HERCULES — On the surface, Victoria by the Bay is a charming neighborhood of 926 homes only a short walk from the shores of San Pablo Bay. But the ground beneath the roughly 200-acre development was once home to the former Pacific Refinery Co., a facility built in 1966 that produced 55,000 barrels of oil … Read more
More than a year after the deadline and being hit with a lawsuit over the delay, Cupertino has received a green light from state regulators for a housing plan to add more than 4,500 homes by 2031. Every eight years, California law requires cities to submit a blueprint, known as a housing element, for how … Read more
BERKELEY — Two candidates have thrown their hats in the race to represent Berkeley’s District 7, a part of the city largely populated by university students. Cecilia Lunaparra, a senior at UC Berkeley studying history and urban studies, and James Chang, chief of staff for Councilmember Ben Bartlett and a graduate student at the Haas … Read more
It is estimated that the U.S. government owns 45,000 underutilized buildings and Representative Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, wants to see this vast resource repurposed to fight the nation’s affordable housing crisis. That is why on Tuesday morning, April 1, he introduced the Government Facilities to Affordable Housing Conversion Act. If passed, the bill would create an … Read more
CONCORD — Maria Verduzco has two more weeks to move out of the three-bedroom house she and her three children have called home since 2021. In late January, she received a 60-day notice that her landlord planned to terminate her tenancy by April 1 — without any listed reason. She said she had never missed … Read more
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $6.4 billion plan to bring thousands of homeless people off the streets and into treatment appeared to be on life support Wednesday as conservative voters in rural counties roundly rejected the mental health ballot measure that had seemed to enjoy strong support heading into Election Day. Votes in favor of the measure … Read more
In recent months, the South Bay chapter of the NAACP and other community advocates have publicly accused one of the region’s largest homeless service providers of discriminating against five Black employees whom it fired and Black residents of homeless shelters. Now, local officials are weighing whether to renew Milpitas-based HomeFirst’s multimillion-dollar contract to run the large … Read more
The smell of rotten, boiled eggs stands out in Kateryna’s memory of her six months living at a refugee camp in Berlin. “When you peel them, the smell is horrible,” she said. “The yolk is black.” She has a collection of photos and videos of inedible food on her phone that she says was served … Read more
On a cool Thursday afternoon in Ottawa, veteran police officer Sgt. Avery Flanagan approaches a man hunched over in a downtown parking lot. He has crushed opioids in one hand and a needle in the other. Flanagan tells the man, who appears to be in his 20s, he can’t use drugs on private property. “Have … Read more
Despite passage of at least 140 housing bills, California has made little progress in solving its 2.5-million-home shortfall, a panel of experts told Realtors last week. California’s municipalities issue fewer than 120,000 new home permits each year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. But economists estimate the state needs to build 180,000 to … Read more
