Dave Cortese, the recently appointed president of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, will deliver the State of the County address Tuesday, laying out his vision for the year ahead.
In a press release out this morning, Cortese's office said the supervisor would announce an unlikely partnership. Matt Mahood, head of the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, and Ben Field, chief officer of the South Bay Labor Council, will lead a new task force dedicated to finding solutions for the region's growing homeless population.
The group will work for 10 months to come up with a plan to expand emergency shelters and offer transitional and permanent housing. It will then report back to the Board of Supervisors with its findings.
“It is unacceptable that so many people live on the streets in one of the wealthiest counties in the world," Cortese said in a prepared statement. "I am pleased that this this Task Force will unite the business community, labor, and local governments to address the homeless crisis.”
The annual speech tonight highlights the county's condition and initiatives for the coming calendar year. Here's a review of last year's speech, delivered by then-board president and Supervisor Mike Wasserman.
Doors open at 5:30pm Tuesday at the Montgomery Theater, 271 S. Market St., in San Jose.
For more information, residents can contact Cortese's office at 408.299.5030.
In a press release out this morning, Cortese’s office said the supervisor would announce an unlikely partnership. Matt Mahood, head of the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, and Ben Field, chief officer of the South Bay Labor Council, will lead a new task force dedicated to finding solutions for the region’s growing homeless population.
Just convert old city hall to a low income section 8 apartment complex. Done.
> a new task force dedicated to finding solutions for the region’s growing homeless population.
Big hearted people have been trying to “solve” the “homeless problem” since the days of Mitch Snyder (1970’s).
How come they never succeed?
“Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.”
Big hearted people have been trying to “solve” the “homeless problem” since the days of Mitch Snyder (1970’s).
Not that correlation is causation but, the amount of farmland in San Jose has steadily declined since the 70’s, and a correlation could be drawn by the demise of our farmland, and the number of homeless day laborers standing in front of Home Depot.
Farms had a solution to this. They gave them land to build seasonal housing on. They would come up, live in these seasonal houses, make money, and go home for the rest of the season. Now these same folks come, there’s no jobs, no housing.
So now they end up living under bridges and don’t make enough to make the seasonal trip home. It’s not the case for all our homeless, but there is a good portion of them in this situation.
I assume you are alluding to the “guest worker” program.
It’s always seemed like common sense to me.
I blame “progressives” for torpedoing the guest worker program in order to create a social crisis.
Rahm Emanuel gave the game away: “Never let a crisis go to waste”.
Rahm and the boys don’t want “guest workers”, they want “guest voters”.
I think the ultimate goal is to have the smallest possible housing unit with the strictest ruleset. It will be geared towards the H1-B worker, who is so frightened of breaking any laws that they tow the line well. They make a lot of money, and they can’t vote.
They don’t want guest voters my friend. They want tax revenue with a populace that’s powerless to vote them out. The plight of people under the tyranny of H1-B is the new short hoe.
> They don’t want guest voters my friend. They want tax revenue with a populace that’s powerless to vote them out.
Who is “they”?
I think “they” would be anyone who’s a career politician, who keeps voting these cockameanie “Low income housing!” units that cost more than what one could make on minimum wage to rent.
It’s by design.
The major error remains considering a solution that assumes incorrectly that there is one homogenous homeless problem. The vast majority of the homeless are drunks, drug addicts, schizophrenics, and others who are unwilling or unable to accept the one size fits all solution proposed by politicians, and NGOs whose livelihood depends upon NOT finding a permanent solution.