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Homelessness in San Jose

While you hear a lot about homelessness in Los Angeles and San Francisco, homeless encampments in San Jose California, are apparent a mere 5 blocks from where I live. In what is called the heart of Silicone Valley, a turn of phrase that always puzzled me when the giants of the tech industry, Hewlett/Packard, Steve Jobs, and Steve Wozniak, Apple, all came out of Palo Alto.


To understand the problem, I went to Mabury Street and interviewed Rachel Figuero on Sept. 8.

She is an older woman who has been living on the streets “Two and a half years” after her “mother passed away.”


After her husband died “…everything just kind of fell apart,” she said.

I asked her “What has the government done to help get you off the streets?”

AND she told me ABOUT “a survey,” which asked questions like, “were you ever the victim of violence on the street?” Do you feel your life is being threatened? Questions like that.

Figuero believes the answers were used to assign her certain percentage points that result in a score, they use to determine the need and eligibility of the homeless person.


In the California State Budget for 2019/20, “The Budget includes …$1 billion for homelessness.”

1 billion?  What were they doing with all that money?  Buying more of them?

To put that 1 billion number in perspective, California spends $3.5 billion on health care services for prisoners. Perhaps THAT would be preferable.


WATCH my LATEST VIDEO on Homeless OVERPOPULATION:

www.youtube.com/embed/X2FQ4A5X6n0