May 28, 2015
It’s a startling number: $520 million. That’s the annual cost of homelessness in Santa Clara County, according to a newly released study sponsored by Destination: Home. What does that number account for? More than $300 Million is for health care…every year. $131 million in costs related to the justice system…every year, and social services run more than $77 million…every year. …
May 26, 2015
Sunnyvale Adopting Housing Impact Fee To be heard: Wednesday, May 27, 7 pm Planning Commission One Ordinance and Two Resolutions to Approve Two New Affordable Housing Impact Fees: Housing Impact Fee for Nonresidential Development and Housing Impact Fee for Rental Housing. Recent Council direction to expand the Housing Mitigation Fee and to establish a new fee for rental housing developments requires…
May 21, 2015
Silicon Valley is booming, and it is service workers like those at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara that are making this boom possible. While the region’s top tech firms made a record $103 billion in profits in 2013, one in three Silicon Valley households does not make enough money to meet their most basic needs. It is literally a “Tale…
May 20, 2015
The City of Sunnyvale continues on its path to do more to help improve the lives of working families in the South Bay. City Council member Jim Davis deserves kudos for leading the way on a proposed ordinance that will ensure that large-scale private developments hire, employ and provide on-the-job training to apprentices. Why is this so important? Even during…
May 18, 2015
San Jose Recommendation to defer salary increase for City Council members The Mayor and three councilmembers: Rocha, Kalra, and Carrasco are asking that the council defer action on giving themselves a raise until the City has finished its contract negotiations with City unions. The City’s Salary setting commission recommended raises for the Mayor increasing his salary from $114,000 to $125,000…
May 15, 2015
A new report released by the Center for Popular Democracy shows that erratic and abusive work schedules are a major culprit in keeping women prisoners of income volatility – called the new “hidden inequality” by the New York Times. Here are some report highlights: With 38.8 million women paid by the hour – including 72 percent of Latina workers and 68…
May 11, 2015
San Jose Renters’ rights and affordable housing Two proposals are being put forward addressing the crisis facing renters in San Jose. From Council member Peralez: A prohibition against discrimination based on source of income (Section 8 and other housing subsidies). Recommendations on improvements and a comprehensive analysis of the data and effectiveness of the City of San Jose’s Rental Rights…
May 9, 2015
Fueled by a booming Silicon Valley, California’s economy is making tremendous strides since the Great Recession hit in late 2007. However, throughout the state, Californians have witnessed an era of vast income disparity. Too many individuals and working families have not experienced the wage growth needed to keep up with the cost of living. Tweet
May 7, 2015
The City of Santa Clara could have a new ordinance raising its minimum wage by midsummer. Council member Dominic Caserta led the effort to raise the wage to $11 an hour starting next January, with a plan to work with Sunnyvale and Mountain View on a regional $15 dollar an hour wage by 2018. Tweet
May 5, 2015
It’s a story not too many other media outlets seem to be paying attention to, (except us and NBC Bay Area )yet it’s critical to thousands of Silicon Valley workers. The San Jose City Council voted to move forward with a proposal to strengthen wage theft laws in San Jose. The tally that put the close vote over the line…