A San Francisco initiative to help homeless families find affordable apartments and assist them in paying the rent is sending the majority of them out of the city because of the high cost and shortage of housing.
Category: Bay Area
Posted inBay Area, Community, Government & Politics, Health, Homelessness, Neighborhoods, News
Health Funding for Clinics, Kids and the Homeless in Limbo as Congress Fights
Across the country, 1,400 community clinics that care for some of the poorest people in the United States are anxiously making contingency plans for how to cope with potential funding cuts, all because Congress allowed a critical program to lapse. The impact is already being felt in San Francisco and the Bay Area.
Posted inBay Area, Labor, News, Technology
Public Press Weekly: North Bay Fires — Now Comes the Recovery
The destructive North Bay wildfires have been fully contained, after torching more than 200,000 acres, causing at least 42 deaths and incinerating thousands of homes and businesses, reducing urban landscapes to smoking rubble. Now the post-disaster phase is beginning: recovery.
Posted inBay Area, Community, Economy & Business, Homelessness, Housing, News, Solving Homelessness: Ideas for Ending a Crisis
Private Capital Takes a Risk to Help House Neediest
Since their debut seven years ago, “social impact bonds” have generated $200 million in the United States and 14 other countries toward programs to reduce homelessness and related social problems. San Jose has already tapped into this new funding source, and San Francisco may in the future.
Posted inBay Area, Economy & Business, Health, Homelessness, Solving Homelessness: Ideas for Ending a Crisis
Comparing 4 ‘Social Impact Bond’ Projects
Governments have been looking for an effective, cost-efficient way to house their homeless populations, especially the high-need individuals straining public resources while out on the streets. Social impact bonds offer a novel public-private partnership that might work.
Posted inBay Area, City Hall, Education, Health, Homelessness, Housing
One Week of Homelessness Coverage, 11 Ideas About Solutions
The weeklong S.F. Homeless Project, a coordinated reporting effort by nearly two dozen outlets, offered up some ideas that could contribute to the overall aim of ending homelessness — or at least proposals that could help homeless individuals cope better with life on the streets.
Posted inBay Area, Climate Change, Environment, Neighborhoods, Sea Level Rise: 2nd in a Series
Visionary Solutions to Bayfront Inundation
Responding to sea level rise requires actions that fall into three categories: fortify infrastructure, accommodate higher water and retreat from the shoreline. Given the economic and cultural ties Bay Area residents have to the water — retreat is a hard sell.
Posted inBay Area, Community, Education, Health, Homelessness, Housing, Labor, Media, Public Safety, Social Justice, Social Services
How Media Coverage on Homelessness Falls Short (And What Reporters Can Do About It)
In many newsrooms, “the homeless” is a well-worn catchphrase for the often-anonymous people on the street or in shelters. But many professionals who work with these populations on a daily basis find the term offensive and misleading.
Posted inBay Area, Housing, Neighborhoods, News
Cities ponder tighter rent controls
A city councilmember in San Jose has said he may propose strengthening his city’s loose rent controls to keep at least some housing there affordable. But rents in Oakland continued to soar after it made the same move last summer. Few other solutions to the Bay Area’s housing crisis have emerged, and even San Francisco’s stringent controls haven’t kept a lid on evictions or rent increases.
Posted inBay Area, Bay Area Smart Growth, Census, Land use
Census Estimates Show Bay Area Growing Faster than Expected
New residents are flocking to the Bay Area faster than regional planners previously expected.