional Measure 4, was more than four years in the making and would have authorized funding for an estimated 70,000 new subsidized apartments and homes. It was ultimately imperiled, however, by a lawsuit challenging a \u003ca href=\"https://baha.granicus.com/DocumentViewer.php?file=baha_c8c913d24620c401da177ea1291f3cb6.pdf&view=1\">“mathematical error”\u003c/a> in the cost of repaying the bond, as well as by a desire to focus advocacy efforts on a related statewide proposition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area Housing Finance Authority, which introduced the measure, voted unanimously Wednesday to remove it from ballots in all nine counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates for the regional measure said they were “heartbroken” by the decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a really difficult day for the campaign side,” said Heather Hood, a vice president at the affordable housing builder Enterprise Community Partners. She teared up while recommending the authority pull the measure. “I really, deeply regret this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Authority officials estimated the measure would have raised property taxes by around \u003ca href=\"https://mtc.ca.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2024-07/7c_Resolution_0034_Attachment_B_Tax_Rate_Statement.pdf\">$19 on average\u003c/a> for every $100,000 of assessed home value, generating roughly $670 million a year. However, in a \u003ca href=\"https://newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com/mission/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/BAHFA-Suit-Khamis-v.-Moreles-Petition-for-Writ-Mandate-Aug-7-2024.pdf\">lawsuit\u003c/a> filed on Aug. 8, a group of residents contested that assertion, saying the total cost of the bond — nearly $48.3 billion, spread out over roughly 50 years — would have actually generated nearly $911 million annually, costing taxpayers more money than the authority had stated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And most of that money would have gone towards financing costs,” said Jason Bezis, an attorney for the plaintiffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authority \u003ca href=\"https://baha.granicus.com/DocumentViewer.php?file=baha_c8c913d24620c401da177ea1291f3cb6.pdf&view=1\">amended the measure\u003c/a>, and advocates said they were confident in defending against other allegations in the complaint that challenged the wording of its 75-word ballot question. Both sides were due to appear in court for a hearing on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The larger issue for advocates, however, was polling results that revealed a narrow path to victory for the regional measure, which depended largely on a separate statewide proposition passing to buoy the bond’s chance of success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, infrastructure and housing bonds require a two-thirds supermajority to pass. \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_5,_Lower_Supermajority_Requirement_to_55%25_for_Local_Bond_Measures_to_Fund_Housing_and_Public_Infrastructure_Amendment_(2024)\">Proposition 5\u003c/a>, which is still slated to appear before voters in November, proposes to amend the California Constitution by lowering the voting threshold for infrastructure and housing bonds from a two-thirds supermajority to 55%. If voters approve Prop 5, the regional bond would have been subject to the lower threshold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The yes vote, including ‘lean yes,’ was 52/54 percent (depending on wording) and 50 percent, respectively,” the staff report reads. “Given voter attitudes, it has been clear for several years that the Bay Area affordable housing bond’s viability is inextricably linked to passage of an amendment to the state’s constitution to adjust the vote threshold.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='More Housing Coverage' tag='housing']A \u003ca href=\"https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/proposition-5-lawsuit.pdf\">separate lawsuit\u003c/a>, filed this month by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, had challenged the label that will appear on the ballot for the statewide proposition because it does not specify that the threshold would be reduced. The ballot label — a condensed version of the ballot title and summary — states instead that the proposition “[a]llows approval of local infrastructure and housing bonds for low- and middle-income Californians with 55% vote.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the association lost on appeal. Laura Dougherty, director of legal affairs for the association, said the label will remain as is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s unfortunate for the voters,” Dougherty said, adding that if the proposition passes, “It allows an increase in property taxes that is not consistent with the spirit of Proposition 13 and is not consistent with the protection that we’ve had since 1879, which is to make sure that bonds require two-thirds voter approval.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the meeting on Wednesday, many supporters of Regional Measure 4 vowed to turn their attention to Proposition 5.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to focus all of our efforts there to getting [Proposition 5] passed,” said Amie Fishman, executive director of the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California. “We knew that doing them both together would be hard. And right now, we have to pivot to a sequential plan.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics, on the other hand, lauded the authority’s decision to pull the measure. San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller said now was not the time to ask residents to dig into their pockets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Inflation is crushing our region’s residents. There’s a reason the polling for this measure has been negative,” he said. “It simply is a terrible time to ask residents to pay more taxes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnny Khamis, a former San Jose city council member and lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against the housing finance authority, pointed to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11982237/california-audit-questions-state-homelessness-spending-san-jose\">recent state audit,\u003c/a> which blasted the city for failing to adequately track whether its current spending to address homelessness is actually working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Governments, even when they have money, have not proven to be good stewards of their money,” Khamis told KQED. “There’s no accountability here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of the authority said they planned to reintroduce some version of the bond measure in 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"c-message_kit__gutter\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"c-message_kit__gutter__right\" role=\"presentation\" data-qa=\"message_content\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"c-message_kit__blocks c-message_kit__blocks--rich_text\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"c-message__message_blocks c-message__message_blocks--rich_text\" data-qa=\"message-text\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"p-block_kit_renderer\" data-qa=\"block-kit-renderer\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"p-block_kit_renderer__block_wrapper p-block_kit_renderer__block_wrapper--first\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"p-rich_text_block\" dir=\"auto\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"p-rich_text_section\">\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">Aug. 15: An earlier version of this report incorrectly stated a judge agreed with a lawsuit against the bond measure. There was no ruling on the measure, and the housing finance authority amended its ballot initiative voluntarily. \u003c/i>\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A “clerical error” and lawsuit against a related statewide measure imperiled the proposed affordable housing bond, campaign advocates said.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">This report contains a correction.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A proposed $20 billion \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11992046/20-billion-affordable-housing-bond-heads-to-bay-area-voters\">affordable housing bond measure\u003c/a> for the Bay Area will have to wait for a future election after it was pulled from the November ballot on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal, called Regional Measure 4, was more than four years in the making and would have authorized funding for an estimated 70,000 new subsidized apartments and homes. It was ultimately imperiled, however, by a lawsuit challenging a \u003ca href=\"https://baha.granicus.com/DocumentViewer.php?file=baha_c8c913d24620c401da177ea1291f3cb6.pdf&view=1\">“mathematical error”\u003c/a> in the cost of repaying the bond, as well as by a desire to focus advocacy efforts on a related statewide proposition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area Housing Finance Authority, which introduced the measure, voted unanimously Wednesday to remove it from ballots in all nine counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates for the regional measure said they were “heartbroken” by the decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a really difficult day for the campaign side,” said Heather Hood, a vice president at the affordable housing builder Enterprise Community Partners. She teared up while recommending the authority pull the measure. “I really, deeply regret this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Authority officials estimated the measure would have raised property taxes by around \u003ca href=\"https://mtc.ca.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2024-07/7c_Resolution_0034_Attachment_B_Tax_Rate_Statement.pdf\">$19 on average\u003c/a> for every $100,000 of assessed home value, generating roughly $670 million a year. However, in a \u003ca href=\"https://newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com/mission/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/BAHFA-Suit-Khamis-v.-Moreles-Petition-for-Writ-Mandate-Aug-7-2024.pdf\">lawsuit\u003c/a> filed on Aug. 8, a group of residents contested that assertion, saying the total cost of the bond — nearly $48.3 billion, spread out over roughly 50 years — would have actually generated nearly $911 million annually, costing taxpayers more money than the authority had stated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And most of that money would have gone towards financing costs,” said Jason Bezis, an attorney for the plaintiffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authority \u003ca href=\"https://baha.granicus.com/DocumentViewer.php?file=baha_c8c913d24620c401da177ea1291f3cb6.pdf&view=1\">amended the measure\u003c/a>, and advocates said they were confident in defending against other allegations in the complaint that challenged the wording of its 75-word ballot question. Both sides were due to appear in court for a hearing on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The larger issue for advocates, however, was polling results that revealed a narrow path to victory for the regional measure, which depended largely on a separate statewide proposition passing to buoy the bond’s chance of success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, infrastructure and housing bonds require a two-thirds supermajority to pass. \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_5,_Lower_Supermajority_Requirement_to_55%25_for_Local_Bond_Measures_to_Fund_Housing_and_Public_Infrastructure_Amendment_(2024)\">Proposition 5\u003c/a>, which is still slated to appear before voters in November, proposes to amend the California Constitution by lowering the voting threshold for infrastructure and housing bonds from a two-thirds supermajority to 55%. If voters approve Prop 5, the regional bond would have been subject to the lower threshold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The yes vote, including ‘lean yes,’ was 52/54 percent (depending on wording) and 50 percent, respectively,” the staff report reads. “Given voter attitudes, it has been clear for several years that the Bay Area affordable housing bond’s viability is inextricably linked to passage of an amendment to the state’s constitution to adjust the vote threshold.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/proposition-5-lawsuit.pdf\">separate lawsuit\u003c/a>, filed this month by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, had challenged the label that will appear on the ballot for the statewide proposition because it does not specify that the threshold would be reduced. The ballot label — a condensed version of the ballot title and summary — states instead that the proposition “[a]llows approval of local infrastructure and housing bonds for low- and middle-income Californians with 55% vote.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the association lost on appeal. Laura Dougherty, director of legal affairs for the association, said the label will remain as is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s unfortunate for the voters,” Dougherty said, adding that if the proposition passes, “It allows an increase in property taxes that is not consistent with the spirit of Proposition 13 and is not consistent with the protection that we’ve had since 1879, which is to make sure that bonds require two-thirds voter approval.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the meeting on Wednesday, many supporters of Regional Measure 4 vowed to turn their attention to Proposition 5.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to focus all of our efforts there to getting [Proposition 5] passed,” said Amie Fishman, executive director of the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California. “We knew that doing them both together would be hard. And right now, we have to pivot to a sequential plan.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics, on the other hand, lauded the authority’s decision to pull the measure. San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller said now was not the time to ask residents to dig into their pockets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Inflation is crushing our region’s residents. There’s a reason the polling for this measure has been negative,” he said. “It simply is a terrible time to ask residents to pay more taxes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnny Khamis, a former San Jose city council member and lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against the housing finance authority, pointed to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11982237/california-audit-questions-state-homelessness-spending-san-jose\">recent state audit,\u003c/a> which blasted the city for failing to adequately track whether its current spending to address homelessness is actually working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Governments, even when they have money, have not proven to be good stewards of their money,” Khamis told KQED. “There’s no accountability here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of the authority said they planned to reintroduce some version of the bond measure in 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"c-message_kit__gutter\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"c-message_kit__gutter__right\" role=\"presentation\" data-qa=\"message_content\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"c-message_kit__blocks c-message_kit__blocks--rich_text\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"c-message__message_blocks c-message__message_blocks--rich_text\" data-qa=\"message-text\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"p-block_kit_renderer\" data-qa=\"block-kit-renderer\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"p-block_kit_renderer__block_wrapper p-block_kit_renderer__block_wrapper--first\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"p-rich_text_block\" dir=\"auto\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"p-rich_text_section\">\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">Aug. 15: An earlier version of this report incorrectly stated a judge agreed with a lawsuit against the bond measure. There was no ruling on the measure, and the housing finance authority amended its ballot initiative voluntarily. \u003c/i>\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "san-jose-council-oks-development-of-historic-japanese-american-farm-for-housing",
"title": "San José Council OKs Development of Historic Japanese American Farm for Housing",
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"headTitle": "San José Council OKs Development of Historic Japanese American Farm for Housing | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>A patch of farmland \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11999500/historic-japanese-american-family-farm-is-about-to-fade-into-much-needed-housing-in-san-jose\">deeply linked to the history of Japanese Americans in Santa Clara County\u003c/a> will be torn up to make way for nearly 1,500 apartments and townhomes, retail spaces and a public park after the San José City Council approved a development proposal on Tuesday night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 22.8-acre parcel has been owned by the Sakauyes — a Japanese American family with a long farming legacy — for roughly 120 continuous years. It survived through racist laws limiting Asian Americans’ rights and immigration, two World Wars and decades of redevelopment following the region’s tech boom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of the Sakauye family, like 120,000 other Japanese Americans, were forcibly interned at concentration camps during World War II. They were only able to keep their land by having a white neighbor safeguard it for them until they returned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family now plans to sell the property to Hanover Company, a Houston-based developer, whose representatives said grading of the site could begin as soon as February 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crops are not the only thing that will be uprooted. A fruit stand business will be forced to shutter when development gets underway. The stand has been run for the last four decades by the Tsukudas, another Japanese American farming family, who lease and farm a portion of the land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while a host of historic structures such as barns and pump houses — including some dating back to the late 19th century and early 20th century — will be leveled to prepare for the development, a century-old home on the site may be spared from the wrecking ball.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11999500 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-15-KQED-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a victory for preservationists and history advocates, the city council asked city staff to seriously explore ways to preserve the 1920 home where prominent farmer, civic figure and booster of Japanese American history, Eiichi Edward Sakauye, lived almost his entire life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hanover previously proffered a plan to include historic plaques or storyboards on the park site to tell the story of Eiichi Sakauye, but some preservationists, history advocates and councilmembers said more should be done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thanks in part to an impassioned plea by Vice Mayor Rosemary Kamei, the council’s directions issued Tuesday night include a “preference” to preserve the home near where it currently sits by relocating it into the boundaries of the future public park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the end of the day, it’s not just about the house, it’s not just about creating a few plaques to tell the Sakauye story. It’s about our San José story and an American story,” Kamei said from the dais, speaking through tears about the internment orders decades ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really tried not to get emotional, but this is hard because we have many (Asian American and Pacific Islander) communities that have been erased, and we have a chance to do something about this,” Kamei said. “It’s about having the will to preserve a vital piece of history that we can share with future generations …there will be something there, for what was once there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other path the council asked staff to explore would see the home relocated about 10 miles south to History Park, a local nonprofit-run space with a growing collection of original and replica homes, businesses, and once prominent landmarks laid out across a miniature city-like grid to reflect the region’s past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither option is guaranteed to result in the home being saved, and would depend on hundreds of thousands of dollars of funding that could come from the city, nonprofits, residents or other sources to help pay for the relocation and restoration of the home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City parks officials will come back to the council in the coming months with an evaluation of the two options, officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='More South Bay Coverage' tag='south-bay']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The possibility of relocating the home to History Park gained support from Carolyn Sakauye and Jane May, who are the daughters of Eiichi Sakauye and own the land. The sisters’ attorney, Sam Farb, previously wrote to city officials to say they didn’t feel their father’s home was worth saving, but that view has apparently shifted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farb, at the meeting on Tuesday, said the sisters “would strongly be in favor of trying to preserve the family farmhouse offsite,” such as History Park. Carolyn Sakauye and Jane May previously declined to be interviewed by KQED for a story about the land, citing advice from their attorney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City parks officials also raised concerns about the ongoing funding needed to maintain another historical home in a public park, which the city already struggles to do at some other sites. The council just last week \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11999166/tax-to-fix-san-joses-dilapidated-parks-wont-appear-on-november-ballot\">scrapped plans\u003c/a> to put a tax measure on the ballot to address a parks maintenance backlog of over $450 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hanover, for its part, has said it will pay $100,000 to help cover some relocation costs if the city or other organizations can secure a place for the home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Councilmember Bien Doan suggested that Hanover should consider offering “at least double” that amount to help with the preservation effort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s a minimal investment for the history of the Japanese Americans right here in the city of San José,” Doan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other council members suggested that more should be done than putting up plaques or storyboards, but the council did not go as far as to require the developer to preserve the home on the site where it currently sits. No part of the council’s approval of the development is contingent on the ultimate outcome for the historic home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Councilmember Peter Ortiz questioned Scott Youdall, a development partner at Hanover, about how much engagement and outreach the company did to the Japanese American community when the development process began. Youdall said the company only consulted with the Sakauye family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Which does to me send a message that wasn’t front and center of your guys’ minds,” Ortiz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rod Diridon Sr., a longtime former city council member, county supervisor and member of regional boards for transportation, told the council on Tuesday that he supports preserving the home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a beautiful project, and I hope you do approve it. But you’ve got to save the house,” Diridon said. He mentioned that History Park had recent success taking on a \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/05/21/155-year-old-coyote-train-depot-takes-a-road-trip-to-san-jose/\">historic train depot building\u003c/a>, which was donated to the park, and a county grant helped cover relocation costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s got to be a way to protect that house and to do all the things necessary to remind the world what this family went through and what they provided — after they went through it — to society,” Diridon said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Speaking about the generosity of Eiichi Sakauye, Diridon said, “It makes me have goose pimples thinking about how wonderful that quiet, quiet gentleman was.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The Council unanimously approved a development proposal to build nearly 1,500 homes on a historic patch of farmland but encouraged the preservation of a century-old home on the site.",
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"title": "San José Council OKs Development of Historic Japanese American Farm for Housing | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A patch of farmland \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11999500/historic-japanese-american-family-farm-is-about-to-fade-into-much-needed-housing-in-san-jose\">deeply linked to the history of Japanese Americans in Santa Clara County\u003c/a> will be torn up to make way for nearly 1,500 apartments and townhomes, retail spaces and a public park after the San José City Council approved a development proposal on Tuesday night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 22.8-acre parcel has been owned by the Sakauyes — a Japanese American family with a long farming legacy — for roughly 120 continuous years. It survived through racist laws limiting Asian Americans’ rights and immigration, two World Wars and decades of redevelopment following the region’s tech boom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of the Sakauye family, like 120,000 other Japanese Americans, were forcibly interned at concentration camps during World War II. They were only able to keep their land by having a white neighbor safeguard it for them until they returned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family now plans to sell the property to Hanover Company, a Houston-based developer, whose representatives said grading of the site could begin as soon as February 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crops are not the only thing that will be uprooted. A fruit stand business will be forced to shutter when development gets underway. The stand has been run for the last four decades by the Tsukudas, another Japanese American farming family, who lease and farm a portion of the land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while a host of historic structures such as barns and pump houses — including some dating back to the late 19th century and early 20th century — will be leveled to prepare for the development, a century-old home on the site may be spared from the wrecking ball.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a victory for preservationists and history advocates, the city council asked city staff to seriously explore ways to preserve the 1920 home where prominent farmer, civic figure and booster of Japanese American history, Eiichi Edward Sakauye, lived almost his entire life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hanover previously proffered a plan to include historic plaques or storyboards on the park site to tell the story of Eiichi Sakauye, but some preservationists, history advocates and councilmembers said more should be done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thanks in part to an impassioned plea by Vice Mayor Rosemary Kamei, the council’s directions issued Tuesday night include a “preference” to preserve the home near where it currently sits by relocating it into the boundaries of the future public park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the end of the day, it’s not just about the house, it’s not just about creating a few plaques to tell the Sakauye story. It’s about our San José story and an American story,” Kamei said from the dais, speaking through tears about the internment orders decades ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really tried not to get emotional, but this is hard because we have many (Asian American and Pacific Islander) communities that have been erased, and we have a chance to do something about this,” Kamei said. “It’s about having the will to preserve a vital piece of history that we can share with future generations …there will be something there, for what was once there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other path the council asked staff to explore would see the home relocated about 10 miles south to History Park, a local nonprofit-run space with a growing collection of original and replica homes, businesses, and once prominent landmarks laid out across a miniature city-like grid to reflect the region’s past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither option is guaranteed to result in the home being saved, and would depend on hundreds of thousands of dollars of funding that could come from the city, nonprofits, residents or other sources to help pay for the relocation and restoration of the home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City parks officials will come back to the council in the coming months with an evaluation of the two options, officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The possibility of relocating the home to History Park gained support from Carolyn Sakauye and Jane May, who are the daughters of Eiichi Sakauye and own the land. The sisters’ attorney, Sam Farb, previously wrote to city officials to say they didn’t feel their father’s home was worth saving, but that view has apparently shifted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farb, at the meeting on Tuesday, said the sisters “would strongly be in favor of trying to preserve the family farmhouse offsite,” such as History Park. Carolyn Sakauye and Jane May previously declined to be interviewed by KQED for a story about the land, citing advice from their attorney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City parks officials also raised concerns about the ongoing funding needed to maintain another historical home in a public park, which the city already struggles to do at some other sites. The council just last week \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11999166/tax-to-fix-san-joses-dilapidated-parks-wont-appear-on-november-ballot\">scrapped plans\u003c/a> to put a tax measure on the ballot to address a parks maintenance backlog of over $450 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hanover, for its part, has said it will pay $100,000 to help cover some relocation costs if the city or other organizations can secure a place for the home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Councilmember Bien Doan suggested that Hanover should consider offering “at least double” that amount to help with the preservation effort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s a minimal investment for the history of the Japanese Americans right here in the city of San José,” Doan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other council members suggested that more should be done than putting up plaques or storyboards, but the council did not go as far as to require the developer to preserve the home on the site where it currently sits. No part of the council’s approval of the development is contingent on the ultimate outcome for the historic home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Councilmember Peter Ortiz questioned Scott Youdall, a development partner at Hanover, about how much engagement and outreach the company did to the Japanese American community when the development process began. Youdall said the company only consulted with the Sakauye family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Which does to me send a message that wasn’t front and center of your guys’ minds,” Ortiz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rod Diridon Sr., a longtime former city council member, county supervisor and member of regional boards for transportation, told the council on Tuesday that he supports preserving the home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a beautiful project, and I hope you do approve it. But you’ve got to save the house,” Diridon said. He mentioned that History Park had recent success taking on a \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/05/21/155-year-old-coyote-train-depot-takes-a-road-trip-to-san-jose/\">historic train depot building\u003c/a>, which was donated to the park, and a county grant helped cover relocation costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s got to be a way to protect that house and to do all the things necessary to remind the world what this family went through and what they provided — after they went through it — to society,” Diridon said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Speaking about the generosity of Eiichi Sakauye, Diridon said, “It makes me have goose pimples thinking about how wonderful that quiet, quiet gentleman was.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Like single-family homeowners in California, landlords also face higher insurance premiums. And they’re passing along some of those costs to their tenants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many insurance companies have stopped writing policies in the state because of increased wildfire risks, but that’s not the only reason. They say that in the case of any catastrophe, the potential costs of replacing any residential or commercial property, from labor to material costs, are just plain more expensive now. So, even owners of properties in areas that are not at high risk for wildfires have had their policies canceled because their buildings may need repairs or improvements. Landlords are having to find other insurers or having to turn to the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/01/california-fire-insurance-2/\">ever-growing and more expensive FAIR Plan\u003c/a>, the insurance industry-run plan that is mandated under California law to be the insurer of last resort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is where the insurance crisis could worsen the housing crisis, according to some experts. Increased insurance costs for properties other than single-family homes are starting to affect the rental market — in a state where almost half of residents are renters — and could compound the state’s housing problems, they say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Josh Hoover, an insurance broker in the Los Angeles area, handles mostly commercial accounts and said “it’s almost impossible” to find coverage for any large structure. In late 2022, Allstate said it would stop writing new property insurance in the state, including commercial policies. Then State Farm, the biggest insurer in the state, recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article286963825.html\">canceled policies\u003c/a> for tens of thousands of homes, residential community associations, business owners and commercial apartment properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even buildings made in the ’80s are now considered old, which is ridiculous,” Hoover said. “Most carriers want everything updated in the last 30 years. They want a new roof, electrical redone, plumbing redone — they want you to have copper pipes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>For landlords, ‘death by a thousand cuts’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, Farmers canceled the policy on a 33-unit apartment building in San Bernardino that was built in the 1960s, said its co-owner, Uwe Karbenk. Karbenk found an out-of-state insurer instead of going with the more expensive FAIR Plan, but his premium has still increased by $28,000 to more than $41,000 a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Combined with state laws that \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/06/california-rent-control-settlement/\">limit how much he is allowed to raise the rent\u003c/a> each year — 5% plus inflation, or up to 10% in some cases, with \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletter/california-rent-control-propositions/\">possibly other rent-control measures on the way\u003c/a> — Karbenk said being a landlord in California is “a little bit like death by a thousand cuts.” He added that if his profit margin continues to shrink, he would rather invest in something else besides real estate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of these measures, it’s not a big deal,” Karbenk said. “But over the years, it’s really difficult for mom-and-pops.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999968\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999968\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081224_Mike-Placido_JH_CM_02-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081224_Mike-Placido_JH_CM_02-copy.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081224_Mike-Placido_JH_CM_02-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081224_Mike-Placido_JH_CM_02-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081224_Mike-Placido_JH_CM_02-copy-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mike Placido in front of a four-unit rental property that he and his wife own and manage in San Gabriel on Aug. 12, 2024. \u003ccite>(Jules Hotz for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mike Placido and his wife are definitely a mom-and-pop. They own two rental properties, a four-unit building in San Gabriel and a duplex in Alhambra. He said they bought the properties as a way to supplement their retirement income when the time comes in a few years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When State Farm canceled the policy on their San Gabriel property, Placido got a quote from the FAIR Plan for $8,600, much higher than their old $2,600 premium. Instead, he was able to cobble together three different policies from a Florida-based insurer to get the coverage the old policy provided for $6,500, a 150% increase. So he said he plans to raise rents in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not like I’m some land baron,” Placido said. “I’ll pass along as much as I possibly can, as much as the market can bear, and I’ll shoulder the rest. I have no choice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Yet another worry for renters\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>About 44% of Californians are renters, according to the U.S. Census. The median monthly rent in the state is $2,850, a third higher than the national figure, according to online real estate marketer Zillow. About 30% of the state’s renters are considered severely cost-burdened, meaning they spend at least half of their income on housing, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/blog/californias-renters/#:~:text=Renters%20make%20up%20a%20much,over%20the%20last%20six%20decades.\">according to an analysis\u003c/a> by the Public Policy Institute of California. Now, their rents could rise to even more burdensome levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11995878,forum_2010101895350,news_11997351\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shanti Singh, legislative director for statewide renters’ rights organization Tenants Together, said, “It’s still kind of an unknown how common it is” that tenants’ rents are rising along with insurance costs, partly because not all landlords say why they’re raising rents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It depends on the landlords,” Singh said. “Some are transparent; a lot of them aren’t.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Any significant rent increases have not yet shown up in Zillow’s data, which shows California’s median rent is actually down about $100 compared with last year, though it has climbed higher since the beginning of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area, two renters who didn’t want to be named out of fear of retaliation from their landlord said the rents at their live-work complex jumped earlier this year, and the reason was spelled out to them in an email with “insurance costs” in the subject line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh said she fears things will only get worse for renters as the effects of climate change, such as wildfires, continue to weigh on the affordability of insurance and, in turn, housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tenants are going to have the least recourse,” Singh said. They “always end up bearing a disproportionate brunt of what they can afford.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Housing and climate change\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Singh and others who deal with California’s lack of affordable housing expressed concern about whether certain parts of the state will eventually be uninhabitable and uninsurable — whichever comes first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sarah Karlinsky, director of research at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley, said the lack of enough housing within already developed cities means more building “at the fringe of regions, in places that are more dangerous,” also known as the wildland-urban interface, or the WUI, in wildfire speak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we don’t want to continue down this road, we have to fundamentally rethink our development patterns,” Karlinsky added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999969\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999969\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Fresno-Rent-LV_CM_04-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Fresno-Rent-LV_CM_04-copy.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Fresno-Rent-LV_CM_04-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Fresno-Rent-LV_CM_04-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Fresno-Rent-LV_CM_04-copy-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A rental sign in front of an apartment complex in Tower District in Fresno on July 27, 2023. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/Catchlight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Laurie Johnson, an urban planner and former chief catastrophe response and resiliency officer for the California Earthquake Authority, pointed out that some property owners in the state who own their buildings and have no mortgages might choose not to insure their properties because of the rising costs. That’s worrisome, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It feels like we want to keep our multifamily stock insured and don’t want to take the risk of losing it,” Johnson said. Hoover, the insurance broker, agreed and said he has had some clients tell him they plan to forgo insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson added that just as jurisdictions have been requiring seismic retrofitting in case of earthquakes, protection against fires and other catastrophes — and the ability to replace whatever might be lost — is vital: “You would be displacing so many people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The growing risks of climate change make it more important than ever for renters to have their own insurance, said Emily Rogan, senior program officer for United Policyholders, a consumer advocacy group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Renters insurance would cover the costs for tenants to stay “somewhere else as you figure out where to live in case of a severe weather event,” Rogan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Effects on commercial properties and businesses\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Small businesses that rent their space will be affected by their landlords’ rising premiums, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Reed owns a mixed-use commercial property in Oakhurst, outside Yosemite — an area that has seen its share of fires in the past several years. Last year, his fire insurance cost about $2,800, but Berkshire Hathaway canceled his policy. He got three different quotes from the FAIR Plan, with the highest being $24,000. Then, he found a plan from Lloyd’s of London for about $14,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999972\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999972\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081124_Oakhurst-Landlord-TB_CM_14-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081124_Oakhurst-Landlord-TB_CM_14-copy.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081124_Oakhurst-Landlord-TB_CM_14-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081124_Oakhurst-Landlord-TB_CM_14-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081124_Oakhurst-Landlord-TB_CM_14-copy-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The MVP Commercial building. \u003ccite>(Tracy Barbutes for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999971\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999971\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081124_Oakhurst-Landlord-TB_CM_08-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081124_Oakhurst-Landlord-TB_CM_08-copy.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081124_Oakhurst-Landlord-TB_CM_08-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081124_Oakhurst-Landlord-TB_CM_08-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081124_Oakhurst-Landlord-TB_CM_08-copy-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Reed outside of the MVP Commercial building. Oakhurst on Aug. 11, 2024. \u003ccite>(Tracy Barbutes for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Reed said he will have to pass on his increased costs to his six tenants. “As a landlord, I can’t hit them with the whole burden all at once,” he said. “If I’m able to afford it, I will try to spread that out over a two- or three-year period.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, has unveiled a multi-part plan to address the state’s insurance woes, mainly focused on wildfires. For example, insurers will be allowed to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/03/california-home-insurance-market/\">use catastrophe models\u003c/a> if they \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/06/california-pushes-insurers-to-cover-more-homes-in-these-areas-is-your-zip-included/\">agree to write policies in certain areas of the state\u003c/a>. However, the insurance department spokesperson Michael Soller pointed out that Lara also recently announced a deal with the FAIR Plan, which creates a high-value commercial coverage option.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reforms will have broad benefits for the availability of insurance,” Soller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "California landlords see rising insurance costs, so they say they will have to raise rents. But they complain about laws that limit their ability to do so.",
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"title": "Your Rent May Go Up Because of Rising Insurance Rates | KQED",
"description": "California landlords see rising insurance costs, so they say they will have to raise rents. But they complain about laws that limit their ability to do so.",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/levi-sumagaysay/\">Levi Sumagaysay\u003c/a>, CalMatters",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Like single-family homeowners in California, landlords also face higher insurance premiums. And they’re passing along some of those costs to their tenants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many insurance companies have stopped writing policies in the state because of increased wildfire risks, but that’s not the only reason. They say that in the case of any catastrophe, the potential costs of replacing any residential or commercial property, from labor to material costs, are just plain more expensive now. So, even owners of properties in areas that are not at high risk for wildfires have had their policies canceled because their buildings may need repairs or improvements. Landlords are having to find other insurers or having to turn to the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/01/california-fire-insurance-2/\">ever-growing and more expensive FAIR Plan\u003c/a>, the insurance industry-run plan that is mandated under California law to be the insurer of last resort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is where the insurance crisis could worsen the housing crisis, according to some experts. Increased insurance costs for properties other than single-family homes are starting to affect the rental market — in a state where almost half of residents are renters — and could compound the state’s housing problems, they say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Josh Hoover, an insurance broker in the Los Angeles area, handles mostly commercial accounts and said “it’s almost impossible” to find coverage for any large structure. In late 2022, Allstate said it would stop writing new property insurance in the state, including commercial policies. Then State Farm, the biggest insurer in the state, recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article286963825.html\">canceled policies\u003c/a> for tens of thousands of homes, residential community associations, business owners and commercial apartment properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even buildings made in the ’80s are now considered old, which is ridiculous,” Hoover said. “Most carriers want everything updated in the last 30 years. They want a new roof, electrical redone, plumbing redone — they want you to have copper pipes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>For landlords, ‘death by a thousand cuts’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, Farmers canceled the policy on a 33-unit apartment building in San Bernardino that was built in the 1960s, said its co-owner, Uwe Karbenk. Karbenk found an out-of-state insurer instead of going with the more expensive FAIR Plan, but his premium has still increased by $28,000 to more than $41,000 a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Combined with state laws that \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/06/california-rent-control-settlement/\">limit how much he is allowed to raise the rent\u003c/a> each year — 5% plus inflation, or up to 10% in some cases, with \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletter/california-rent-control-propositions/\">possibly other rent-control measures on the way\u003c/a> — Karbenk said being a landlord in California is “a little bit like death by a thousand cuts.” He added that if his profit margin continues to shrink, he would rather invest in something else besides real estate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of these measures, it’s not a big deal,” Karbenk said. “But over the years, it’s really difficult for mom-and-pops.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999968\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999968\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081224_Mike-Placido_JH_CM_02-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081224_Mike-Placido_JH_CM_02-copy.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081224_Mike-Placido_JH_CM_02-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081224_Mike-Placido_JH_CM_02-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081224_Mike-Placido_JH_CM_02-copy-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mike Placido in front of a four-unit rental property that he and his wife own and manage in San Gabriel on Aug. 12, 2024. \u003ccite>(Jules Hotz for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mike Placido and his wife are definitely a mom-and-pop. They own two rental properties, a four-unit building in San Gabriel and a duplex in Alhambra. He said they bought the properties as a way to supplement their retirement income when the time comes in a few years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When State Farm canceled the policy on their San Gabriel property, Placido got a quote from the FAIR Plan for $8,600, much higher than their old $2,600 premium. Instead, he was able to cobble together three different policies from a Florida-based insurer to get the coverage the old policy provided for $6,500, a 150% increase. So he said he plans to raise rents in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not like I’m some land baron,” Placido said. “I’ll pass along as much as I possibly can, as much as the market can bear, and I’ll shoulder the rest. I have no choice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Yet another worry for renters\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>About 44% of Californians are renters, according to the U.S. Census. The median monthly rent in the state is $2,850, a third higher than the national figure, according to online real estate marketer Zillow. About 30% of the state’s renters are considered severely cost-burdened, meaning they spend at least half of their income on housing, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/blog/californias-renters/#:~:text=Renters%20make%20up%20a%20much,over%20the%20last%20six%20decades.\">according to an analysis\u003c/a> by the Public Policy Institute of California. Now, their rents could rise to even more burdensome levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shanti Singh, legislative director for statewide renters’ rights organization Tenants Together, said, “It’s still kind of an unknown how common it is” that tenants’ rents are rising along with insurance costs, partly because not all landlords say why they’re raising rents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It depends on the landlords,” Singh said. “Some are transparent; a lot of them aren’t.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Any significant rent increases have not yet shown up in Zillow’s data, which shows California’s median rent is actually down about $100 compared with last year, though it has climbed higher since the beginning of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area, two renters who didn’t want to be named out of fear of retaliation from their landlord said the rents at their live-work complex jumped earlier this year, and the reason was spelled out to them in an email with “insurance costs” in the subject line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh said she fears things will only get worse for renters as the effects of climate change, such as wildfires, continue to weigh on the affordability of insurance and, in turn, housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tenants are going to have the least recourse,” Singh said. They “always end up bearing a disproportionate brunt of what they can afford.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Housing and climate change\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Singh and others who deal with California’s lack of affordable housing expressed concern about whether certain parts of the state will eventually be uninhabitable and uninsurable — whichever comes first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sarah Karlinsky, director of research at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley, said the lack of enough housing within already developed cities means more building “at the fringe of regions, in places that are more dangerous,” also known as the wildland-urban interface, or the WUI, in wildfire speak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we don’t want to continue down this road, we have to fundamentally rethink our development patterns,” Karlinsky added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999969\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999969\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Fresno-Rent-LV_CM_04-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Fresno-Rent-LV_CM_04-copy.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Fresno-Rent-LV_CM_04-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Fresno-Rent-LV_CM_04-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Fresno-Rent-LV_CM_04-copy-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A rental sign in front of an apartment complex in Tower District in Fresno on July 27, 2023. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/Catchlight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Laurie Johnson, an urban planner and former chief catastrophe response and resiliency officer for the California Earthquake Authority, pointed out that some property owners in the state who own their buildings and have no mortgages might choose not to insure their properties because of the rising costs. That’s worrisome, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It feels like we want to keep our multifamily stock insured and don’t want to take the risk of losing it,” Johnson said. Hoover, the insurance broker, agreed and said he has had some clients tell him they plan to forgo insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Johnson added that just as jurisdictions have been requiring seismic retrofitting in case of earthquakes, protection against fires and other catastrophes — and the ability to replace whatever might be lost — is vital: “You would be displacing so many people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The growing risks of climate change make it more important than ever for renters to have their own insurance, said Emily Rogan, senior program officer for United Policyholders, a consumer advocacy group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Renters insurance would cover the costs for tenants to stay “somewhere else as you figure out where to live in case of a severe weather event,” Rogan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Effects on commercial properties and businesses\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Small businesses that rent their space will be affected by their landlords’ rising premiums, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Reed owns a mixed-use commercial property in Oakhurst, outside Yosemite — an area that has seen its share of fires in the past several years. Last year, his fire insurance cost about $2,800, but Berkshire Hathaway canceled his policy. He got three different quotes from the FAIR Plan, with the highest being $24,000. Then, he found a plan from Lloyd’s of London for about $14,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999972\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999972\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081124_Oakhurst-Landlord-TB_CM_14-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081124_Oakhurst-Landlord-TB_CM_14-copy.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081124_Oakhurst-Landlord-TB_CM_14-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081124_Oakhurst-Landlord-TB_CM_14-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081124_Oakhurst-Landlord-TB_CM_14-copy-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The MVP Commercial building. \u003ccite>(Tracy Barbutes for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999971\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999971\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081124_Oakhurst-Landlord-TB_CM_08-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1536\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081124_Oakhurst-Landlord-TB_CM_08-copy.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081124_Oakhurst-Landlord-TB_CM_08-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081124_Oakhurst-Landlord-TB_CM_08-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/081124_Oakhurst-Landlord-TB_CM_08-copy-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1536px) 100vw, 1536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Reed outside of the MVP Commercial building. Oakhurst on Aug. 11, 2024. \u003ccite>(Tracy Barbutes for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Reed said he will have to pass on his increased costs to his six tenants. “As a landlord, I can’t hit them with the whole burden all at once,” he said. “If I’m able to afford it, I will try to spread that out over a two- or three-year period.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, has unveiled a multi-part plan to address the state’s insurance woes, mainly focused on wildfires. For example, insurers will be allowed to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/03/california-home-insurance-market/\">use catastrophe models\u003c/a> if they \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/06/california-pushes-insurers-to-cover-more-homes-in-these-areas-is-your-zip-included/\">agree to write policies in certain areas of the state\u003c/a>. However, the insurance department spokesperson Michael Soller pointed out that Lara also recently announced a deal with the FAIR Plan, which creates a high-value commercial coverage option.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reforms will have broad benefits for the availability of insurance,” Soller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "we-gotta-be-somewhere-unhoused-californians-react-to-newsoms-crackdown",
"title": "'We Gotta Be Somewhere': Unhoused Californians React to Newsom's Crackdown",
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"headTitle": "‘We Gotta Be Somewhere’: Unhoused Californians React to Newsom’s Crackdown | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]G[/dropcap]ov. Gavin Newsom’s message on homelessness in recent weeks has been clear: The state will no longer tolerate encampments, and cities shouldn’t either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Californians who live on the streets, as well as the outreach workers who support them, say they’re already feeling the difference. Places, where someone used to be able to pitch a tent and sleep in peace, have suddenly become inhospitable. Police seem to be clearing camps more often and more aggressively and are less likely to give advance notice before they come in with bulldozers and trash compactors, according to anecdotal reports in some cities. Even in cities where officials said publicly nothing would change, unhoused people and activists say it’s become harder to live without a home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the shift, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997352/newsom-orders-state-agencies-to-dismantle-homeless-encampments-across-california\">sparked by a Supreme Court ruling\u003c/a> and then further fueled by an executive order, hasn’t caused a significant increase in shelter beds or affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s led people on the streets to ask: Where are we supposed to go?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We gotta be somewhere,” said Tré Watson, who lives in a tent in Santa Cruz and said unhoused people are running out of places to go. “We can’t hover. We come here; they run us away. We go to any park and they run us away. We go to the Pogonip (nature preserve), and they bring bulldozers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999893\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1916px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999893\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/TreWatson.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1916\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/TreWatson.png 1916w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/TreWatson-800x534.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/TreWatson-1020x680.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/TreWatson-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/TreWatson-1536x1025.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1916px) 100vw, 1916px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tré Watson stands outside the Housing Matters shelter in Santa Cruz on Aug. 7. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Californians experiencing homelessness and activists from San Diego to Sacramento told CalMatters that enforcement has become more frequent and more aggressive. Some city leaders have made their intentions to ramp up enforcement explicitly clear. The Fresno City Council recently passed an ordinance, which, if it gets final approval later this month, will make it illegal to camp on public property at all times. San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the city will launch a “very aggressive” crackdown, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/mayor-breed-says-aggressive-sweep-of-sf-19582134.php\">according to the\u003cem> San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others have said they won’t \u003cspan style=\"margin: 0px;padding: 0px\">change their encampment strategies. the \u003cem>Los Angeles\u003c/em> \u003cem>Times\u003c/em> reported that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors last month reaffirmed that the county won’t use its jails to hold unhoused people arrested for camping. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has also \u003c/span>been critical of criminalizing public camping.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Newsom pushes for a crackdown on encampments\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Homelessness has been a defining obstacle of Newsom’s career ever since he was mayor of San Francisco in the early 2000s. And it’s only become more pressing — California’s estimated unhoused population has swelled to more than 181,000, at the same time, Newsom is widely rumored to have \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2024/07/gavin-newsom-biden-democrats/\">presidential ambitions\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this summer, the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/06/california-homeless-camps-grants-pass-ruling/\">handed cities a new cudgel\u003c/a> to crack down on the encampments that proliferate across California’s parks, sidewalks and open spaces. Per the Grants Pass v. Johnson ruling, law enforcement can now cite or arrest people for sleeping on public property — even if there are no shelter beds available to them. That’s a major change from prior legal precedent, which said it was unconstitutional to punish someone for sleeping outside if they had nowhere else to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999895\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1914px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999895\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Sidewalk.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1914\" height=\"1276\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Sidewalk.png 1914w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Sidewalk-800x533.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Sidewalk-1020x680.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Sidewalk-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Sidewalk-1536x1024.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1914px) 100vw, 1914px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Roberta Titus, 67, sits outside a juice shop on Front Street in Santa Cruz on Aug. 7. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A month later, Newsom responded with an executive order directing state agencies to ramp up enforcement against encampments and encouraging cities to do the same. The order didn’t technically require cities to act, but last week, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11999607/newsom-vows-to-take-away-funding-from-cities-and-counties-for-not-clearing-encampments\">Newsom made it clear there will be consequences\u003c/a> for cities that don’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If he doesn’t see results in the next few months, and if he doesn’t feel local leaders are acting with a “sense of urgency,” he’ll start redirecting their funding, Newsom said during a news conference outside a homeless encampment in Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re done with the excuses,” he said. “And the last big excuse was, ‘Well, the courts are saying we can’t do anything.’ Well, that’s no longer the case. So we had a simple executive order: Do your job. There’s no more excuses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state agencies that will be most immediately affected by Newsom’s order — Caltrans, California State Parks and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife — did not answer questions requesting details about how the executive order will change how they clear encampments on their property, nor did they provide data on their prior abatement efforts. State Parks referred questions to the governor’s office, which did not respond.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What it’s like for unhoused Californians\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In Santa Cruz, enforcement has become particularly “brutal” in recent weeks, said Keith McHenry, an activist who hands out food and other supplies to homeless communities through his organization Food Not Bombs. Though, as in many cities, it’s hard to tell how much of the change is a direct result of the Supreme Court decision and executive order. The tide was already shifting toward enforcement before the justices ruled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, Santa Cruz pushed between 30 and 40 people out of a major encampment in a community park, according to the city. Many of the people displaced from the park then set up tents on Coral Street, outside the local homeless shelter, McHenry said. The city cleared that camp in June. After those sweeps, some people relocated to the Pogonip nature preserve at the edge of the city. Late last month, the city swept the nature preserve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city said just five people were removed from the Pogonip in that sweep, but McHenry suspects it was more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city said its strategy for dealing with homeless camps hasn’t changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The City’s current practices have proven effective and are already consistent with Governor Newsom’s suggested encampment-related policies for local governments contained in his recent executive order,” city spokesperson Erika Smart said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999897\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1912px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999897\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Spraq.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1912\" height=\"1272\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Spraq.png 1912w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Spraq-800x532.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Spraq-1020x679.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Spraq-160x106.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Spraq-1536x1022.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1912px) 100vw, 1912px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Spraq, 46, stays with his dogs and a partner in a small camp outside the Housing Matter shelter in Santa Cruz. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On a recent Wednesday morning, a man who goes by the nickname Spraq was packing his belongings onto a bike trailer, preparing for the sweep he thought might come later that day on Coral Street. Spraq, who ended up on the streets after the truck he was living in got repossessed about 10 years ago, was camping in the park until police kicked everyone out. He and his ex-girlfriend moved to a nearby street, and two days later, police found them, threw away his ex’s clothes and other possessions, and forced them to move on, Spraq said. So they moved into a parking spot on the street outside Costco – a place where they’d camped without issue many times before, he said. Again, police found them, said they couldn’t be there, and threw away their belongings, Spraq said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They kept doing that until we had nothing,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999900\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1912px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999900\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/EncampmentSantaCruz.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1912\" height=\"1276\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/EncampmentSantaCruz.png 1912w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/EncampmentSantaCruz-800x534.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/EncampmentSantaCruz-1020x681.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/EncampmentSantaCruz-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/EncampmentSantaCruz-1536x1025.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1912px) 100vw, 1912px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A group of unhoused people camp outside the Housing Matters shelter in Santa Cruz on Aug. 7. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Combined, McHenry said the recent sweeps mark the biggest push to dismantle encampments that he’s seen in Santa Cruz in years. Before, he said, people would relocate after a sweep and the city would generally leave them alone for a while. This time, police have been coming back regularly to spots like Coral Street to make sure people don’t return, he said. The city recently erected a chain-link fence and orange plastic barricades along the sidewalk to deter campers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s just a full-court press to keep people from being settled anywhere,” McHenry said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cities respond to Newsom’s push for a crackdown\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Enforcement seems to be ramping up along the bank of the San Diego River, where about 300 people live in tents and make-shift shacks — many of whom ended up there after police kicked them out of other camps closer to town, said Kendall Burdett, an outreach worker with the nonprofit PATH. Lately, the authorities have been clearing camps along the river multiple times per week, Burdett said. Before Newsom’s executive order, sweeps happened closer to a few times a month, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The riverbank includes land controlled by Caltrans and by the city, and it’s not always clear who is sweeping camps, Burdett said. But he said he’s noticing the authorities are less likely to give advance notice before sweeping, leaving him and his co-workers scrambling to help their clients. That’s making it harder to get people into housing, Burdett said. People often lose their identifying documents in sweeps — which they need to get into subsidized housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That sets the whole thing back,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other times, Burdett can’t find clients after they’re swept. As a result, sometimes clients end up losing their housing placements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Diego already had been ramping up enforcement, passing an \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2024/04/homeless-encampment-ban/\">ordinance banning encampments\u003c/a> in certain areas last year. But the city said recent developments have changed nothing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There has been no change or move to increase abatements after the Supreme Court decision or following Newsom’s executive order,” city spokesperson Matt Hoffman said. “It’s just business as usual as of now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='homelessness']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, where Mayor Breed promised an aggressive crackdown following the court ruling, the city removed 82 tents and five other structures from the streets the week of July 29 through Aug. 2. Abatement teams engaged with 326 people during those operations — 38 of whom accepted a shelter bed — and arrested or cited nine people, according to the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other cities are passing or considering new, more punitive rules as a result of Newsom’s executive order. In Fresno, the City Council granted preliminary approval last month to an ordinance that would ban camping on public property at all times, the Fresno Bee \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article290535239.html\">reported\u003c/a>. Fresno County approved a similar measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/kevinjlincoln/status/1816551503617736817/photo/2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said on social media site X that\u003c/a> the city must “move urgently” to ensure public safety while also supporting those in need. He made plans for a public study session later this month to discuss how the city will enforce anti-camping ordinances going forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Sacramento, the city distributes fliers to educate its unhoused residents about the changes under the Supreme Court ruling. The light-blue notices, titled “Attention: Unlawful Camping,” warn that people can be charged with a misdemeanor for camping on public property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re forcing someone under threat of arrest to pack up and move all their belongings,” said Niki Jones, executive director of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness. “And people’s bodies literally can’t handle the physical stress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Where do we go?’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While Newsom has provided an influx of money for shelter beds and other services in recent years — including $1 billion in this year’s budget for Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention funds that cities and counties can spend as they see fit — his recent executive order comes with no additional funding. Last year, California cities and counties reported having roughly 71,000 shelter beds. They’d need more than twice that to accommodate every unhoused Californian.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Folks are rightly asking, ‘Where do we go?’” Jones said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even when shelter beds are available, sweeps often fail to fill them. Santa Cruz, for example, estimates between 30 and 40 people were living in the park encampment it swept in April. Just 16 of those people accepted a shelter placement. No one kicked out of the nature preserve accepted shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999902\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1916px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999902\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Ross.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1916\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Ross.png 1916w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Ross-800x534.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Ross-1020x680.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Ross-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Ross-1536x1025.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1916px) 100vw, 1916px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stephanie Ross, 49, has been unhoused in Santa Cruz and receives help from local activists. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>People living on the streets of Santa Cruz say police often tell them to go to a sanctioned encampment on the National Guard Armory property — where residents sleep in tents and get meals and showers. But many people won’t even consider it. Several unhoused people CalMatters spoke to said they didn’t want to live somewhere with strict rules and a curfew.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stephanie Ross, who has been living on the streets of Santa Cruz for seven months, recently lost everything in a sweep. All she had left was the outfit she was wearing — a dinosaur-print dress, pants covered in pink flowers and a sweater she found on the ground. On Wednesday, she met up with McHenry to pick up a new tent to replace the one she said was confiscated by police a few days ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ross said she can’t concentrate on finding a job or doing anything else because she’s constantly worried about hiding her blankets and other possessions from the police. Even so, she worries she’d chafe under the rules of the Armory tent shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I need a little bit more freedom than that,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Demarr Clark, 42, said no one offered him a bed when police recently kicked him out of his camp on the sidewalk outside the Santa Cruz shelter. He lost everything he owned, including his tent, he said. Afterward, Clark moved across the street with a new tent gifted to him by a friend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clark grew up in Santa Cruz, and the city always seemed like a place where you could find somewhere out of the way to camp, he said. But that’s changing, he said. “It just seems like they have no tolerance for it anymore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>CalMatters originally published this \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>article\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">G\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>ov. Gavin Newsom’s message on homelessness in recent weeks has been clear: The state will no longer tolerate encampments, and cities shouldn’t either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Californians who live on the streets, as well as the outreach workers who support them, say they’re already feeling the difference. Places, where someone used to be able to pitch a tent and sleep in peace, have suddenly become inhospitable. Police seem to be clearing camps more often and more aggressively and are less likely to give advance notice before they come in with bulldozers and trash compactors, according to anecdotal reports in some cities. Even in cities where officials said publicly nothing would change, unhoused people and activists say it’s become harder to live without a home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the shift, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997352/newsom-orders-state-agencies-to-dismantle-homeless-encampments-across-california\">sparked by a Supreme Court ruling\u003c/a> and then further fueled by an executive order, hasn’t caused a significant increase in shelter beds or affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s led people on the streets to ask: Where are we supposed to go?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We gotta be somewhere,” said Tré Watson, who lives in a tent in Santa Cruz and said unhoused people are running out of places to go. “We can’t hover. We come here; they run us away. We go to any park and they run us away. We go to the Pogonip (nature preserve), and they bring bulldozers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999893\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1916px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999893\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/TreWatson.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1916\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/TreWatson.png 1916w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/TreWatson-800x534.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/TreWatson-1020x680.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/TreWatson-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/TreWatson-1536x1025.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1916px) 100vw, 1916px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tré Watson stands outside the Housing Matters shelter in Santa Cruz on Aug. 7. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Californians experiencing homelessness and activists from San Diego to Sacramento told CalMatters that enforcement has become more frequent and more aggressive. Some city leaders have made their intentions to ramp up enforcement explicitly clear. The Fresno City Council recently passed an ordinance, which, if it gets final approval later this month, will make it illegal to camp on public property at all times. San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the city will launch a “very aggressive” crackdown, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/mayor-breed-says-aggressive-sweep-of-sf-19582134.php\">according to the\u003cem> San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others have said they won’t \u003cspan style=\"margin: 0px;padding: 0px\">change their encampment strategies. the \u003cem>Los Angeles\u003c/em> \u003cem>Times\u003c/em> reported that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors last month reaffirmed that the county won’t use its jails to hold unhoused people arrested for camping. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has also \u003c/span>been critical of criminalizing public camping.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Newsom pushes for a crackdown on encampments\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Homelessness has been a defining obstacle of Newsom’s career ever since he was mayor of San Francisco in the early 2000s. And it’s only become more pressing — California’s estimated unhoused population has swelled to more than 181,000, at the same time, Newsom is widely rumored to have \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2024/07/gavin-newsom-biden-democrats/\">presidential ambitions\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this summer, the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/06/california-homeless-camps-grants-pass-ruling/\">handed cities a new cudgel\u003c/a> to crack down on the encampments that proliferate across California’s parks, sidewalks and open spaces. Per the Grants Pass v. Johnson ruling, law enforcement can now cite or arrest people for sleeping on public property — even if there are no shelter beds available to them. That’s a major change from prior legal precedent, which said it was unconstitutional to punish someone for sleeping outside if they had nowhere else to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999895\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1914px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999895\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Sidewalk.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1914\" height=\"1276\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Sidewalk.png 1914w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Sidewalk-800x533.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Sidewalk-1020x680.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Sidewalk-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Sidewalk-1536x1024.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1914px) 100vw, 1914px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Roberta Titus, 67, sits outside a juice shop on Front Street in Santa Cruz on Aug. 7. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A month later, Newsom responded with an executive order directing state agencies to ramp up enforcement against encampments and encouraging cities to do the same. The order didn’t technically require cities to act, but last week, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11999607/newsom-vows-to-take-away-funding-from-cities-and-counties-for-not-clearing-encampments\">Newsom made it clear there will be consequences\u003c/a> for cities that don’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If he doesn’t see results in the next few months, and if he doesn’t feel local leaders are acting with a “sense of urgency,” he’ll start redirecting their funding, Newsom said during a news conference outside a homeless encampment in Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re done with the excuses,” he said. “And the last big excuse was, ‘Well, the courts are saying we can’t do anything.’ Well, that’s no longer the case. So we had a simple executive order: Do your job. There’s no more excuses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state agencies that will be most immediately affected by Newsom’s order — Caltrans, California State Parks and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife — did not answer questions requesting details about how the executive order will change how they clear encampments on their property, nor did they provide data on their prior abatement efforts. State Parks referred questions to the governor’s office, which did not respond.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What it’s like for unhoused Californians\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In Santa Cruz, enforcement has become particularly “brutal” in recent weeks, said Keith McHenry, an activist who hands out food and other supplies to homeless communities through his organization Food Not Bombs. Though, as in many cities, it’s hard to tell how much of the change is a direct result of the Supreme Court decision and executive order. The tide was already shifting toward enforcement before the justices ruled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, Santa Cruz pushed between 30 and 40 people out of a major encampment in a community park, according to the city. Many of the people displaced from the park then set up tents on Coral Street, outside the local homeless shelter, McHenry said. The city cleared that camp in June. After those sweeps, some people relocated to the Pogonip nature preserve at the edge of the city. Late last month, the city swept the nature preserve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city said just five people were removed from the Pogonip in that sweep, but McHenry suspects it was more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city said its strategy for dealing with homeless camps hasn’t changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The City’s current practices have proven effective and are already consistent with Governor Newsom’s suggested encampment-related policies for local governments contained in his recent executive order,” city spokesperson Erika Smart said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999897\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1912px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999897\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Spraq.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1912\" height=\"1272\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Spraq.png 1912w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Spraq-800x532.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Spraq-1020x679.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Spraq-160x106.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Spraq-1536x1022.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1912px) 100vw, 1912px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Spraq, 46, stays with his dogs and a partner in a small camp outside the Housing Matter shelter in Santa Cruz. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On a recent Wednesday morning, a man who goes by the nickname Spraq was packing his belongings onto a bike trailer, preparing for the sweep he thought might come later that day on Coral Street. Spraq, who ended up on the streets after the truck he was living in got repossessed about 10 years ago, was camping in the park until police kicked everyone out. He and his ex-girlfriend moved to a nearby street, and two days later, police found them, threw away his ex’s clothes and other possessions, and forced them to move on, Spraq said. So they moved into a parking spot on the street outside Costco – a place where they’d camped without issue many times before, he said. Again, police found them, said they couldn’t be there, and threw away their belongings, Spraq said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They kept doing that until we had nothing,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999900\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1912px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999900\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/EncampmentSantaCruz.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1912\" height=\"1276\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/EncampmentSantaCruz.png 1912w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/EncampmentSantaCruz-800x534.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/EncampmentSantaCruz-1020x681.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/EncampmentSantaCruz-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/EncampmentSantaCruz-1536x1025.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1912px) 100vw, 1912px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A group of unhoused people camp outside the Housing Matters shelter in Santa Cruz on Aug. 7. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Combined, McHenry said the recent sweeps mark the biggest push to dismantle encampments that he’s seen in Santa Cruz in years. Before, he said, people would relocate after a sweep and the city would generally leave them alone for a while. This time, police have been coming back regularly to spots like Coral Street to make sure people don’t return, he said. The city recently erected a chain-link fence and orange plastic barricades along the sidewalk to deter campers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s just a full-court press to keep people from being settled anywhere,” McHenry said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cities respond to Newsom’s push for a crackdown\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Enforcement seems to be ramping up along the bank of the San Diego River, where about 300 people live in tents and make-shift shacks — many of whom ended up there after police kicked them out of other camps closer to town, said Kendall Burdett, an outreach worker with the nonprofit PATH. Lately, the authorities have been clearing camps along the river multiple times per week, Burdett said. Before Newsom’s executive order, sweeps happened closer to a few times a month, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The riverbank includes land controlled by Caltrans and by the city, and it’s not always clear who is sweeping camps, Burdett said. But he said he’s noticing the authorities are less likely to give advance notice before sweeping, leaving him and his co-workers scrambling to help their clients. That’s making it harder to get people into housing, Burdett said. People often lose their identifying documents in sweeps — which they need to get into subsidized housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That sets the whole thing back,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other times, Burdett can’t find clients after they’re swept. As a result, sometimes clients end up losing their housing placements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Diego already had been ramping up enforcement, passing an \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2024/04/homeless-encampment-ban/\">ordinance banning encampments\u003c/a> in certain areas last year. But the city said recent developments have changed nothing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There has been no change or move to increase abatements after the Supreme Court decision or following Newsom’s executive order,” city spokesperson Matt Hoffman said. “It’s just business as usual as of now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, where Mayor Breed promised an aggressive crackdown following the court ruling, the city removed 82 tents and five other structures from the streets the week of July 29 through Aug. 2. Abatement teams engaged with 326 people during those operations — 38 of whom accepted a shelter bed — and arrested or cited nine people, according to the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other cities are passing or considering new, more punitive rules as a result of Newsom’s executive order. In Fresno, the City Council granted preliminary approval last month to an ordinance that would ban camping on public property at all times, the Fresno Bee \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article290535239.html\">reported\u003c/a>. Fresno County approved a similar measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/kevinjlincoln/status/1816551503617736817/photo/2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said on social media site X that\u003c/a> the city must “move urgently” to ensure public safety while also supporting those in need. He made plans for a public study session later this month to discuss how the city will enforce anti-camping ordinances going forward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Sacramento, the city distributes fliers to educate its unhoused residents about the changes under the Supreme Court ruling. The light-blue notices, titled “Attention: Unlawful Camping,” warn that people can be charged with a misdemeanor for camping on public property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re forcing someone under threat of arrest to pack up and move all their belongings,” said Niki Jones, executive director of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness. “And people’s bodies literally can’t handle the physical stress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Where do we go?’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While Newsom has provided an influx of money for shelter beds and other services in recent years — including $1 billion in this year’s budget for Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention funds that cities and counties can spend as they see fit — his recent executive order comes with no additional funding. Last year, California cities and counties reported having roughly 71,000 shelter beds. They’d need more than twice that to accommodate every unhoused Californian.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Folks are rightly asking, ‘Where do we go?’” Jones said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even when shelter beds are available, sweeps often fail to fill them. Santa Cruz, for example, estimates between 30 and 40 people were living in the park encampment it swept in April. Just 16 of those people accepted a shelter placement. No one kicked out of the nature preserve accepted shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999902\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1916px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999902\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Ross.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1916\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Ross.png 1916w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Ross-800x534.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Ross-1020x680.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Ross-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Ross-1536x1025.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1916px) 100vw, 1916px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stephanie Ross, 49, has been unhoused in Santa Cruz and receives help from local activists. \u003ccite>(Manuel Orbegozo/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>People living on the streets of Santa Cruz say police often tell them to go to a sanctioned encampment on the National Guard Armory property — where residents sleep in tents and get meals and showers. But many people won’t even consider it. Several unhoused people CalMatters spoke to said they didn’t want to live somewhere with strict rules and a curfew.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stephanie Ross, who has been living on the streets of Santa Cruz for seven months, recently lost everything in a sweep. All she had left was the outfit she was wearing — a dinosaur-print dress, pants covered in pink flowers and a sweater she found on the ground. On Wednesday, she met up with McHenry to pick up a new tent to replace the one she said was confiscated by police a few days ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ross said she can’t concentrate on finding a job or doing anything else because she’s constantly worried about hiding her blankets and other possessions from the police. Even so, she worries she’d chafe under the rules of the Armory tent shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I need a little bit more freedom than that,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Demarr Clark, 42, said no one offered him a bed when police recently kicked him out of his camp on the sidewalk outside the Santa Cruz shelter. He lost everything he owned, including his tent, he said. Afterward, Clark moved across the street with a new tent gifted to him by a friend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clark grew up in Santa Cruz, and the city always seemed like a place where you could find somewhere out of the way to camp, he said. But that’s changing, he said. “It just seems like they have no tolerance for it anymore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>CalMatters originally published this \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>article\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "sf-sues-man-for-illegally-packing-3-bedroom-home-highlights-desperate-housing-need",
"title": "SF Sues Man for Illegally Packing 3-Bedroom Home, Highlights Desperate Housing Need",
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"headTitle": "SF Sues Man for Illegally Packing 3-Bedroom Home, Highlights Desperate Housing Need | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>One Bayview house has been the subject of a decade of complaints from multiple city departments — black mold and mildew lining the bedroom baseboards and bathroom, mice droppings littering the property and a rotting floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite citations for unsafe conditions, the owner has been raking in almost $10,000 a month by renting the three-bedroom home to 15 people, including three minors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, City Attorney David Chiu announced that his office had filed a lawsuit against Rafael Garcia Sanchez, who owns the single-family house at 1465 Oakdale Ave. that was illegally divided into five units. Sanchez is accused of violating state housing law, profiting from people living in unsafe conditions and “endangering the health and safety of the tenants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Housing policy experts say this isn’t a one-off situation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area, the rate of new housing production hasn’t kept up with population growth. The median rental asking price \u003ca href=\"https://default.sfplanning.org/publications_reports/Housing-Needs-and-Trends-Report-2018.pdf\">increased 50% in San Francisco\u003c/a> and 30% overall in the region between 2012 and 2015. The lack of space and affordable options has made some people desperate to hang on to whatever housing they can get, according to Sarah Karlinsky, the research director at UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Kind of liken it to a game of musical chairs,” she told KQED. “The chairs keep getting taken away, but you still have the same number of players. Those remaining chairs become very coveted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999682\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999682\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/025_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/025_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/025_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/025_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/025_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/025_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/025_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A “For Rent” sign hangs in the window of an apartment building in Nob Hill in San Francisco on July 29, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>People are crammed into housing units, pay more of their wages toward rent than is reasonable or live in homes where the conditions are less than acceptable because it’s all they can afford, according to Karlinsky, who previously worked for the nonprofit policy organization SPUR. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.spur.org/sites/default/files/2021-05/SPUR_What_It_Will_Really_Take_To_Create_An_Affordable_Bay_Area_Report.pdf\">study\u003c/a> published by the think tank in 2021 showed that the Bay Area needed to build a little over 1 million housing units over the previous two decades to keep up with population demand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only 358,500 units were added at that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you underbuild for decade after decade after decade, but you continue to add jobs, you end up with a chronic housing shortage,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 2010 and 2019, the incidence of overcrowding, which is defined as more than one person per room in a home, increased almost 1%, another SPUR \u003ca href=\"https://www.spur.org/sites/default/files/2023-03/SPUR_Losing_Ground_0.pdf\">study\u003c/a> found. According to the U.S. Census Bureau data, there were 362,354 households in San Francisco in 2019, meaning roughly 14,856 households were considered severely overcrowded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[aside postID=news_11998121 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240403-AARONPESKIN-003-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2014, an executive summary from the city planning department estimated that there were between 30,000 and 50,000 illegal additional units. While the city now has legislation that allows people to legalize some previously unauthorized ADUs, there are still homes where too many people live or homes that aren’t up to code, like the one Sanchez allegedly rented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Muhammad Alameldin, an associate professor at the Terner Center, said that units with poor conditions are often the last line of defense for people at risk of becoming unhoused or having to move out of the region where they work and have built their lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To be in a situation where you have to split up existing houses into multiple units for multiple families means that we have not built enough housing for everyone in this county, and people are being forced into desperate situations because of that,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Karlinsky said it doesn’t have to be this way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In November, voters will decide on a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11992046/20-billion-affordable-housing-bond-heads-to-bay-area-voters\">$20 billion affordable housing bond\u003c/a> put on the ballot by the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority. If passed, the funds would be used to build or preserve at least 70,000 affordable housing units, almost half of which would be reserved for very low-income households in the nine Bay Area counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also said municipalities could change zoning laws to allow for more apartments, especially in suburban areas near transit. Additionally, more small and mid-size apartments could be built in single-family neighborhoods. Legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021 allows homeowners to divide a single-family lot into as many as four units in some cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Karlinsky said if done many times, these conversions could contribute substantially to the housing supply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are many policy levers that can be pulled to help the region and the state kind of get out of this situation and enable people to live in safe, decent, affordable housing,” she told KQED. “It’s just really a matter of political will to make those things happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "San Francisco’s city attorney filed a lawsuit against a homeowner for illegally converting a single-family house into five unsafe units. Experts say this isn’t an isolated case. ",
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"title": "SF Sues Man for Illegally Packing 3-Bedroom Home, Highlights Desperate Housing Need | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>One Bayview house has been the subject of a decade of complaints from multiple city departments — black mold and mildew lining the bedroom baseboards and bathroom, mice droppings littering the property and a rotting floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite citations for unsafe conditions, the owner has been raking in almost $10,000 a month by renting the three-bedroom home to 15 people, including three minors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, City Attorney David Chiu announced that his office had filed a lawsuit against Rafael Garcia Sanchez, who owns the single-family house at 1465 Oakdale Ave. that was illegally divided into five units. Sanchez is accused of violating state housing law, profiting from people living in unsafe conditions and “endangering the health and safety of the tenants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Housing policy experts say this isn’t a one-off situation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area, the rate of new housing production hasn’t kept up with population growth. The median rental asking price \u003ca href=\"https://default.sfplanning.org/publications_reports/Housing-Needs-and-Trends-Report-2018.pdf\">increased 50% in San Francisco\u003c/a> and 30% overall in the region between 2012 and 2015. The lack of space and affordable options has made some people desperate to hang on to whatever housing they can get, according to Sarah Karlinsky, the research director at UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Kind of liken it to a game of musical chairs,” she told KQED. “The chairs keep getting taken away, but you still have the same number of players. Those remaining chairs become very coveted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999682\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999682\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/025_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/025_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/025_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/025_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/025_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/025_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/025_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A “For Rent” sign hangs in the window of an apartment building in Nob Hill in San Francisco on July 29, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>People are crammed into housing units, pay more of their wages toward rent than is reasonable or live in homes where the conditions are less than acceptable because it’s all they can afford, according to Karlinsky, who previously worked for the nonprofit policy organization SPUR. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.spur.org/sites/default/files/2021-05/SPUR_What_It_Will_Really_Take_To_Create_An_Affordable_Bay_Area_Report.pdf\">study\u003c/a> published by the think tank in 2021 showed that the Bay Area needed to build a little over 1 million housing units over the previous two decades to keep up with population demand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only 358,500 units were added at that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you underbuild for decade after decade after decade, but you continue to add jobs, you end up with a chronic housing shortage,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 2010 and 2019, the incidence of overcrowding, which is defined as more than one person per room in a home, increased almost 1%, another SPUR \u003ca href=\"https://www.spur.org/sites/default/files/2023-03/SPUR_Losing_Ground_0.pdf\">study\u003c/a> found. According to the U.S. Census Bureau data, there were 362,354 households in San Francisco in 2019, meaning roughly 14,856 households were considered severely overcrowded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2014, an executive summary from the city planning department estimated that there were between 30,000 and 50,000 illegal additional units. While the city now has legislation that allows people to legalize some previously unauthorized ADUs, there are still homes where too many people live or homes that aren’t up to code, like the one Sanchez allegedly rented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Muhammad Alameldin, an associate professor at the Terner Center, said that units with poor conditions are often the last line of defense for people at risk of becoming unhoused or having to move out of the region where they work and have built their lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To be in a situation where you have to split up existing houses into multiple units for multiple families means that we have not built enough housing for everyone in this county, and people are being forced into desperate situations because of that,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Karlinsky said it doesn’t have to be this way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In November, voters will decide on a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11992046/20-billion-affordable-housing-bond-heads-to-bay-area-voters\">$20 billion affordable housing bond\u003c/a> put on the ballot by the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority. If passed, the funds would be used to build or preserve at least 70,000 affordable housing units, almost half of which would be reserved for very low-income households in the nine Bay Area counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also said municipalities could change zoning laws to allow for more apartments, especially in suburban areas near transit. Additionally, more small and mid-size apartments could be built in single-family neighborhoods. Legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021 allows homeowners to divide a single-family lot into as many as four units in some cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Karlinsky said if done many times, these conversions could contribute substantially to the housing supply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are many policy levers that can be pulled to help the region and the state kind of get out of this situation and enable people to live in safe, decent, affordable housing,” she told KQED. “It’s just really a matter of political will to make those things happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Unhoused San Francisco RV Families Forced to Move Yet Again, With 'Nowhere to Go'",
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"content": "\u003cp>Residents of an RV community in San Francisco say they have nowhere to go after city officials gave them three days to clear out. For many, it’s the second move in less than two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group of some two dozen vehicles was previously stationed on Winston Drive near the Stonestown Galleria, but city officials cleared them from the street a week ago. Most then moved to a low-traffic street behind the San Francisco Zoo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of La Raza Community Resource Center, an organization offering outreach services to the group, say the RV community is fully Latino and mostly made up of families, with roughly 50 children living there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leonor Deleon, who lives with her husband and two daughters, said she was a nanny and lived in an apartment with her family. But when the pandemic started, work dried up for her and her husband, and a year later, they lost their home. The RV that the family originally bought to go camping became their home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know why, but I feel like after the pandemic, it’s been very difficult to get back on my feet,” Deleon said in Spanish. She added that many of her neighbors from her old apartment building also ended up on the street after the start of the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deleon said she and the other RV residents, whom she considers a tight-knit community, are only looking for a safe place to live while they work to save up enough money for an apartment again, and city efforts to fine them or tow their vehicles only make that more difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When city officials descended on the encampment Thursday to deliver the 72-hour notices to clear out, they also towed some vehicles without valid registrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jamilet Lira said her son was at work when the city came, and she was unable to find the registration for his RV. She said she was only able to grab some clothes and blankets before the vehicle was taken away, along with many of their belongings and immigration papers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They gave me very little time,” Lira said in Spanish. “And my neighbors helped me. If I had been alone, I probably wouldn’t have grabbed anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials said they are offering housing, shelter and other services to residents of the encampment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lira said she was offered space in a shelter, but for an unspecified amount of time and that she could not take her adult children with her. She said she is still recovering after being struck by a vehicle and needs her kids’ help around the house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of La Raza, the outreach organization, also said the resources offered are insufficient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gabriel Medina, the executive director of La Raza, said he hopes the city can ensure housing vouchers get into the hands of encampment residents. The voucher program acts like a subsidy, covering the housing costs for two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11983146,news_11970299,news_11965352\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For multifamily and multigenerational communities like the RV encampment, Medina said finding suitable landlords and units proves challenging—even if they get the housing vouchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, Medina is begging the city to give residents more time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve seen the city crackdown on trying to bust tents and do sweeps here in San Francisco. And this seems like the best way to get more tents is to bust people out of their RVs,” Medina said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City Supervisor Myrna Melgar, who represents the area, said in a statement that she has advocated for a safe parking site for this RV community for years and has asked for the mayor’s help in that effort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing said they are not pursuing any proposed permitting system for RV residents to stay on the site, and the mayor’s office added that those who do not accept support services will face towing violations come Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The RV community — which advocates say is fully Latino and mostly made up of families — has been living at an RV encampment by San Francisco State University and the Stonestown mall.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Residents of an RV community in San Francisco say they have nowhere to go after city officials gave them three days to clear out. For many, it’s the second move in less than two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group of some two dozen vehicles was previously stationed on Winston Drive near the Stonestown Galleria, but city officials cleared them from the street a week ago. Most then moved to a low-traffic street behind the San Francisco Zoo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of La Raza Community Resource Center, an organization offering outreach services to the group, say the RV community is fully Latino and mostly made up of families, with roughly 50 children living there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leonor Deleon, who lives with her husband and two daughters, said she was a nanny and lived in an apartment with her family. But when the pandemic started, work dried up for her and her husband, and a year later, they lost their home. The RV that the family originally bought to go camping became their home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know why, but I feel like after the pandemic, it’s been very difficult to get back on my feet,” Deleon said in Spanish. She added that many of her neighbors from her old apartment building also ended up on the street after the start of the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deleon said she and the other RV residents, whom she considers a tight-knit community, are only looking for a safe place to live while they work to save up enough money for an apartment again, and city efforts to fine them or tow their vehicles only make that more difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When city officials descended on the encampment Thursday to deliver the 72-hour notices to clear out, they also towed some vehicles without valid registrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jamilet Lira said her son was at work when the city came, and she was unable to find the registration for his RV. She said she was only able to grab some clothes and blankets before the vehicle was taken away, along with many of their belongings and immigration papers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They gave me very little time,” Lira said in Spanish. “And my neighbors helped me. If I had been alone, I probably wouldn’t have grabbed anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials said they are offering housing, shelter and other services to residents of the encampment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lira said she was offered space in a shelter, but for an unspecified amount of time and that she could not take her adult children with her. She said she is still recovering after being struck by a vehicle and needs her kids’ help around the house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of La Raza, the outreach organization, also said the resources offered are insufficient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gabriel Medina, the executive director of La Raza, said he hopes the city can ensure housing vouchers get into the hands of encampment residents. The voucher program acts like a subsidy, covering the housing costs for two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For multifamily and multigenerational communities like the RV encampment, Medina said finding suitable landlords and units proves challenging—even if they get the housing vouchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, Medina is begging the city to give residents more time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve seen the city crackdown on trying to bust tents and do sweeps here in San Francisco. And this seems like the best way to get more tents is to bust people out of their RVs,” Medina said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City Supervisor Myrna Melgar, who represents the area, said in a statement that she has advocated for a safe parking site for this RV community for years and has asked for the mayor’s help in that effort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing said they are not pursuing any proposed permitting system for RV residents to stay on the site, and the mayor’s office added that those who do not accept support services will face towing violations come Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Newsom Vows to Take Away Funding From Cities and Counties for Not Clearing Encampments",
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"content": "\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday had a message for local governments: Clean up homeless encampments now or lose out on state funding next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing in front of a cleared homeless encampment in Los Angeles, Newsom vowed to start taking state funding away from cities and counties that are not doing enough to move people out of encampments and into shelters. The governor joined the California Department of Transportation, known as Caltrans, on Thursday to clear several encampment sites in the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want to see results,” Newsom told reporters at a news conference. “I don’t want to read about them. I don’t want to see the data. I want to see it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thursday’s announcement was part of Newsom’s escalating campaign to push local governments into doing more homeless encampment sweeps. Newsom last month \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-homeless-encampment-newsom-7d4478801de6e9f8a708c7c7c6ef3e5f\">ordered state agencies\u003c/a> to start clearing encampments on state land. He also pressured local government to do the same, though he cannot legally force them to act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The executive order came after the U.S. Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-homeless-camping-bans-506ac68dc069e3bf456c10fcedfa6bee\">overturned\u003c/a> a lower court ruling that said governments could not force people to leave encampments if there weren’t any shelter beds available. Newsom’s administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23-175/302201/20240304155924650_Newsome%20Amicus%20Brief%203-4-2024.pdf\">wrote in support (PDF)\u003c/a> of cities’ arguments that previous rulings, including one that \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/lawsuits-oakland-9685f0a4350f8eb45602417ad334006f\">barred San Francisco from clearing encampments\u003c/a>, have \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-newsom-homeless-encampments-san-francisco-court-1d4a4a2b9532881d50b7a445d618ca7d\">prevented the state from solving a critical problem\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is home to roughly \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/homeless-california-study-poverty-high-rent-a2a4bfc9b386cb70fdd14d593f31b68c\">one-third of the nation’s population of homeless people\u003c/a>, a problem that has dogged Newsom since he took office. There are thousands of tents and makeshift shelters across the state that line freeways and fill parking lots and public parks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has spent roughly $24 billion under Newsom’s leadership to clean up streets and house people. That includes at least $3.2 billion in grants given to local government to build shelters, clear encampments and connect homeless people to services as they see fit, Newsom said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11997352,news_11991340,news_11999041\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those have been unprecedented investments from the state, he added, but his administration will start redirecting that money in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not about criminalization,” Newsom said. “What’s criminal is neglecting people that are struggling and suffering and dying on our watch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not the first time Newsom has vowed to cut funding over what he sees as the lackluster efforts from local governments to address homelessness. In 2022, he threatened to \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-gavin-newsom-homelessness-government-and-politics-974ba8eb253f8437e009affca7645540\">withhold $1 billion\u003c/a> in homelessness spending from cities and counties over the lack of progress. Last month, his office \u003ca href=\"https://fox5sandiego.com/news/local-news/state-rescinds-10m-grant-to-build-tiny-homes-in-san-diego-county-still-moves-forward-with-controversial-plan/\">clawed back a $10 million grant\u003c/a> sent to San Diego to build tiny homes because the county didn’t act fast enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s mayor has taken more aggressive action in \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/san-francisco-mayor-california-homeless-encampments-3f8b79c8446bb60b5168711f8b06695c\">clearing encampments\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, others, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles County officials, have pushed back, saying the governor’s approach won’t work. Newsom on Thursday praised Bass’ work at successfully reducing the number of people sleeping outside in Los Angeles, adding that his frustration is mostly directed toward counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California State Association of Counties, which represents 58 counties in California, said it won’t weigh in on the governor’s announcement on Thursday. A spokesperson instead pointed to a statement in response to Newsom’s order last month that the counties “will continue to work together with the Governor and share his sense of urgency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "'I want to see results,' Newsom told reporters at a news conference, saying he would take state funding away from cities and counties that are not doing enough to move people out of encampments and into shelter.",
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"title": "Newsom Vows to Take Away Funding From Cities and Counties for Not Clearing Encampments | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday had a message for local governments: Clean up homeless encampments now or lose out on state funding next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing in front of a cleared homeless encampment in Los Angeles, Newsom vowed to start taking state funding away from cities and counties that are not doing enough to move people out of encampments and into shelters. The governor joined the California Department of Transportation, known as Caltrans, on Thursday to clear several encampment sites in the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want to see results,” Newsom told reporters at a news conference. “I don’t want to read about them. I don’t want to see the data. I want to see it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thursday’s announcement was part of Newsom’s escalating campaign to push local governments into doing more homeless encampment sweeps. Newsom last month \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-homeless-encampment-newsom-7d4478801de6e9f8a708c7c7c6ef3e5f\">ordered state agencies\u003c/a> to start clearing encampments on state land. He also pressured local government to do the same, though he cannot legally force them to act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The executive order came after the U.S. Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-homeless-camping-bans-506ac68dc069e3bf456c10fcedfa6bee\">overturned\u003c/a> a lower court ruling that said governments could not force people to leave encampments if there weren’t any shelter beds available. Newsom’s administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23-175/302201/20240304155924650_Newsome%20Amicus%20Brief%203-4-2024.pdf\">wrote in support (PDF)\u003c/a> of cities’ arguments that previous rulings, including one that \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/lawsuits-oakland-9685f0a4350f8eb45602417ad334006f\">barred San Francisco from clearing encampments\u003c/a>, have \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-newsom-homeless-encampments-san-francisco-court-1d4a4a2b9532881d50b7a445d618ca7d\">prevented the state from solving a critical problem\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is home to roughly \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/homeless-california-study-poverty-high-rent-a2a4bfc9b386cb70fdd14d593f31b68c\">one-third of the nation’s population of homeless people\u003c/a>, a problem that has dogged Newsom since he took office. There are thousands of tents and makeshift shelters across the state that line freeways and fill parking lots and public parks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has spent roughly $24 billion under Newsom’s leadership to clean up streets and house people. That includes at least $3.2 billion in grants given to local government to build shelters, clear encampments and connect homeless people to services as they see fit, Newsom said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those have been unprecedented investments from the state, he added, but his administration will start redirecting that money in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not about criminalization,” Newsom said. “What’s criminal is neglecting people that are struggling and suffering and dying on our watch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not the first time Newsom has vowed to cut funding over what he sees as the lackluster efforts from local governments to address homelessness. In 2022, he threatened to \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-gavin-newsom-homelessness-government-and-politics-974ba8eb253f8437e009affca7645540\">withhold $1 billion\u003c/a> in homelessness spending from cities and counties over the lack of progress. Last month, his office \u003ca href=\"https://fox5sandiego.com/news/local-news/state-rescinds-10m-grant-to-build-tiny-homes-in-san-diego-county-still-moves-forward-with-controversial-plan/\">clawed back a $10 million grant\u003c/a> sent to San Diego to build tiny homes because the county didn’t act fast enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s mayor has taken more aggressive action in \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/san-francisco-mayor-california-homeless-encampments-3f8b79c8446bb60b5168711f8b06695c\">clearing encampments\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, others, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles County officials, have pushed back, saying the governor’s approach won’t work. Newsom on Thursday praised Bass’ work at successfully reducing the number of people sleeping outside in Los Angeles, adding that his frustration is mostly directed toward counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California State Association of Counties, which represents 58 counties in California, said it won’t weigh in on the governor’s announcement on Thursday. A spokesperson instead pointed to a statement in response to Newsom’s order last month that the counties “will continue to work together with the Governor and share his sense of urgency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "historic-japanese-american-family-farm-is-about-to-fade-into-much-needed-housing-in-san-jose",
"title": "Historic Japanese American Family Farm Is About to Fade Into Much-Needed Housing in San José",
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"headTitle": "Historic Japanese American Family Farm Is About to Fade Into Much-Needed Housing in San José | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hile James Tsukuda doesn’t say too much about his farm work, his attention to detail makes his care for the craft apparent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For harvesting raspberries — some so deeply red in color they appear purple in the right light — he keeps a small metal coffee can tied around his midsection where he collects them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For growing heirloom tomatoes, he ties the branches to stakes to help support the weight of the fruit. It’s extra work, but the twine is more effective than tomato cages, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the tomatoes sit on the ground, the slugs will put a lot of holes in them,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The farm and the Tsukuda’s stand — located on a plot of land bordered by the busy Montague Expressway near the corner of Seely Avenue — are an unusual sight in San José. Surrounded by tech company office buildings, Tsukuda harvests fruits and vegetables for the day starting at dawn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996299\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11996299\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-26_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-26_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-26_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-26_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-26_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-26_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-26_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Tsukuda harvests zucchini in front of the Tsukuda Fruit Stand in San José on July 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Tsukudas started leasing the farmland after James’ father, Eiji Tsukuda, and his family lost some of their own farmland off Oakland Road four decades ago through the eminent domain process. The forced sale allowed the Orchard School District to purchase the land and build its facilities there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>James Tsukuda took over the lion’s share of the planting and harvesting work nearly 20 years ago after his father was diagnosed with cancer and died. His mother, Miyo, might be an octogenarian but said her age is “a secret.” She helps at the stand — which is not much more than a set of bright yellow tables under wooden arbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As active Japanese American farmers, the Tsukudas are a rarity in the South Bay. But after the fall season’s popular persimmon harvest, they will close up shop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family that owns the land under the stand, the Sakauyes, is preparing to sell it to a developer. And with the sale, a significant piece of Japanese American history is at risk of disappearing. A decision on the fate of the land is expected to be made Tuesday by the San José City Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel sad. I’m going to miss this work,” Miyo Tsukuda said while working the stand, tossing extra raspberries into a basket for a customer. “What am I going to do now? I’m going to miss all these people coming here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996241\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11996241\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-14-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-14-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-14-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-14-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-14-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-14-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-14-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Miyo Tsukuda (center) chats with a customer at the Tsukuda family fruit stand in San José on July 3, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Japanese American family history \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The 22.8-acre plot of land is steeped in history and has been owned by the Sakauyes — a Japanese American family with a long farming legacy — for roughly 120 continuous years. While many Japanese American families \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10459596/hard-row-to-hoe-japanese-farming-in-the-santa-clara-valley\">lost their property during World War II\u003c/a>, the Sakauyes were able to retain their land due to the stewardship of a white neighbor. (A fire broke out Thursday, burning 3–5 acres and a barn not considered historically significant before San José Fire Department crews stopped it.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The land was first brought into the family after Japanese immigrant Yuwakichi Sakauye bought the initial plots in 1907, only several years before the Alien Land Act would have prevented an Asian immigrant from owning such property. It was later managed by his eldest son, Eiichi Edward Sakauye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eiichi Sakauye became a prominent farmer and civic figure serving on local boards and commissions. He was also a steadfast booster and advocate for the preservation of Japanese American history in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The farm is one of only a handful of remaining active farming and orchard sites in the city’s boundaries and represents the last patch of agricultural land owned in the immediate area by the Sakauyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999082\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11999082 size-medium\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-ARCHIVAL-03-KQED-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-ARCHIVAL-03-KQED-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-ARCHIVAL-03-KQED-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-ARCHIVAL-03-KQED.jpg 944w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eiichi Sakauye is photographed with a pear tree following his return to his farm in San José from the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming on July 9, 1945. \u003ccite>(Hikaru Iwasaki courtesy of Calisphere)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The family once grew the plots under their control into a veritable farming empire of around 200 acres in the region, despite facing severe hurdles, including entrenched racism against Asian immigrants; government-sanctioned discrimination such as the Alien Land Act and Asian Exclusion Act; two World Wars, including four years during WWII when the family was sent to a concentration camp at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10459596/hard-row-to-hoe-japanese-farming-in-the-santa-clara-valley\">Heart Mountain, Wyoming\u003c/a>; and a technological revolution that collapsed the agriculture and canning industry here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Sakauyes, led by Eiichi Sakauye’s son Ron, planned to develop or sell off much of the acreage they once owned beginning in the 1980s, and indeed, a pair of large commercial offices sit today on nearby land owned by some of the family members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, Eiichi Sakauye painted a more complicated picture of what happened to the rest of their farmland in a \u003ca href=\"https://ddr.densho.org/interviews/ddr-jamsj-2-7-1/?tableft=segments\">February 2005 interview\u003c/a> with the Japanese American Museum of San Jose, alluding to disagreements with in-laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a sad story. We had family disputes, so gradually, we got in debt and lost it,” he said. He died later that year at the age of 93.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But over the decades, the family has held onto this cleaver-shaped parcel the longest, part of the original farmland worked by the patriarch, Yuwakichi Sakauye in the early 1900s, and now farmed largely by James and Miyo Tsukuda.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Historical Sites into housing\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>About half of the site is eligible to be listed as an entire historic district in the state’s Register of Historic Resources, according to a consultant report commissioned by the developer. On the site are several buildings — such as barns and pump houses — in addition to the rows of crops, dirt roads and fruit trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those buildings is an adobe home with a red clay tile roof built around 1920. This home is where Eiichi Sakauye lived his entire life, save for the years he was interned during World War II. It is eligible on its own for listing in the register.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996245\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11996245 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-22-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-22-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-22-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-22-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-22-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-22-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-22-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Tsukuda picks cucumbers in front of an old building on the Sakauye family farm in San José on July 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now, a contract is in place for the Sakauyes to sell the land to the Hanover Company, a Houston-based developer that has mapped out plans to level the entire site to build nearly 1,500 apartments and townhomes, as well as a 2.5-acre public park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San José City Council will consider the proposal at its Aug. 13 meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Not worth preservation, according to family\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While no one disagrees that housing is sorely needed in the region, some in the city are concerned about the apparent ease with which city officials, the Sakauye family and the developer are willing to allow the historic structures to be leveled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In letters to the city, family members said they are proud of their father’s accomplishments and contributions in the community but don’t care about saving his former home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999081\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11999081 size-medium\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-ARCHIVAL-02-KQED-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-ARCHIVAL-02-KQED-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-ARCHIVAL-02-KQED-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-ARCHIVAL-02-KQED.jpg 940w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Sakauye family outside their home in San José following their return from the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming on July 9, 1945. \u003ccite>(Hikaru Iwasaki courtesy of Calisphere)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“While Carolyn Sakauye and Jane May, the children of Eiichi Edward Sakauye, have very fond memories of growing up and spending their childhoods in that family farmhouse, they do not think it is worth trying to preserve it,” their attorney, Sam Farb, wrote to the city in June. The sisters declined to be interviewed for this story, citing advice from their attorney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scott Youdall, a development partner at Hanover, told city officials the public park will include a prominently featured historic interpretation area with embedded storyboards that would tell the story of Eiichi Sakauye’s life in San José, his internment, and his contributions to agriculture. Youdall did not respond to requests for comment for this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard to see this last patch of the farm and orchard land be converted into apartment buildings. It’s very difficult to see,” said Vanessa Hatakeyama, the acting director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.jamsj.org/\">Japanese American Museum of San José\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are very few Japanese American farms. And so I think to see one of the last ones in this area go, it is a little bit painful,” she said, citing the once large cultural influence on farming by Japanese Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hatakeyama said the museum is in a tough spot. The organization is dedicated to preserving and perpetuating the stories of Japanese Americans in the South Bay but also wants to respect the wishes of the family members who have decided to sell the land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eiichi Sakauye seemed resigned to the fate of farms like his even decades ago. In a 1982 feature story in the San José \u003cem>Mercury News\u003c/em> about the changing of the guard in his family, he described his farming in the area at the time as a hobby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hate to see it going like this, but there’s no way you can save the valley. It’s too far gone already. All the canners and packers have moved out, all the equipment people have moved out, all the cold storage people have moved out,” he said at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996249\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11996249 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-27-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-27-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-27-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-27-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-27-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-27-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-27-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A modern office park for Cadence Design Systems is located across the street from the Tsukuda Fruit Stand and the farm owned by the Sakauye family in San José on July 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Then, in the 2005 videotaped interview with the local museum, Eiichi was asked what he thought of the future for Japanese Americans in agriculture in Santa Clara Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe there’s none,” he said. “Because there’s very few of us in agriculture, and those very few are not producing as much.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Eiichi Sakauye’s legacy \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Hatakeyama noted that Eiichi Sakauye purchased a home on Fifth Street in San José and generously donated it to the Japanese American Resource Center in 1998, an organization he helped found, which later became the first iteration of the museum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11979430,news_11857895,news_11969746\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family also donated many other farm tools, equipment and artifacts that support the museum’s exhibit on Japanese American agriculture in the valley, including a pear sorting machine that Eiichi and his brothers engineered. Carolyn Sakauye and Jane May are also members of the museum’s advisory board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their contributions were really huge already as a family. So even though it’s difficult, and even though we always like to preserve things … sometimes you have to remember that these are people’s personal stories and their personal lives,” Hatakeyama said. “It is their story to tell, and it is their property to control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The museum has advocated for the public park to be named after Eiichi Sakauye, not just the family name, Hatakeyama said, so people will remember his unique story and contributions, including his force of spirit while incarcerated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eiichi, while with his family at Heart Mountain, took on a variety of roles, such as block manager and activities coordinator, and he was assigned to be the assistant superintendent of agriculture because of his depth of farming knowledge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He recruited other farmers interned there and together they helped produce bounties for thousands of people forcibly living at the camp, according to city and museum records. He led the construction of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.powelltribune.com/stories/heart-mountain-miracle,134795\">root cellar\u003c/a>, which was preserved and \u003ca href=\"https://www.powelltribune.com/stories/annual-heart-mountain-pilgrimage-highlights-lessons-from-the-past,3125\">dedicated\u003c/a> there in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999518\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2249px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11999518 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2249\" height=\"997\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-2.jpg 2249w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-2-800x355.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-2-1020x452.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-2-160x71.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-2-1536x681.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-2-2048x908.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-2-1920x851.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2249px) 100vw, 2249px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Eiichi Sakauye operates a bean thrasher on the farm at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming on Nov. 22, 1943. Right: Eiichi Sakauye checks the moisture of the soil on the farm at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming on March 10, 1944. \u003ccite>(Hikaru Iwasaki courtesy of Calisphere)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>With a camera he managed to bring into the camp, Eiichi documented life at Heart Mountain in photographs and \u003ca href=\"https://ddr.densho.org/interviews/ddr-densho-1005-1-1/\">video footage\u003c/a>, which were used in a national television documentary in the 1960s. In 2000, he published a \u003ca href=\"https://asianamericanbooks.com/books/2892.htm\">photo book\u003c/a> called \u003cem>Heart Mountain: A Reflection of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hatakeyama said the property in North San José is visible evidence of not only Japanese American lineage and the journey of an entire community but also of allyship and of \u003cem>gaman\u003c/em>, a Japanese term meaning to persevere and endure through difficult times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eiichi and his father were able to preserve the land in part because of a close friendship with their neighbors, the Seely family, from whom Yuwakichi first bought the land. During World War I, which lasted from 1914–18, the Sakauyes helped take care of the Seely farm and Edward Seely’s ill mother while Edward Seely served in the military, according to city reports and museum accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During WWII, when the Sakauye family was incarcerated, the Seelys took ownership of the Sakauye family’s land and protected it for them until they returned, then handed it back, while many other Japanese Americans lost their land, homes and possessions during that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They persevered, and they endured, and they managed to hold on to that farm and make it thrive even after resettling in the area,” Hatakeyama said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Losing history for good?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Members of Preservation Action Council San Jose are hoping city officials will push for a rejiggering of the plans to allow at least the home that Eiichi Sakauye grew up in to be preserved on the site and incorporated into the development, and possibly some of the remaining orchard trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have a lot of sites that really tell such a compelling story,” Ben Leech, the president of the action council, told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Here’s a major preservationist [Eiichi Sakauye] telling a major San José story, and his own house is now threatened,” Leech said. “That just seemed like we needed to speak up and say, there’s got to be a better way to treat this as a development site.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leech said his organization has had conversations with the developer and the city, but overall, his organization’s requests are being met with apathy, with no one yet willing to take responsibility for the home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I like plaques as much as the next person, but this still exists. And it is being proposed as if this was a blank slate, and it’s not a blank slate. It’s actually an incredible site,” Leech said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996244\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11996244 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-19-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-19-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-19-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-19-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-19-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-19-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-19-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Tsukuda harvests produce for the Tsukuda Fruit Stand beside the Montague Expressway in San José on July 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While Carolyn Sakauye and Jane May’s attorney said they don’t believe the developer nor the city should have to bear the costs of preserving their father’s home, Leech thinks it can be done without affecting the bottom line of the deal for the family and developer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes the site and the story transcend the personal interests of the people involved in a positive way,” Leech said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As much as it is significant that two of the daughters aren’t championing preservation, it doesn’t mean that preservation isn’t important to the larger community. In the future, 50 years from now, 100 years from now, people will forget who was for and who was against saving this thing. They’ll just be glad that it’s still around.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hatakeyama also worries about what else is lost when something is gone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the loss that might come with this transformation of the property, it might be one that we don’t realize immediately off the bat,” she said. “There is something that can be very, very magical about being able to actually stand in a space that is still full of generations of history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>The future of San José family farming\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Some customers of the Tsukuda fruit stand share a similar sentiment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Before my time here, I heard there were orchards everywhere,” said Rich Buttrey, a customer for the last two years, as he loaded his haul from the fruit stand into his car. “And this is one of the last remaining ones, and we’re very fortunate to have it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re wonderful people, really make you feel at home, and they have really good food,” Buttrey said of James Tsukuda and his mother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999524\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11999524 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-3-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"855\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-3-1.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-3-1-800x274.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-3-1-1020x349.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-3-1-160x55.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-3-1-1536x525.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-3-1-2048x700.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-3-1-1920x657.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Inez Lismonde (left) and Rich Buttrey (right) chat at the Tsukuda fruit stand. Right: Produce for sale at the Tsukuda fruit stand. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Another grower in the region, Phil Cosentino, along with his daughters, still maintains the 2-acre \u003ca href=\"https://cosentinofamilyfarm.com/\">J&P Cosentino Family Farm\u003c/a> near Highway 85 in South San José that was started in the 1940s by his father, Dominic Cosentino.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phil Cosentino said he’s saddened but not surprised to see the paving over of another patch of what he calls the “most fertile fruit-producing region” in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But what are you going to do? Money talks. Nothing else seems to matter anymore,” he said. “History and all that, what there was here in the valley, is meaningless. Money is the only thing that means anything, and nothing else matters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>James Tsukuda said he doesn’t know what he’s going to do next after his time working the farmland here comes to an end. The Tsukudas say they likely won’t continue their business elsewhere after they close, especially given the exorbitant prices for land in the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996250\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11996250\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-28-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-28-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-28-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-28-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-28-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-28-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-28-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Tsukuda on the Sakauye family farm in San José on July 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’ve gone through this before. So for me, this is roughly the same experience or a similar experience,” he said. “Once we’re done, I think I’ll miss it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing he’s sure of: he won’t be visiting the area to gaze at the multi-story apartment buildings about to replace the rows of crops he’s worked in for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not for me. I might come and take a look at the development once after they finish,” James Tsukuda said. “And I’ll probably never come back here again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "After surviving through wars, racist laws and a tech boom, a piece of San José farmland held by one Japanese American family is set to be sold and developed with nearly 1,500 apartments and homes.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">W\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>hile James Tsukuda doesn’t say too much about his farm work, his attention to detail makes his care for the craft apparent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For harvesting raspberries — some so deeply red in color they appear purple in the right light — he keeps a small metal coffee can tied around his midsection where he collects them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For growing heirloom tomatoes, he ties the branches to stakes to help support the weight of the fruit. It’s extra work, but the twine is more effective than tomato cages, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the tomatoes sit on the ground, the slugs will put a lot of holes in them,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The farm and the Tsukuda’s stand — located on a plot of land bordered by the busy Montague Expressway near the corner of Seely Avenue — are an unusual sight in San José. Surrounded by tech company office buildings, Tsukuda harvests fruits and vegetables for the day starting at dawn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996299\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11996299\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-26_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-26_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-26_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-26_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-26_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-26_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-26_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Tsukuda harvests zucchini in front of the Tsukuda Fruit Stand in San José on July 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Tsukudas started leasing the farmland after James’ father, Eiji Tsukuda, and his family lost some of their own farmland off Oakland Road four decades ago through the eminent domain process. The forced sale allowed the Orchard School District to purchase the land and build its facilities there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>James Tsukuda took over the lion’s share of the planting and harvesting work nearly 20 years ago after his father was diagnosed with cancer and died. His mother, Miyo, might be an octogenarian but said her age is “a secret.” She helps at the stand — which is not much more than a set of bright yellow tables under wooden arbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As active Japanese American farmers, the Tsukudas are a rarity in the South Bay. But after the fall season’s popular persimmon harvest, they will close up shop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family that owns the land under the stand, the Sakauyes, is preparing to sell it to a developer. And with the sale, a significant piece of Japanese American history is at risk of disappearing. A decision on the fate of the land is expected to be made Tuesday by the San José City Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel sad. I’m going to miss this work,” Miyo Tsukuda said while working the stand, tossing extra raspberries into a basket for a customer. “What am I going to do now? I’m going to miss all these people coming here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996241\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11996241\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-14-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-14-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-14-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-14-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-14-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-14-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-14-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Miyo Tsukuda (center) chats with a customer at the Tsukuda family fruit stand in San José on July 3, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Japanese American family history \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The 22.8-acre plot of land is steeped in history and has been owned by the Sakauyes — a Japanese American family with a long farming legacy — for roughly 120 continuous years. While many Japanese American families \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10459596/hard-row-to-hoe-japanese-farming-in-the-santa-clara-valley\">lost their property during World War II\u003c/a>, the Sakauyes were able to retain their land due to the stewardship of a white neighbor. (A fire broke out Thursday, burning 3–5 acres and a barn not considered historically significant before San José Fire Department crews stopped it.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The land was first brought into the family after Japanese immigrant Yuwakichi Sakauye bought the initial plots in 1907, only several years before the Alien Land Act would have prevented an Asian immigrant from owning such property. It was later managed by his eldest son, Eiichi Edward Sakauye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eiichi Sakauye became a prominent farmer and civic figure serving on local boards and commissions. He was also a steadfast booster and advocate for the preservation of Japanese American history in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The farm is one of only a handful of remaining active farming and orchard sites in the city’s boundaries and represents the last patch of agricultural land owned in the immediate area by the Sakauyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999082\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11999082 size-medium\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-ARCHIVAL-03-KQED-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-ARCHIVAL-03-KQED-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-ARCHIVAL-03-KQED-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-ARCHIVAL-03-KQED.jpg 944w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eiichi Sakauye is photographed with a pear tree following his return to his farm in San José from the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming on July 9, 1945. \u003ccite>(Hikaru Iwasaki courtesy of Calisphere)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The family once grew the plots under their control into a veritable farming empire of around 200 acres in the region, despite facing severe hurdles, including entrenched racism against Asian immigrants; government-sanctioned discrimination such as the Alien Land Act and Asian Exclusion Act; two World Wars, including four years during WWII when the family was sent to a concentration camp at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10459596/hard-row-to-hoe-japanese-farming-in-the-santa-clara-valley\">Heart Mountain, Wyoming\u003c/a>; and a technological revolution that collapsed the agriculture and canning industry here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Sakauyes, led by Eiichi Sakauye’s son Ron, planned to develop or sell off much of the acreage they once owned beginning in the 1980s, and indeed, a pair of large commercial offices sit today on nearby land owned by some of the family members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, Eiichi Sakauye painted a more complicated picture of what happened to the rest of their farmland in a \u003ca href=\"https://ddr.densho.org/interviews/ddr-jamsj-2-7-1/?tableft=segments\">February 2005 interview\u003c/a> with the Japanese American Museum of San Jose, alluding to disagreements with in-laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a sad story. We had family disputes, so gradually, we got in debt and lost it,” he said. He died later that year at the age of 93.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But over the decades, the family has held onto this cleaver-shaped parcel the longest, part of the original farmland worked by the patriarch, Yuwakichi Sakauye in the early 1900s, and now farmed largely by James and Miyo Tsukuda.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Historical Sites into housing\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>About half of the site is eligible to be listed as an entire historic district in the state’s Register of Historic Resources, according to a consultant report commissioned by the developer. On the site are several buildings — such as barns and pump houses — in addition to the rows of crops, dirt roads and fruit trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those buildings is an adobe home with a red clay tile roof built around 1920. This home is where Eiichi Sakauye lived his entire life, save for the years he was interned during World War II. It is eligible on its own for listing in the register.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996245\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11996245 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-22-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-22-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-22-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-22-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-22-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-22-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-22-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Tsukuda picks cucumbers in front of an old building on the Sakauye family farm in San José on July 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now, a contract is in place for the Sakauyes to sell the land to the Hanover Company, a Houston-based developer that has mapped out plans to level the entire site to build nearly 1,500 apartments and townhomes, as well as a 2.5-acre public park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San José City Council will consider the proposal at its Aug. 13 meeting.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Not worth preservation, according to family\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While no one disagrees that housing is sorely needed in the region, some in the city are concerned about the apparent ease with which city officials, the Sakauye family and the developer are willing to allow the historic structures to be leveled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In letters to the city, family members said they are proud of their father’s accomplishments and contributions in the community but don’t care about saving his former home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999081\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11999081 size-medium\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-ARCHIVAL-02-KQED-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-ARCHIVAL-02-KQED-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-ARCHIVAL-02-KQED-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-ARCHIVAL-02-KQED.jpg 940w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Sakauye family outside their home in San José following their return from the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming on July 9, 1945. \u003ccite>(Hikaru Iwasaki courtesy of Calisphere)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“While Carolyn Sakauye and Jane May, the children of Eiichi Edward Sakauye, have very fond memories of growing up and spending their childhoods in that family farmhouse, they do not think it is worth trying to preserve it,” their attorney, Sam Farb, wrote to the city in June. The sisters declined to be interviewed for this story, citing advice from their attorney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scott Youdall, a development partner at Hanover, told city officials the public park will include a prominently featured historic interpretation area with embedded storyboards that would tell the story of Eiichi Sakauye’s life in San José, his internment, and his contributions to agriculture. Youdall did not respond to requests for comment for this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard to see this last patch of the farm and orchard land be converted into apartment buildings. It’s very difficult to see,” said Vanessa Hatakeyama, the acting director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.jamsj.org/\">Japanese American Museum of San José\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are very few Japanese American farms. And so I think to see one of the last ones in this area go, it is a little bit painful,” she said, citing the once large cultural influence on farming by Japanese Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hatakeyama said the museum is in a tough spot. The organization is dedicated to preserving and perpetuating the stories of Japanese Americans in the South Bay but also wants to respect the wishes of the family members who have decided to sell the land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eiichi Sakauye seemed resigned to the fate of farms like his even decades ago. In a 1982 feature story in the San José \u003cem>Mercury News\u003c/em> about the changing of the guard in his family, he described his farming in the area at the time as a hobby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hate to see it going like this, but there’s no way you can save the valley. It’s too far gone already. All the canners and packers have moved out, all the equipment people have moved out, all the cold storage people have moved out,” he said at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996249\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11996249 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-27-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-27-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-27-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-27-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-27-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-27-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-27-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A modern office park for Cadence Design Systems is located across the street from the Tsukuda Fruit Stand and the farm owned by the Sakauye family in San José on July 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Then, in the 2005 videotaped interview with the local museum, Eiichi was asked what he thought of the future for Japanese Americans in agriculture in Santa Clara Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe there’s none,” he said. “Because there’s very few of us in agriculture, and those very few are not producing as much.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Eiichi Sakauye’s legacy \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Hatakeyama noted that Eiichi Sakauye purchased a home on Fifth Street in San José and generously donated it to the Japanese American Resource Center in 1998, an organization he helped found, which later became the first iteration of the museum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family also donated many other farm tools, equipment and artifacts that support the museum’s exhibit on Japanese American agriculture in the valley, including a pear sorting machine that Eiichi and his brothers engineered. Carolyn Sakauye and Jane May are also members of the museum’s advisory board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their contributions were really huge already as a family. So even though it’s difficult, and even though we always like to preserve things … sometimes you have to remember that these are people’s personal stories and their personal lives,” Hatakeyama said. “It is their story to tell, and it is their property to control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The museum has advocated for the public park to be named after Eiichi Sakauye, not just the family name, Hatakeyama said, so people will remember his unique story and contributions, including his force of spirit while incarcerated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eiichi, while with his family at Heart Mountain, took on a variety of roles, such as block manager and activities coordinator, and he was assigned to be the assistant superintendent of agriculture because of his depth of farming knowledge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He recruited other farmers interned there and together they helped produce bounties for thousands of people forcibly living at the camp, according to city and museum records. He led the construction of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.powelltribune.com/stories/heart-mountain-miracle,134795\">root cellar\u003c/a>, which was preserved and \u003ca href=\"https://www.powelltribune.com/stories/annual-heart-mountain-pilgrimage-highlights-lessons-from-the-past,3125\">dedicated\u003c/a> there in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999518\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2249px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11999518 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2249\" height=\"997\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-2.jpg 2249w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-2-800x355.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-2-1020x452.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-2-160x71.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-2-1536x681.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-2-2048x908.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-2-1920x851.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2249px) 100vw, 2249px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Eiichi Sakauye operates a bean thrasher on the farm at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming on Nov. 22, 1943. Right: Eiichi Sakauye checks the moisture of the soil on the farm at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming on March 10, 1944. \u003ccite>(Hikaru Iwasaki courtesy of Calisphere)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>With a camera he managed to bring into the camp, Eiichi documented life at Heart Mountain in photographs and \u003ca href=\"https://ddr.densho.org/interviews/ddr-densho-1005-1-1/\">video footage\u003c/a>, which were used in a national television documentary in the 1960s. In 2000, he published a \u003ca href=\"https://asianamericanbooks.com/books/2892.htm\">photo book\u003c/a> called \u003cem>Heart Mountain: A Reflection of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hatakeyama said the property in North San José is visible evidence of not only Japanese American lineage and the journey of an entire community but also of allyship and of \u003cem>gaman\u003c/em>, a Japanese term meaning to persevere and endure through difficult times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eiichi and his father were able to preserve the land in part because of a close friendship with their neighbors, the Seely family, from whom Yuwakichi first bought the land. During World War I, which lasted from 1914–18, the Sakauyes helped take care of the Seely farm and Edward Seely’s ill mother while Edward Seely served in the military, according to city reports and museum accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During WWII, when the Sakauye family was incarcerated, the Seelys took ownership of the Sakauye family’s land and protected it for them until they returned, then handed it back, while many other Japanese Americans lost their land, homes and possessions during that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They persevered, and they endured, and they managed to hold on to that farm and make it thrive even after resettling in the area,” Hatakeyama said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Losing history for good?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Members of Preservation Action Council San Jose are hoping city officials will push for a rejiggering of the plans to allow at least the home that Eiichi Sakauye grew up in to be preserved on the site and incorporated into the development, and possibly some of the remaining orchard trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have a lot of sites that really tell such a compelling story,” Ben Leech, the president of the action council, told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Here’s a major preservationist [Eiichi Sakauye] telling a major San José story, and his own house is now threatened,” Leech said. “That just seemed like we needed to speak up and say, there’s got to be a better way to treat this as a development site.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leech said his organization has had conversations with the developer and the city, but overall, his organization’s requests are being met with apathy, with no one yet willing to take responsibility for the home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I like plaques as much as the next person, but this still exists. And it is being proposed as if this was a blank slate, and it’s not a blank slate. It’s actually an incredible site,” Leech said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996244\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11996244 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-19-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-19-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-19-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-19-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-19-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-19-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-19-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Tsukuda harvests produce for the Tsukuda Fruit Stand beside the Montague Expressway in San José on July 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While Carolyn Sakauye and Jane May’s attorney said they don’t believe the developer nor the city should have to bear the costs of preserving their father’s home, Leech thinks it can be done without affecting the bottom line of the deal for the family and developer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes the site and the story transcend the personal interests of the people involved in a positive way,” Leech said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As much as it is significant that two of the daughters aren’t championing preservation, it doesn’t mean that preservation isn’t important to the larger community. In the future, 50 years from now, 100 years from now, people will forget who was for and who was against saving this thing. They’ll just be glad that it’s still around.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hatakeyama also worries about what else is lost when something is gone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the loss that might come with this transformation of the property, it might be one that we don’t realize immediately off the bat,” she said. “There is something that can be very, very magical about being able to actually stand in a space that is still full of generations of history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>The future of San José family farming\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Some customers of the Tsukuda fruit stand share a similar sentiment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Before my time here, I heard there were orchards everywhere,” said Rich Buttrey, a customer for the last two years, as he loaded his haul from the fruit stand into his car. “And this is one of the last remaining ones, and we’re very fortunate to have it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re wonderful people, really make you feel at home, and they have really good food,” Buttrey said of James Tsukuda and his mother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999524\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11999524 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-3-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"855\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-3-1.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-3-1-800x274.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-3-1-1020x349.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-3-1-160x55.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-3-1-1536x525.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-3-1-2048x700.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Japanese-American-Family-Farm-Diptych-3-1-1920x657.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Inez Lismonde (left) and Rich Buttrey (right) chat at the Tsukuda fruit stand. Right: Produce for sale at the Tsukuda fruit stand. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Another grower in the region, Phil Cosentino, along with his daughters, still maintains the 2-acre \u003ca href=\"https://cosentinofamilyfarm.com/\">J&P Cosentino Family Farm\u003c/a> near Highway 85 in South San José that was started in the 1940s by his father, Dominic Cosentino.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phil Cosentino said he’s saddened but not surprised to see the paving over of another patch of what he calls the “most fertile fruit-producing region” in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But what are you going to do? Money talks. Nothing else seems to matter anymore,” he said. “History and all that, what there was here in the valley, is meaningless. Money is the only thing that means anything, and nothing else matters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>James Tsukuda said he doesn’t know what he’s going to do next after his time working the farmland here comes to an end. The Tsukudas say they likely won’t continue their business elsewhere after they close, especially given the exorbitant prices for land in the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996250\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11996250\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-28-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-28-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-28-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-28-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-28-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-28-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240703-JAPANESE-AMERICAN-FAMILY-FARM-MD-28-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Tsukuda on the Sakauye family farm in San José on July 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’ve gone through this before. So for me, this is roughly the same experience or a similar experience,” he said. “Once we’re done, I think I’ll miss it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing he’s sure of: he won’t be visiting the area to gaze at the multi-story apartment buildings about to replace the rows of crops he’s worked in for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not for me. I might come and take a look at the development once after they finish,” James Tsukuda said. “And I’ll probably never come back here again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "San Francisco Workers Clearing Homeless Encampments Need Better Training, Judge Rules",
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"content": "\u003cp>As San Francisco officials vow to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11998871/the-rhetoric-is-amplified-sf-homeless-sweeps-a-focal-point-of-mayors-race\">ramp up sweeps of homeless encampments\u003c/a>, a federal judge is requiring the city to better train its workers on what to do with people’s belongings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case filed by a group of unhoused residents in 2022 centered on arguments that the city routinely disregarded its own policy by destroying property during sweeps and that workers were violating residents’ Fourth Amendment rights, protecting them from unreasonable seizures by the government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu ruled Monday that the city must work with the plaintiffs on a new policy training city staff on how to properly handle and store property, but Ryu denied the plaintiffs’ request to have someone oversee the city’s implementation of the policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ruling comes as Mayor London Breed has promised, beginning this month, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11996234/sf-mayor-says-very-aggressive-encampment-sweeps-will-start-in-august\">“very aggressive” crackdown\u003c/a> on encampments. According to the mayor’s office, the city last week engaged with 235 people. Of those, 24 accepted offers of shelter, seven received shelter, and one person was placed on a mental health hold. The vast majority — 195 people — declined offers or provided no information to city workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11998871 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-04-KQED-1020x680.jpg']Nisha Kashyap, an attorney for the plaintiffs with Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, called the ruling “incredibly important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have said for a very long time — plaintiffs have said, our clients have said — that they have real concerns about the city’s compliance with its ‘bag and tag’ policy, and that was the impetus of bringing this claim in the first place,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That policy prohibits workers from throwing away people’s belongings, with the exception of hazardous or perishable materials. It also requires them to distinguish between abandoned property and property that has been left unattended temporarily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re not allowed to throw away people’s property, and they’re doing that,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, the executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, which brought the suit. “If it’s unattended property, they’re supposed to bag and tag it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her ruling, Ryu agreed with the unhoused residents that there was sufficient evidence the city was not consistently following its own policy and said its training program “raises more questions than answers.” However, Ryu also decided that it would be unnecessary to require the city to provide regular and detailed reports regarding the property it collects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jen Kwart, a spokesperson for the city attorney’s office, said in a statement that the city appreciated the judge’s decision to deny part of the plaintiffs’ request.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But we are disappointed the court found the amount of training to be inadequate,” she wrote. “We are evaluating any appropriate next steps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The expansive case — which initially contained 13 claims — had been \u003ca href=\"https://sfstandard.com/2024/02/23/san-francisco-homelessness-lawsuit-paused/\">placed on hold\u003c/a> in February, pending the U.S. Supreme Court’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11991340/supreme-court-says-laws-criminalizing-homeless-camping-do-not-violate-constitution\">ruling in \u003cem>Grants Pass v. Johnson\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, which took up the question of whether it is cruel and unusual punishment to fine or jail someone for sleeping on public property if there are no alternative shelter spaces available. After the high court determined cities could enforce anti-camping bans, the Ninth Circuit vacated part of Ryu’s injunction on related claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It left alive a preliminary injunction related to the unhoused residents’ Fourth Amendment claims. Kashyap said other claims in the case will now be considered, including whether the city’s practices violate the rights of people who have disabilities and whether the city’s action constitutes a “state-created danger” — essentially, whether the city’s sweeps place people in even more danger than they would be if they had simply been out on the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11998474 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/008_KQED_SanFrancisco_TentEncampments_05052020_qed-1020x680.jpg']Kashyap pointed to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953623007657#bib25\">multiple\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667321522000269?via%3Dihub\">research\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-022-13227-4\">studies\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2803840\">showing\u003c/a> that clearing encampments without providing appropriate housing or services often leads to more harm, by disrupting people’s connections to service providers, as well as the direct loss of survival gear, medication and legal documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Sweeps] don’t help individuals exit homelessness. They are counterproductive and expensive. And, it is political theater to act otherwise,” she said. “The sooner our local officials make the choice to invest in true solutions to homelessness — which are prevention, affordable housing, and, in the short term, temporary shelter — the sooner we will see real progress on this issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kashyap said she expects a trial on the lawsuit’s remaining claims next spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As San Francisco officials vow to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11998871/the-rhetoric-is-amplified-sf-homeless-sweeps-a-focal-point-of-mayors-race\">ramp up sweeps of homeless encampments\u003c/a>, a federal judge is requiring the city to better train its workers on what to do with people’s belongings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case filed by a group of unhoused residents in 2022 centered on arguments that the city routinely disregarded its own policy by destroying property during sweeps and that workers were violating residents’ Fourth Amendment rights, protecting them from unreasonable seizures by the government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu ruled Monday that the city must work with the plaintiffs on a new policy training city staff on how to properly handle and store property, but Ryu denied the plaintiffs’ request to have someone oversee the city’s implementation of the policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ruling comes as Mayor London Breed has promised, beginning this month, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11996234/sf-mayor-says-very-aggressive-encampment-sweeps-will-start-in-august\">“very aggressive” crackdown\u003c/a> on encampments. According to the mayor’s office, the city last week engaged with 235 people. Of those, 24 accepted offers of shelter, seven received shelter, and one person was placed on a mental health hold. The vast majority — 195 people — declined offers or provided no information to city workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Nisha Kashyap, an attorney for the plaintiffs with Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, called the ruling “incredibly important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have said for a very long time — plaintiffs have said, our clients have said — that they have real concerns about the city’s compliance with its ‘bag and tag’ policy, and that was the impetus of bringing this claim in the first place,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That policy prohibits workers from throwing away people’s belongings, with the exception of hazardous or perishable materials. It also requires them to distinguish between abandoned property and property that has been left unattended temporarily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re not allowed to throw away people’s property, and they’re doing that,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, the executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, which brought the suit. “If it’s unattended property, they’re supposed to bag and tag it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her ruling, Ryu agreed with the unhoused residents that there was sufficient evidence the city was not consistently following its own policy and said its training program “raises more questions than answers.” However, Ryu also decided that it would be unnecessary to require the city to provide regular and detailed reports regarding the property it collects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jen Kwart, a spokesperson for the city attorney’s office, said in a statement that the city appreciated the judge’s decision to deny part of the plaintiffs’ request.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But we are disappointed the court found the amount of training to be inadequate,” she wrote. “We are evaluating any appropriate next steps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The expansive case — which initially contained 13 claims — had been \u003ca href=\"https://sfstandard.com/2024/02/23/san-francisco-homelessness-lawsuit-paused/\">placed on hold\u003c/a> in February, pending the U.S. Supreme Court’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11991340/supreme-court-says-laws-criminalizing-homeless-camping-do-not-violate-constitution\">ruling in \u003cem>Grants Pass v. Johnson\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, which took up the question of whether it is cruel and unusual punishment to fine or jail someone for sleeping on public property if there are no alternative shelter spaces available. After the high court determined cities could enforce anti-camping bans, the Ninth Circuit vacated part of Ryu’s injunction on related claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It left alive a preliminary injunction related to the unhoused residents’ Fourth Amendment claims. Kashyap said other claims in the case will now be considered, including whether the city’s practices violate the rights of people who have disabilities and whether the city’s action constitutes a “state-created danger” — essentially, whether the city’s sweeps place people in even more danger than they would be if they had simply been out on the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Kashyap pointed to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953623007657#bib25\">multiple\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667321522000269?via%3Dihub\">research\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-022-13227-4\">studies\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2803840\">showing\u003c/a> that clearing encampments without providing appropriate housing or services often leads to more harm, by disrupting people’s connections to service providers, as well as the direct loss of survival gear, medication and legal documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Sweeps] don’t help individuals exit homelessness. They are counterproductive and expensive. And, it is political theater to act otherwise,” she said. “The sooner our local officials make the choice to invest in true solutions to homelessness — which are prevention, affordable housing, and, in the short term, temporary shelter — the sooner we will see real progress on this issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kashyap said she expects a trial on the lawsuit’s remaining claims next spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "the-rhetoric-is-amplified-sf-homeless-sweeps-a-focal-point-of-mayors-race",
"title": "'The Rhetoric Is Amplified': SF Homeless Sweeps a Focal Point of Mayor's Race",
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"headTitle": "‘The Rhetoric Is Amplified’: SF Homeless Sweeps a Focal Point of Mayor’s Race | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Facing a tough reelection this November, San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s “tough-love” approach to homelessness in the city has become increasingly vitriolic — an approach some critics say could put actual lives at risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11996234/sf-mayor-says-very-aggressive-encampment-sweeps-will-start-in-august\">Breed vowed to begin “aggressively” removing people experiencing homelessness\u003c/a> from encampments beginning in August. She told reporters, “We are going to make them so uncomfortable on the streets of San Francisco that they have to take our offer” of shelter or housing. She continued, “We will be using law enforcement to cite, and those citations can get progressive and can lead to a misdemeanor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The intensified rhetoric comes as voter polling \u003ca href=\"https://www.bayareacouncil.org/press-releases/2022-bay-area-council-poll-voters-demand-get-tough-approach-on-homelessness/\">frequently shows homelessness is a top issue for San Franciscans\u003c/a> and as the incumbent seeks to overcome challengers’ accusations that she hasn’t done enough to clean the city’s streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It follows \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997352/newsom-orders-state-agencies-to-dismantle-homeless-encampments-across-california\">Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order last month\u003c/a>, directing state agencies to clear encampments from state properties, along with a majority-conservative U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June, which gave cities greater leeway to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11991340/supreme-court-says-laws-criminalizing-homeless-camping-do-not-violate-constitution\">fine or jail people for camping on sidewalks and in parks\u003c/a> — even if no alternative shelter is available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, Breed appeared to deliver on her promises: A \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/san-francisco-mayor-california-homeless-encampments-3f8b79c8446bb60b5168711f8b06695c\">flurry\u003c/a> of \u003ca href=\"https://sfstandard.com/2024/07/30/san-francisco-aggressive-homeless-camp-sweeps-begin/\">media\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/homeless-encampments-sweeps-breed-19607448.php\">reports\u003c/a> detailed encampment sweeps taking place throughout the city despite a shortage of available shelter. At last count, there were \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11986620/san-francisco-homelessness-up-7-despite-decline-in-street-camping\">more than 4,300 people sleeping in tents or cars on San Francisco’s streets\u003c/a> on any given night, and only around 3,600 shelter beds, of which more than 90% were \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/services/the-homelessness-response-system/shelter/#:~:text=Capacity%20Card%20showing%20the%20total,Use%20Escape%20to%20exit.\">already occupied\u003c/a>. On Monday, there were 170 people on the city’s \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/services/how-to-get-services/accessing-temporary-shelter/adult-temporary-shelter/shelter-reservation-waitlist/\">online reservation system\u003c/a> for shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What Breed’s Opponents Are Saying\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11998904\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11998904\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-36-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-36-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-36-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-36-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-36-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-36-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-36-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayor London Breed speaks during a San Francisco mayoral debate on June 12. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Not all Democrats are falling in line with the gloves-off approach. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, for example, criticized the governor’s encampment order, and the county’s Board of Supervisors recently passed a motion to prevent jail time for simply living in an encampment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, mayoral candidates to Breed’s left and right jumped at the opportunity to critique the recent blitz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let’s be clear: Nothing prohibited the city from clearing encampments pre-Grants Pass,” Mark Farrell, a former supervisor and interim mayor who is running to unseat Breed, posted to social media last week, referring to the recent Supreme Court ruling. “Mayor Breed used ongoing litigation as an excuse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farrell is campaigning on promises to sweep all of the city’s major encampments if elected and has positioned himself as the most conservative among a largely moderate slate of candidates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nonprofit founder and Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie echoed the criticism, calling it a “lack of action” and pointing out that the city does not have enough shelter beds or supportive housing to move people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Pushing encampments from one block to another didn’t work when Mark Farrell tried it, and it’s not going to work under this mayor,” Lurie said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11998907\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11998907\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-90-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-90-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-90-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-90-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-90-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-90-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-90-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Daniel Lurie speaks during a San Francisco mayoral debate on June 12, flanked by former Mayor Mark Farrell (left), Mayor London Breed and Aaron Peskin (right). \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Breed’s progressive opponent, Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, said Breed is promoting harsh policies that often fail to efficiently and compassionately move people into long-term housing after an encampment is removed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Policies to address homelessness must be humane, lawful and effective — not implemented just because someone’s job is on the line…What is happening now is a quick and performative election-year gimmick,” Peskin said in a statement. “Mayor Breed and former Mayor Farrell are advocating for failed policies from the past that simply sweep our homeless problem from one neighborhood to another without any long-term solutions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Tough Love\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Advocates for people experiencing homelessness say that although Breed’s rhetoric has ramped up, her actual policies have not changed as dramatically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Her narratives have shifted as she has seen political opportunity,” said Christin Evans, a small business owner in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood and vice chair of the city’s Homelessness Oversight Commission. “I think in this particular political moment, the rhetoric is amplified.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Evans pointed to the mayor’s recent order \u003cspan style=\"margin: 0px;padding: 0px\">that city workers conducting sweeps first offer homeless people \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11998474/breed-orders-sf-homeless-outreach-workers-to-offer-relocation-out-of-city-before-shelter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a bus ticket out of the city\u003c/a> — \u003c/span>a tool the city has had available and used since 2005.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She is amplifying these things to make it sound like she is doing something when it’s really theater,” Evans said. “She has been capable and able to address these issues all along, and she hasn’t done that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in 2018, when running for mayor, Breed promoted a tough-love approach in her plans to address homelessness. “There is nothing compassionate or safe about relegating people, particularly those suffering from mental health or addiction issues, to sleep on our streets,” she said at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breed was also careful to contextualize homelessness as the result of larger structural inequalities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Homelessness often seems like a uniquely, or at least, acutely San Francisco problem. But it isn’t,” she \u003ca href=\"https://londonbreed.medium.com/a-bold-approach-to-homelessness-a42121dc586c\">wrote in a Medium post\u003c/a> during her campaign. “The federal government has been cutting supportive housing and homelessness funding for decades and leaving cities holding the bag. West Coast cities, with high costs of living and scarce housing, are particularly susceptible to homelessness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11998920\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11998920\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/M6A2369_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/M6A2369_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/M6A2369_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/M6A2369_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/M6A2369_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/M6A2369_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/M6A2369_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayor London Breed talks to members of the press after a dramatic meeting in April 2019 about the Embarcadero SAFE Navigation Center. \u003ccite>(Stephanie Lister/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In December 2022, a U.S. judge barred San Francisco from enforcing sit-lie laws without first offering an alternative shelter as part of an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958939/sf-homelessness-lawsuit-faces-critical-hearing-over-sweeps-ban\">ongoing lawsuit against the city\u003c/a> for not following its own homelessness response policies. The Supreme Court’s ruling in Grants Pass \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11993312/court-lifts-restrictions-on-sf-encampment-sweeps\">overturned that ruling\u003c/a>, giving the city more freedom to clear encampments even if shelters are full. The lower court, however, kept the city bound to its own requirement to “bag and tag” personal items during sweeps so people could later recover them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There has always been some level of (homeless) criminalization that’s taken place in San Francisco, but it’s been more behind the scenes,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, who leads the Coalition on Homelessness. “Fast-forward to today, and this administration is calling for arrests of unhoused people as if that is a potential solution to homelessness. That’s what’s changed significantly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='homelessness']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Breed’s six years as mayor, San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/services/the-homelessness-response-system/shelter/\">temporary shelter supply\u003c/a> has increased by more than 60%, according to the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, thousands of new permanent supportive housing units \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/data/ocoh-fund-annual-report-fy22-23-executive-summary?_gl=1*edbb9g*_ga*MTk2Mzg5NzE0NS4xNzE0Njc0NTIx*_ga_BT9NDE0NFC*MTcyMjg4NDk0MC4zNi4xLjE3MjI4ODUyMzMuMC4wLjA.*_ga_63SCS846YP*MTcyMjg4NDk0MC4zNi4xLjE3MjI4ODUyMzMuMC4wLjA.#ocoh-capacity-added\">have come online\u003c/a>, and the city has invested millions of dollars into affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breed’s administration helped 2,400 people move into San Francisco’s temporary shelter last year and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/news/new-data-san-francisco-street-homelessness-hits-10-year-low\">more than 15,000 people off the street\u003c/a> during her overall tenure, according to the mayor’s office. And, while the city’s overall homeless population has increased in recent years, the number of people in San Francisco sleeping in tents, cars and RVs has \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/about/research-and-reports/pit/\">decreased by 16%\u003c/a> since 2019, according to data from the federal Point-in-Time count.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with those efforts, a drop-off of pandemic-era rent and eviction relief, persistent economic inequality, and the ongoing shortage of both emergency and permanent affordable housing have all enabled a steady flow of people falling into homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The numbers don’t show that kind of impact because, sadly, we’re dealing with the influx of people from everywhere,” Breed said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A Dangerous Precedent\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Caught in the middle of the political winds are people actually living on the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really fueling some very mean-spirited policies and acts of vigilantism and attacks on homeless people,” Supervisor Dean Preston said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Preston joined other government officials and unhoused San Francisco residents at a recent rally outside Hotel Whitcomb, where attendees decried Breed’s recent actions. Advocates are calling on the city to acquire the hotel and use it to house people who are experiencing homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several speakers highlighted the fact that people living on the street are \u003ca href=\"https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2803839\">more likely to die of overdose\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://nhchc.org/study-shows-involuntary-displacement-of-people-experiencing-homelessness-may-cause-significant-spikes-in-mortality-overdoses-and-hospitalizations/\">end up in the hospital\u003c/a>, and experience other traumatic setbacks when they are forcefully displaced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, we have seen in an election year over and over again, going back decades in this city, that ramped-up rhetoric and talk of criminalizing homeless people is viewed by some as a ticket to electoral success in this city,” Preston said. “And it’s disgusting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11998912\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11998912\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A man experiencing homelessness packs up his belongings in anticipation of an encampment sweep by San Francisco’s Dept. of Public Works around Showplace Square on Aug. 1. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Breed did not confirm when reporters asked last week whether jail time is on the table for people who defy sit-lie laws. Legal advocates, however, say that is already happening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unhoused folks are being criminalized purely for being poor. And we have lots of clients coming to us who have been arrested and have faced harassment from police,” said Angela Chan, attorney and advocate at the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates at the rally said they would like to see the city further expand rental and eviction relief, housing subsidies like Section 8 vouchers, and continue to invest in both shelter and permanent housing for extremely low-income people. Chan and others also urged the city to rapidly fill the city’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/sf-homeless-crisis-tents-vacancy-sros-street-18348739.php\">hundreds of empty permanent supportive housing units\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The irony of people who are denied housing but are offered jail on a daily basis is really concerning,” Chan said. “I think every San Franciscan should really take stock of this moment and push our city to use our resources much more wisely and much more humanely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Facing a tough reelection this November, San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s “tough-love” approach to homelessness in the city has become increasingly vitriolic — an approach some critics say could put actual lives at risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11996234/sf-mayor-says-very-aggressive-encampment-sweeps-will-start-in-august\">Breed vowed to begin “aggressively” removing people experiencing homelessness\u003c/a> from encampments beginning in August. She told reporters, “We are going to make them so uncomfortable on the streets of San Francisco that they have to take our offer” of shelter or housing. She continued, “We will be using law enforcement to cite, and those citations can get progressive and can lead to a misdemeanor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The intensified rhetoric comes as voter polling \u003ca href=\"https://www.bayareacouncil.org/press-releases/2022-bay-area-council-poll-voters-demand-get-tough-approach-on-homelessness/\">frequently shows homelessness is a top issue for San Franciscans\u003c/a> and as the incumbent seeks to overcome challengers’ accusations that she hasn’t done enough to clean the city’s streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It follows \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997352/newsom-orders-state-agencies-to-dismantle-homeless-encampments-across-california\">Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order last month\u003c/a>, directing state agencies to clear encampments from state properties, along with a majority-conservative U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June, which gave cities greater leeway to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11991340/supreme-court-says-laws-criminalizing-homeless-camping-do-not-violate-constitution\">fine or jail people for camping on sidewalks and in parks\u003c/a> — even if no alternative shelter is available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, Breed appeared to deliver on her promises: A \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/san-francisco-mayor-california-homeless-encampments-3f8b79c8446bb60b5168711f8b06695c\">flurry\u003c/a> of \u003ca href=\"https://sfstandard.com/2024/07/30/san-francisco-aggressive-homeless-camp-sweeps-begin/\">media\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/homeless-encampments-sweeps-breed-19607448.php\">reports\u003c/a> detailed encampment sweeps taking place throughout the city despite a shortage of available shelter. At last count, there were \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11986620/san-francisco-homelessness-up-7-despite-decline-in-street-camping\">more than 4,300 people sleeping in tents or cars on San Francisco’s streets\u003c/a> on any given night, and only around 3,600 shelter beds, of which more than 90% were \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/services/the-homelessness-response-system/shelter/#:~:text=Capacity%20Card%20showing%20the%20total,Use%20Escape%20to%20exit.\">already occupied\u003c/a>. On Monday, there were 170 people on the city’s \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/services/how-to-get-services/accessing-temporary-shelter/adult-temporary-shelter/shelter-reservation-waitlist/\">online reservation system\u003c/a> for shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What Breed’s Opponents Are Saying\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11998904\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11998904\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-36-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-36-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-36-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-36-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-36-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-36-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-36-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayor London Breed speaks during a San Francisco mayoral debate on June 12. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Not all Democrats are falling in line with the gloves-off approach. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, for example, criticized the governor’s encampment order, and the county’s Board of Supervisors recently passed a motion to prevent jail time for simply living in an encampment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, mayoral candidates to Breed’s left and right jumped at the opportunity to critique the recent blitz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let’s be clear: Nothing prohibited the city from clearing encampments pre-Grants Pass,” Mark Farrell, a former supervisor and interim mayor who is running to unseat Breed, posted to social media last week, referring to the recent Supreme Court ruling. “Mayor Breed used ongoing litigation as an excuse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farrell is campaigning on promises to sweep all of the city’s major encampments if elected and has positioned himself as the most conservative among a largely moderate slate of candidates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nonprofit founder and Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie echoed the criticism, calling it a “lack of action” and pointing out that the city does not have enough shelter beds or supportive housing to move people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Pushing encampments from one block to another didn’t work when Mark Farrell tried it, and it’s not going to work under this mayor,” Lurie said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11998907\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11998907\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-90-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-90-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-90-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-90-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-90-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-90-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240612-SFMayoralDebate-90-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Daniel Lurie speaks during a San Francisco mayoral debate on June 12, flanked by former Mayor Mark Farrell (left), Mayor London Breed and Aaron Peskin (right). \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Breed’s progressive opponent, Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, said Breed is promoting harsh policies that often fail to efficiently and compassionately move people into long-term housing after an encampment is removed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Policies to address homelessness must be humane, lawful and effective — not implemented just because someone’s job is on the line…What is happening now is a quick and performative election-year gimmick,” Peskin said in a statement. “Mayor Breed and former Mayor Farrell are advocating for failed policies from the past that simply sweep our homeless problem from one neighborhood to another without any long-term solutions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Tough Love\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Advocates for people experiencing homelessness say that although Breed’s rhetoric has ramped up, her actual policies have not changed as dramatically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Her narratives have shifted as she has seen political opportunity,” said Christin Evans, a small business owner in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood and vice chair of the city’s Homelessness Oversight Commission. “I think in this particular political moment, the rhetoric is amplified.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Evans pointed to the mayor’s recent order \u003cspan style=\"margin: 0px;padding: 0px\">that city workers conducting sweeps first offer homeless people \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11998474/breed-orders-sf-homeless-outreach-workers-to-offer-relocation-out-of-city-before-shelter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a bus ticket out of the city\u003c/a> — \u003c/span>a tool the city has had available and used since 2005.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She is amplifying these things to make it sound like she is doing something when it’s really theater,” Evans said. “She has been capable and able to address these issues all along, and she hasn’t done that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in 2018, when running for mayor, Breed promoted a tough-love approach in her plans to address homelessness. “There is nothing compassionate or safe about relegating people, particularly those suffering from mental health or addiction issues, to sleep on our streets,” she said at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breed was also careful to contextualize homelessness as the result of larger structural inequalities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Homelessness often seems like a uniquely, or at least, acutely San Francisco problem. But it isn’t,” she \u003ca href=\"https://londonbreed.medium.com/a-bold-approach-to-homelessness-a42121dc586c\">wrote in a Medium post\u003c/a> during her campaign. “The federal government has been cutting supportive housing and homelessness funding for decades and leaving cities holding the bag. West Coast cities, with high costs of living and scarce housing, are particularly susceptible to homelessness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11998920\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11998920\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/M6A2369_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/M6A2369_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/M6A2369_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/M6A2369_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/M6A2369_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/M6A2369_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/M6A2369_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayor London Breed talks to members of the press after a dramatic meeting in April 2019 about the Embarcadero SAFE Navigation Center. \u003ccite>(Stephanie Lister/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In December 2022, a U.S. judge barred San Francisco from enforcing sit-lie laws without first offering an alternative shelter as part of an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958939/sf-homelessness-lawsuit-faces-critical-hearing-over-sweeps-ban\">ongoing lawsuit against the city\u003c/a> for not following its own homelessness response policies. The Supreme Court’s ruling in Grants Pass \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11993312/court-lifts-restrictions-on-sf-encampment-sweeps\">overturned that ruling\u003c/a>, giving the city more freedom to clear encampments even if shelters are full. The lower court, however, kept the city bound to its own requirement to “bag and tag” personal items during sweeps so people could later recover them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There has always been some level of (homeless) criminalization that’s taken place in San Francisco, but it’s been more behind the scenes,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, who leads the Coalition on Homelessness. “Fast-forward to today, and this administration is calling for arrests of unhoused people as if that is a potential solution to homelessness. That’s what’s changed significantly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Breed’s six years as mayor, San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/services/the-homelessness-response-system/shelter/\">temporary shelter supply\u003c/a> has increased by more than 60%, according to the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, thousands of new permanent supportive housing units \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/data/ocoh-fund-annual-report-fy22-23-executive-summary?_gl=1*edbb9g*_ga*MTk2Mzg5NzE0NS4xNzE0Njc0NTIx*_ga_BT9NDE0NFC*MTcyMjg4NDk0MC4zNi4xLjE3MjI4ODUyMzMuMC4wLjA.*_ga_63SCS846YP*MTcyMjg4NDk0MC4zNi4xLjE3MjI4ODUyMzMuMC4wLjA.#ocoh-capacity-added\">have come online\u003c/a>, and the city has invested millions of dollars into affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breed’s administration helped 2,400 people move into San Francisco’s temporary shelter last year and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/news/new-data-san-francisco-street-homelessness-hits-10-year-low\">more than 15,000 people off the street\u003c/a> during her overall tenure, according to the mayor’s office. And, while the city’s overall homeless population has increased in recent years, the number of people in San Francisco sleeping in tents, cars and RVs has \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/about/research-and-reports/pit/\">decreased by 16%\u003c/a> since 2019, according to data from the federal Point-in-Time count.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with those efforts, a drop-off of pandemic-era rent and eviction relief, persistent economic inequality, and the ongoing shortage of both emergency and permanent affordable housing have all enabled a steady flow of people falling into homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The numbers don’t show that kind of impact because, sadly, we’re dealing with the influx of people from everywhere,” Breed said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A Dangerous Precedent\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Caught in the middle of the political winds are people actually living on the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really fueling some very mean-spirited policies and acts of vigilantism and attacks on homeless people,” Supervisor Dean Preston said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Preston joined other government officials and unhoused San Francisco residents at a recent rally outside Hotel Whitcomb, where attendees decried Breed’s recent actions. Advocates are calling on the city to acquire the hotel and use it to house people who are experiencing homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several speakers highlighted the fact that people living on the street are \u003ca href=\"https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2803839\">more likely to die of overdose\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://nhchc.org/study-shows-involuntary-displacement-of-people-experiencing-homelessness-may-cause-significant-spikes-in-mortality-overdoses-and-hospitalizations/\">end up in the hospital\u003c/a>, and experience other traumatic setbacks when they are forcefully displaced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, we have seen in an election year over and over again, going back decades in this city, that ramped-up rhetoric and talk of criminalizing homeless people is viewed by some as a ticket to electoral success in this city,” Preston said. “And it’s disgusting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11998912\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11998912\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240801-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEPS-MD-01_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A man experiencing homelessness packs up his belongings in anticipation of an encampment sweep by San Francisco’s Dept. of Public Works around Showplace Square on Aug. 1. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Breed did not confirm when reporters asked last week whether jail time is on the table for people who defy sit-lie laws. Legal advocates, however, say that is already happening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unhoused folks are being criminalized purely for being poor. And we have lots of clients coming to us who have been arrested and have faced harassment from police,” said Angela Chan, attorney and advocate at the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates at the rally said they would like to see the city further expand rental and eviction relief, housing subsidies like Section 8 vouchers, and continue to invest in both shelter and permanent housing for extremely low-income people. Chan and others also urged the city to rapidly fill the city’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/sf-homeless-crisis-tents-vacancy-sros-street-18348739.php\">hundreds of empty permanent supportive housing units\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The irony of people who are denied housing but are offered jail on a daily basis is really concerning,” Chan said. “I think every San Franciscan should really take stock of this moment and push our city to use our resources much more wisely and much more humanely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "taking-it-off-the-speculative-market-these-nonprofits-help-tenants-afford-to-stay-put",
"title": "'Affordable Housing for Another Generation': California Trusts Pull Properties Off the Market",
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"headTitle": "‘Affordable Housing for Another Generation’: California Trusts Pull Properties Off the Market | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Nine years ago, tenants of the Pigeon Palace at 2840–2848 Folsom Street in San Francisco faced a dilemma. Their aging landlord, who had long rented at affordable rates, was unable to continue overseeing the place. Instead, a court-appointed conservator took steps to auction off the building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because Pigeon Palace is in the popular and increasingly expensive Mission neighborhood, the residents feared a new owner might dramatically raise their rents — or kick them out altogether. So they crowdfunded $300,000 and gave it to a nonprofit called the San Francisco Community Land Trust, which combined it with loans from a bank and the city to place the winning bid of more than $3 million. The trust then rented units back to the tenants at affordable rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the political debate about California’s housing crisis has focused on building new units. However, community land trusts, a method of preserving existing affordable housing that dates back to the Civil Rights Movement, have quietly been gaining steam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number of community land trusts — nonprofits that buy up land and then sell or rent the buildings on top of it to residents with low-income — has tripled in California since 2014, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cacltnetwork.org/\">California Community Land Trust Network\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the housing units that such trusts oversee number only in the low thousands, supporters say the model is cheaper than building new and can help stabilize communities at risk of gentrification and displacement. Indigenous tribes, immigrant neighborhoods and formerly affordable inland cities are among the communities experimenting with community land trusts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, tenants of Pigeon Palace, a six-unit Queen Anne building, pay between $1,400 and $3,000 per month for spacious two-bedroom apartments in one of the pricey city’s most desirable neighborhoods. They share a bike room and garden with outdoor meeting space and make decisions together about building management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We shifted from being renters in a market where someone could buy our building any day to where no one’s coming to buy our building,” said Keith Hennessy, an experimental dance performer who’s lived at the Palace for 22 years. With that stability, he said, “it’s easier to build a family. It’s easier to build community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the San Francisco Community Land Trust has grown to oversee 150 units, including two larger buildings in the Tenderloin district that primarily house Spanish- and Mayan-speaking service workers. Last year, philanthropist \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/bezo-s-ex-donates-20m-s-f-affordable-housing-18353981.php\">MacKenzie Scott gave the organization $20 million\u003c/a> to expand its portfolio and help incubate new land trusts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Community land trusts can oversee single-family homes or multi-unit buildings, and residents can rent or own. When residents own their homes, the trust retains control over the land, leasing it to homeowners long-term and requiring that any home sales be to other lower- or moderate-income buyers or back to the trust. Tenants in multi-unit buildings typically cooperate to manage the property and sit on the trust’s board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather than just creating new affordable housing, community land trusts help stem the bleed of existing affordable housing being converted to units for wealthier residents. While the trusts are not new in California, concern about growing \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/03/institutional-investors-corporate-landlords/\">corporate control of housing\u003c/a> and the rising cost of new construction have driven increased interest in the model, experts say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Community Land Trust Network represents 50 established and emerging trusts across the state, with most of the newest ones springing up in working-class Black and brown communities, according to the network.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re giving control of buildings to the community. We’re taking it off the speculative market, and we’re ensuring that tenants can become homeowners if they want to,” said Jessica Melendez, director of policy for T.R.U.S.T. South LA, which recently bought two small multi-unit buildings in gentrifying South Los Angeles with the goal of turning them into cooperatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The organization also owns the Rolland Curtis Gardens, a 140-unit apartment complex with a health clinic and market near the University of Southern California, on a site that was slated for conversion to market-rate housing until the trust purchased and rehabbed it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/327SC/6/\" width=\"800\" height=\"850\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Community land trusts could be a tool to help close the homeownership gap between Black and white individuals,” said Muhammad Alameldin, a policy associate at \u003ca href=\"https://ternercenter.berkeley.edu/\">UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation\u003c/a>. The construction of condominiums has slowed nationwide in the past 15 years, he said, restricting options for entry-level homeowners who \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2022/03/california-home-prices-black-latino-households/\">lack generational wealth\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he said community land trusts also have to navigate a financial and legal system that doesn’t tend to favor cooperative ownership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The challenge of raising capital has constrained the growth of community land trusts. They currently house about 3,500 California residents, with most properties consisting of fewer than 10 units.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The movement took a hit this year when California lawmakers seeking to close a budget deficit scrapped a $500 million program that would have given tenants and community land trusts grants to buy properties at risk of foreclosure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11998629\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11998629\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1046\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Pigeon Palace in San Francisco, on Aug. 1, 2024. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Community land trusts are instead turning to local funding streams: A $20 billion affordable \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/06/california-housing-bond-bahfa-billion/\">housing bond on the ballot in the San Francisco Bay Area \u003c/a>this November would set aside $3 billion to preserve existing affordable housing, plus $6 billion for local communities to spend flexibly on priorities including preservation. And in Los Angeles, part of the revenue from the city’s “mansion tax” on real estate purchases, over $5 million, will go toward acquiring and rehabilitating affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once concentrated in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, community land trusts are spreading to other areas where the cost of living is rising. The Bakersfield City Council voted last year to establish a community land trust; Irvine already has one, and Long Beach is considering it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11979610,news_11992758,news_11997102\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fledgling Sacramento Community Land Trust just bought its first property — a garden used by residents transitioning out of homelessness — where it plans to build tiny homes, executive director Tamika L’Ecluse said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the Wiyot Tribe in Humboldt County has set up a land trust focused on conservation as well as housing. “As housing prices are pricing our people out of the Tribe’s ancestral lands, this land trust is an attempt to make change in our community,” tribal administrator Michelle Vassel said by email. “Our intention is to take the profit margin out of housing development.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether or not community land trusts can scale to become a significant part of California’s housing landscape, the model cuts across some of the traditional binaries of the state’s housing conversation. Land trust acquisitions can bring together cash-strapped tenants and small landlords who want to sell their properties, two groups often pitted against each other. And the idea goes beyond the debate between NIMBYs and YIMBYs about whether to build; community land trust advocates argue it’s not just about how much housing we have but who controls it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hennessy, the Pigeon Palace tenant, said he loves co-managing his building with a multi-ethnic community of 11 adults, four kids and two regularly visiting grandchildren. The building is undergoing renovations, and he said the tenants made decisions together about everything, down to the paint colors for its facade (lavender in back, greens and blues in front).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is affordable housing for another generation,” he said. He doesn’t have children himself, but his unit will go to another lower- to moderate-income tenant after him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m building a house for people I don’t know in the future,” he said. “It’s another kind of legacy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ben Christopher contributed reporting.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "California community land trusts — which buy land and sell or rent the buildings on it to lower-income residents — have tripled.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Nine years ago, tenants of the Pigeon Palace at 2840–2848 Folsom Street in San Francisco faced a dilemma. Their aging landlord, who had long rented at affordable rates, was unable to continue overseeing the place. Instead, a court-appointed conservator took steps to auction off the building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because Pigeon Palace is in the popular and increasingly expensive Mission neighborhood, the residents feared a new owner might dramatically raise their rents — or kick them out altogether. So they crowdfunded $300,000 and gave it to a nonprofit called the San Francisco Community Land Trust, which combined it with loans from a bank and the city to place the winning bid of more than $3 million. The trust then rented units back to the tenants at affordable rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the political debate about California’s housing crisis has focused on building new units. However, community land trusts, a method of preserving existing affordable housing that dates back to the Civil Rights Movement, have quietly been gaining steam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number of community land trusts — nonprofits that buy up land and then sell or rent the buildings on top of it to residents with low-income — has tripled in California since 2014, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cacltnetwork.org/\">California Community Land Trust Network\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the housing units that such trusts oversee number only in the low thousands, supporters say the model is cheaper than building new and can help stabilize communities at risk of gentrification and displacement. Indigenous tribes, immigrant neighborhoods and formerly affordable inland cities are among the communities experimenting with community land trusts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, tenants of Pigeon Palace, a six-unit Queen Anne building, pay between $1,400 and $3,000 per month for spacious two-bedroom apartments in one of the pricey city’s most desirable neighborhoods. They share a bike room and garden with outdoor meeting space and make decisions together about building management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We shifted from being renters in a market where someone could buy our building any day to where no one’s coming to buy our building,” said Keith Hennessy, an experimental dance performer who’s lived at the Palace for 22 years. With that stability, he said, “it’s easier to build a family. It’s easier to build community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the San Francisco Community Land Trust has grown to oversee 150 units, including two larger buildings in the Tenderloin district that primarily house Spanish- and Mayan-speaking service workers. Last year, philanthropist \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/bezo-s-ex-donates-20m-s-f-affordable-housing-18353981.php\">MacKenzie Scott gave the organization $20 million\u003c/a> to expand its portfolio and help incubate new land trusts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Community land trusts can oversee single-family homes or multi-unit buildings, and residents can rent or own. When residents own their homes, the trust retains control over the land, leasing it to homeowners long-term and requiring that any home sales be to other lower- or moderate-income buyers or back to the trust. Tenants in multi-unit buildings typically cooperate to manage the property and sit on the trust’s board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather than just creating new affordable housing, community land trusts help stem the bleed of existing affordable housing being converted to units for wealthier residents. While the trusts are not new in California, concern about growing \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/03/institutional-investors-corporate-landlords/\">corporate control of housing\u003c/a> and the rising cost of new construction have driven increased interest in the model, experts say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Community Land Trust Network represents 50 established and emerging trusts across the state, with most of the newest ones springing up in working-class Black and brown communities, according to the network.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re giving control of buildings to the community. We’re taking it off the speculative market, and we’re ensuring that tenants can become homeowners if they want to,” said Jessica Melendez, director of policy for T.R.U.S.T. South LA, which recently bought two small multi-unit buildings in gentrifying South Los Angeles with the goal of turning them into cooperatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The organization also owns the Rolland Curtis Gardens, a 140-unit apartment complex with a health clinic and market near the University of Southern California, on a site that was slated for conversion to market-rate housing until the trust purchased and rehabbed it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/327SC/6/\" width=\"800\" height=\"850\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Community land trusts could be a tool to help close the homeownership gap between Black and white individuals,” said Muhammad Alameldin, a policy associate at \u003ca href=\"https://ternercenter.berkeley.edu/\">UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation\u003c/a>. The construction of condominiums has slowed nationwide in the past 15 years, he said, restricting options for entry-level homeowners who \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2022/03/california-home-prices-black-latino-households/\">lack generational wealth\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he said community land trusts also have to navigate a financial and legal system that doesn’t tend to favor cooperative ownership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The challenge of raising capital has constrained the growth of community land trusts. They currently house about 3,500 California residents, with most properties consisting of fewer than 10 units.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The movement took a hit this year when California lawmakers seeking to close a budget deficit scrapped a $500 million program that would have given tenants and community land trusts grants to buy properties at risk of foreclosure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11998629\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11998629\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1046\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Pigeon Palace in San Francisco, on Aug. 1, 2024. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Community land trusts are instead turning to local funding streams: A $20 billion affordable \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/06/california-housing-bond-bahfa-billion/\">housing bond on the ballot in the San Francisco Bay Area \u003c/a>this November would set aside $3 billion to preserve existing affordable housing, plus $6 billion for local communities to spend flexibly on priorities including preservation. And in Los Angeles, part of the revenue from the city’s “mansion tax” on real estate purchases, over $5 million, will go toward acquiring and rehabilitating affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once concentrated in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, community land trusts are spreading to other areas where the cost of living is rising. The Bakersfield City Council voted last year to establish a community land trust; Irvine already has one, and Long Beach is considering it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fledgling Sacramento Community Land Trust just bought its first property — a garden used by residents transitioning out of homelessness — where it plans to build tiny homes, executive director Tamika L’Ecluse said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the Wiyot Tribe in Humboldt County has set up a land trust focused on conservation as well as housing. “As housing prices are pricing our people out of the Tribe’s ancestral lands, this land trust is an attempt to make change in our community,” tribal administrator Michelle Vassel said by email. “Our intention is to take the profit margin out of housing development.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether or not community land trusts can scale to become a significant part of California’s housing landscape, the model cuts across some of the traditional binaries of the state’s housing conversation. Land trust acquisitions can bring together cash-strapped tenants and small landlords who want to sell their properties, two groups often pitted against each other. And the idea goes beyond the debate between NIMBYs and YIMBYs about whether to build; community land trust advocates argue it’s not just about how much housing we have but who controls it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hennessy, the Pigeon Palace tenant, said he loves co-managing his building with a multi-ethnic community of 11 adults, four kids and two regularly visiting grandchildren. The building is undergoing renovations, and he said the tenants made decisions together about everything, down to the paint colors for its facade (lavender in back, greens and blues in front).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is affordable housing for another generation,” he said. He doesn’t have children himself, but his unit will go to another lower- to moderate-income tenant after him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m building a house for people I don’t know in the future,” he said. “It’s another kind of legacy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ben Christopher contributed reporting.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.cityarts.net/",
"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
"title": "Close All Tabs",
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"info": "Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"order": 1
},
"link": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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}
},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
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"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
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