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Only more housing
will solve homelessness
Re: “Homelessness issue brings divisiveness” (Page B1, April 8).
Requiring shelter or housing before clearing homeless encampments is a humane way to deal with homelessness. More than $20 billion has been allocated in California to solve this growing problem.
Despite all these efforts, the unhoused population is climbing. More than 80% of Californians feel it is a serious issue.
What are the main drivers of this problem? Unaffordable housing, stagnated income for the working poor and mental health are the major drivers. The recently passed Proposition 1 addresses the last issue. Booming job creation may lift the wages of the working poor.
Unless we quickly build more affordable housing, the homelessness problem is here to stay.
Mohan Raj
San Jose
PG&E disingenuous
on executive pay
Re: “PG&E CEO, other execs land huge payouts” (Page A1, April 6).
Patricia Poppe earned $17 million in cash compensation in 2023 along with $24.4 million in restricted stock gains. Ten other key PG&E executives similarly received huge compensation benefits and stock awards last year — all in the face of soaring customer utility bills.
According to PG&E, however, “ratepayers don’t foot the bill for executive compensation — the shareholders do.” Excuse me, but that is a shamefully disingenuous nuancing of words. Most certainly ratepayers ultimately pay executive compensation just as ratepayers bear the burden of every other element of PG&E’s operating costs and expenses. Who do you think would otherwise pay? The tooth fairy?
Nick Cochran
San Jose
Aid to Israel prolongs
slaughter in Gaza
When seven aid workers (Including an American) were killed April 1 with Israeli weapons by mistake, John Kirby went on all the news shows to say the United States wants a “thorough investigation” of the incident.
Why doesn’t the United States just stop sending military aid to Israel? If they didn’t have a blank check from us to do anything they wanted, this war between Israel and Hamas would be over in a couple of days.
Bill Graham
Salinas
Source: www.mercurynews.com