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Bill’s aim is to free up housing capital

Re: “How to make housing affordable” (Page B1, April 17).

The Mercury News article underscores a central challenge: projects aren’t stalled by lack of planning, but by lack of capital.

California has more than 40,000 affordable housing units that are “shovel-ready” but remain on hold due to financing gaps. These homes could be built now — housing tens of thousands — if we unlock the resources to move them forward.

That is why I introduced Senate Bill 750, the California Housing Finance and Credit Act. This measure is designed to provide reliable financing tools leveraging the state’s credit capacity to trigger private investment and accelerate residential construction.

Local efforts like San Jose’s to get creative with credit capacity are essential, but the scale of this crisis demands statewide solutions as well.

The housing is ready. Now we must deliver the funding to build it. My SB 750 aims to address that.

Sen. Dave Cortese
San Jose

San Jose is on right track for housing

Re: “How to make housing affordable” (Page B1, April 17).

Housing stories aren’t something that I necessarily give a lot of my attention to, but I was enlightened reading this one.

The median home price is more than $1 million; building an “affordable home” in San Jose has always felt impossible. Funding sources like tax credits and vouchers becoming more sought after aren’t helping the housing situation either; however, it’s refreshing to know of Mayor Mahan’s decision, and the council’s as well, to help create new tools of monetary relief toward housing.

Introducing lease-revenue financing, certificates of participation, and a funded Inclusionary Housing Ordinance is going to help shape San Jose to fit the frame of a city where workers like teachers and nurses, even bottom-wage workers, aren’t priced out to Modesto or Stockton. I hope the Rules Committee keeps this report going.

James Pond
San Jose

County executive must go after toddler’s death

Re: “NAACP calls for agency changes” (Page A1, April 22).

I applaud the NAACP for demanding changes in the leadership of Santa Clara County around the issue of the Department of Family and Child Services. The article states that the county supervisors only have the power to fire the county executive.

They need to do that.

The county has been obfuscating this issue and trying to blame the social workers. It is on the leaders. County Executive Jeff Williams needs to go.

Tom Farrell
Santa Clara

Keep spotlight on abuses of church

Re: “Victim of priest abuse testifies about his trauma” (Page A1, April 21).

After reading this article, I felt apathetic, then disgusted with myself, due to how often there are stories just like this about the Catholic Church.

I believe that all members of the clergy, just like anyone whose primary job is to work with many children, should go through a psychological evaluation before being allowed to work closely and unsupervised with kids. In a world where child safety is increasingly at risk, a vision where kids are pointed in the right direction should be common sense.

Publishing more stories of children being taken advantage of brings more light to this issue that has plagued American churches for too long.

Brady Ryan
San Jose

‘Peace president’ keeps nation at war

So, just a few months ago, Donald Trump couldn’t shut up about feeling slighted and upset over not winning the Nobel Peace Prize. After all, he claimed to have ended eight wars. Most of us knew what a crock that claim was.

Now, after gloating over his perceived victory in Venezuela, he joined with warmonger Benjamin Netanyahu and took us into Iran. He has stupidly claimed victory several times, but we’re still fighting and have committed more ships and troops while his own three sons are safe and will not ever serve.

He will do anything to keep us from seeing the Epstein files. Shame on all you Trump voters who drank the Kool-Aid.

Lynda Martinez
San Jose

Trump is turning to megalomania

Donald Trump’s leadership has evolved from narcissism into something closer to megalomania, a belief in his own limitless authority and historic destiny. Actions that concentrate power around his personal image and authority include creating institutions where he holds lifetime leadership roles, branding public institutions with his name, bypassing traditional congressional oversight and making sweeping unilateral decisions in foreign policy.

Such behavior reflects a shift from ordinary political ego to a grander sense that the state and its institutions exist as extensions of the leader himself. Historically, similar patterns, personalization of power, weakening institutional constraints and self-aggrandizing symbolism, have appeared in leaders who moved toward authoritarian rule.

Supporters see decisive leadership, but opponents view a dangerous trajectory: the transformation of democratic governance into a system increasingly centered on one individual’s power, legacy and self-image.

Paul Osborn
Morgan Hill