California’s mayors need ongoing funding to address homelessness | Letters to the editor
Unhoused refugees
“$2 billion a year to solve homelessness? That’s what California mayors now say they need,” (sacbee.com, May 17)
More than a dozen mayors want increased and ongoing funding to ease the homeless crisis. But what’s the point in spending $2 billion now to start new programs, and then not have enough next year to keep them going?
Do the mayors want this money so that they can “clean up” (read: sweep) their cities? That’s where my support ends, because sweeping only moves the problem to another location, and then more money is spent to sweep the homeless from that location.
How about seeing the homeless as refugees. How do governments treat refugees? They build shelters and provide food, water and sanitation. It’s what we do for homeless animals. Surely, we can do the same for human beings.
Diane McGuire
Sacramento
Grand audit
“Sacramento’s first-world shame: What can we do to help our homeless neighbors on the streets?” (sacbee.com, May 18)
The Bee should be applauded for taking a fresh look at local homelessness. One suggestion: Follow the money. Begin with an unflinching audit of all governmental agencies, particularly local governments, which have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the issue only to fail miserably. California’s mayors now seek annual monetary assistance while offering no proof that more money will make a dent in the problem.
Next, move to a forensic audit of nonprofits which have benefitted from this crisis, with emphasis on the salaries of CEOs and CFOs who have held lucrative positions for years and made no progress to alleviate the problem.
Bill Motmans
Sacramento
Protect students
“Davis is a city of characters and compassion. How a serial killer’s rampage shattered its soul,” (sacbee.com, May 7)
The brutal murders of a UC Davis student and a Davis resident have sparked panic across the whole campus. Students worry about their safety as they try to get to class while being fearful of the unidentified killer.
Increasing the number of emergency blue box devices on campus and ensuring that all instructors are familiar with protocols for switching to online learning in times of emergency are excellent ways to ease anxiety among Davis students.
Ravin Morgan
Davis
Opinion
Affordable housing
“Davis is a city of characters and compassion. How a serial killer’s rampage shattered its soul,” (sacbee.com, May 7)
Homelessness exposes individuals to heightened risks of physical violence, making them extremely vulnerable, as demonstrated by the harrowing experience of stabbing survivor Kimberlee Guillory. She vividly described how the killer slashed open her tent and launched a brutal attack.
In this article, it’s noted that Davis has a severe affordable housing shortage, which, combined with the increasing number of unhoused people locally and nationally, creates an unlivable condition here in Davis. Affordable housing not only offers secure shelter, it supports healing, prevents future altercations and allows unhoused people to focus on other aspects of their lives such as employment opportunities.
It is crucial for Davis to allocate our budget toward affordable housing as a fundamental step in creating a more inclusive and compassionate community.
Zane Haidar
Woodland
A solution
“Davis is a city of characters and compassion. How a serial killer’s rampage shattered its soul,” (sacbee.com, May 7)
This past week was an unsettling and scary time for Davis residents. Although many were able to huddle together in the comfort of their homes, roughly 200 unhoused individuals in the city had nowhere to turn. Unfortunately, it took these traumatic events to reveal a deep-rooted issue within the city of Davis: the lack of emergency housing. In fact, Davis has an insufficient number of emergency beds and no large-scale homeless shelters.
One solution could be an agreement between the city and local hotels to provide short-term housing for unhoused individuals when rooms are vacant.
Lucas Halteh
Davis
Hypocrite
“What does the debt ceiling fight do to California’s economy?” (sacbee.com, May 11)
Kevin McCarthy claims to be oh-so-concerned by our national debt that he is threatening default for the first time in history. Yes, the national debt is too high, but yes, it’s the result of budgets already approved by both Republicans and Democrats in Congress.
If Republicans were truly concerned about the high debt, they shouldn’t have approved tax cuts for the very rich while reducing resources for IRS tax collection. Reduced revenue along with higher spending increases debt.
Defaulting on financial obligations will lower our nation’s credit rating. That will increase the cost (interest rate) for governmental borrowing. And higher borrowing costs will increase the national debt. McCarthy’s refusal to raise the debt limit will increase the very debt he pretends to want to reduce.
Bruce Joffe
Piedmont
