City Council candidate Suraj Viswanathan is responding today to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s weekend news conference criticizing the City of Milpitas for proposing to withdraw from the controversial $160 million Homekey housing project located at Extended Stay America in the Hillview neighborhood of the city.
“The Governor repeatedly said we should ‘do the right thing.’ I think the residents of Milpitas and the Council are doing the ‘right thing’ by stepping back from this project and reassessing it. We think the ‘right thing’ to do is to get community input and community feedback on the project. We think the ‘right thing’ to do is not going behind the backs of the residents of Milpitas to cook this up in the back rooms by the politicians. We think the ‘right thing’ is for Milpitas to chart its own course on the homeless issue and not be dictated to by outsiders, even if that’s the Governor of California.”
“Milpitas has its own unique needs and its own unique requirements. I know this from walking the neighborhoods and listening to voters. We all want to help the homeless. We all want to do the ‘right thing’ for them. The question is whether a project that will cost well over one million dollars per housed individual in this specific neighborhood at this specific time without consulting the neighbors is the ‘right thing’ to do,” he continued.
“I believe we need to address the homeless issue in a thoughtful, deliberate manner, not having arbitrary decisions imposed upon us in a highly undemocratic fashion. We won’t be pressured and we won’t be bullied into doing the wrong thing. If elected to the Council, I will work with our community’s leading stakeholders on this issue, from homeless advocates to churches to mental health professionals, educators, and local employers to craft a comprehensive policy that helps lift the homeless out of their condition, gets them the help they need, and opens the doors of opportunity to them in our city.”
This is a sponsored post. Paid for by Elect Suraj Viswanathan for City Council 2020 FPPC#1434088
Well done City Councilman!! That is truly working with your citizens of Milpitas and not following the political BS!
Well said for what our Milpitas’s resident wanted to say.
Did they say 1) NO felons 2) NO drunks 3) NO addicts 4) NO mental patients 5) ONLY gainfully employed, disabled, or retired persons, OR those actively seeking employment? They said they will perform “background checks” on prospective tenants, but I don’t have any confidence they will adhere to a high standard. They will send over any vagrant just to keep him away from downtown. Now if these were all quality people how many would have become homeless in the first place? I’m sure there are many elderly/university graduate/retired ie deserving homeless who have fallen on hard times because of illness or disability or the failure of an investment. Why not help them first? I’d even volunteer to go there and teach guitar, metalworking, sewing, etc. Just keep the bums out for heaven’s sake.
Lots of assumptions here. Do we have any data that supports that if homeless people are provided homes crime increases in that city? What Milpitas city is essentially doing by suing the county is wasting tax payer’s money to prevent it from solving a huge problem. Society will be safer if less people are living on roads. I can’t imagine human beings opposing other less fortunate or capable people getting a roof over their heads during a raging pandemic and winter. Just because we fear something doesn’t mean it’s dangerous.
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