Bramson: Setting expectations for housing and homelessness on the 2024 ballot

This November you’re not going to see any money for affordable housing on the ballot locally. Nor will you see funding to help support people living on the streets or in deep poverty. There are a lot of reasons for why it ended up this way, but the bottom line is that your vote this year won’t solve the immediate crisis, but it could play a pivotal role in how we will be able to respond in the future.

Proposition 5 sits at the top of the list. And a “yes” vote means that we will actually have a chance to pass measures that help to build homes for so many people down the road. Without raising a dime of taxes, Proposition 5 gives voters more decision-making power to address affordable housing and public infrastructure needs in their own communities. Years ago, voters made the wise decision to pass a very similar measure to improve our schools, and the results have been tremendous. If you believe homes for working families, vulnerable elders, disabled adults, and so many more should be a priority for future support, the choice is clear.

Next up is rent control. And there’s no need to get into any debate about it as an economically sound intervention when it comes to Proposition 33. This measure simply eliminates the state’s ability to limit or cap rent control, returning authority to local jurisdictions. So in communities where displacement pressures are high and the cost-of-living is skyrocketing, cities and counties will be able to work with constituents to determine whether or not it makes sense to further strengthen existing laws. There’s an argument to be made that this deregulation of rent control might hamper market rate housing production in some places going forward, but for the hundreds of thousands of families living paycheck to paycheck right now, one can understand how the real threat of homelessness is much more front and center.

And lastly is the ugliness of Proposition 36. Communities are facing real problems related to economic hardship right now. And while this proposition readily discusses the challenges we see every day on our streets, it does nothing to actually address those issues. There isn’t a penny for the housing and services solutions that we know work to help folks in need and there’s nothing to promote any of the positive outcomes that Proposition 36 claims to be working towards. Homelessness is not a crime, and committing to what amounts to a war on poor people will not help improve the lives of anyone.

And that’s about it. Of course, there are candidates running for office. For that, I will just say that it’s critical to make sure the people you vote for have clear views on how they plan to address housing and homelessness in a way that will actually move the needle. But like all of the measures above, who and what you choose to support now is really only an endorsement of what we hope to see in the years to come.

San José Spotlight columnist Ray Bramson is the Chief Operating Officer at Destination: Home, a nonprofit that works to end homelessness in Silicon Valley. His columns appear every second Monday of the month. Contact Ray at [email protected] or follow @rbramson on X, formerly known as Twitter.