“Housing First” Policies Create More Homelessness

By Edward Ring
08/31/2022
Earlier this month a guest column in San Jose Spotlight defended efforts by homeless nonprofits to end homelessness in Santa Clara County. The author, Ray Bramson, is Chief Impact Officer at the nonprofit “Destination Home,” a tax exempt organization that collected over $62 million in contributions and grants in 2020. The CEO of this organization made a reported $335,404 in that...

TAGS: affordable housing, California housing crisis, homeless, Homeless Industrial Complex, homelessness, Housing

The Consequences of Centrally Planned Compassion

By Edward Ring
02/10/2021
Sixty years ago, when California was governed by people who were sane pragmatists, homes were affordable and very few people were homeless. To support new housing, government funds were focused on building enabling infrastructure. California’s freeways and expressways connected new suburbs to urban cores, and the California Water Project delivered abundant water to the growing...

TAGS: California housing crisis, Venice Beach

The Coalition That Will Realign California

By Edward Ring
12/31/2020
Poor governance, beginning long before the bungled response to the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to a recall campaign that may very well put California Governor Newsom into a fight for his political life in the Spring of 2021. If a suitable challenger emerges to replace Newsom, he could end up in well deserved political exile. But what’s happening in...

TAGS: California housing crisis

An Agenda to Realign California Politics

By Edward Ring
12/22/2020
When it comes to California’s political dysfunction, over and over, the story’s already been told. Failing schools, crumbling infrastructure. Highest taxes, highest unemployment, and highest cost-of-living. Hostile business climate. Crippling, punitive regulations and fees. Widest gap between rich and poor. Burning forests, lawless streets. Record numbers of homeless. Unaffordable housing. Water rationing, electricity blackouts. And...

TAGS: California housing crisis, california public schools

How to NOT Solve California’s Housing Crisis

By Edward Ring
10/31/2018
There are obvious reasons the median home price in California is $544,900, whereas in the United States it is only $220,100. In California, demand exceeds supply. And supply is constrained because of unwarranted environmental laws such as SB 375 that have made it nearly impossible to build housing outside the “urban service boundary.” These laws have...

TAGS: California housing crisis, urban containment