Bills offer help to homeless students

Re: “Homeless student numbers in California rising” (Page B1, July 9).

I read with interest the article regarding youth homelessness. This year, I authored two bills to help students experiencing homelessness.

In the 2022-23 school year, over 246,000 students in California experienced homelessness. Nearly 90,000 high school students were identified as homeless, including more than 24,000 12th graders. Too many young people who face homelessness struggle to access higher education, training and jobs.

SB 685 will cover certain costs of attendance for homeless students, including housing and basic needs, at San Jose State and three other CSU campuses, so students can focus on their education and stay off the streets.

SB 33 will create the California Success, Opportunity and Academic Resilience (CalSOAR) Program to temporarily provide homeless high school seniors with $1,000 monthly upon graduation, building on guaranteed income programs we’ve started locally.

We’ve seen these programs work, offering dignity, empowerment and stability. So, let’s make ending youth homelessness a reality.

— Dave Cortese, California state senator, San Jose

DA’s refusal to appeal certainly seems political

Re: “DA’s death penalty views reflect county’s” and “Ex-DA’s letter confuses death penalty question” (Page A6, July 9).

The letters of Daniel Mayfield and Terence McCaffrey both missed the main point of former Santa Clara County District Attorney Dolores Carr’s article (“DA didn’t appeal death penalty ruling. Was it all about politics?” Page A6, July 3) in which she criticizes the recent decision of her successor, Jeff Rosen, not to appeal the Superior Court’s denial of his motion to reduce the death penalty of mass murderer Richard Farley to a life sentence.

Specifically, the anti-death penalty Sacramento politicos recently passed the statute, under which Rosen filed his motion, in a “heads I win, tails you lose” fashion that the only parties to Rosen’s motion were Rosen, who opposes the death penalty, and the mass murderer such that, if Rosen/Farley had won their motion, none of Farley’s victims could have appealed.

Carr wisely suggests that Rosen did not appeal his loss here because he does not want any appellate court to declare this new, highly dubious, “no adversaries” statute unconstitutional.

— John Haggerty, Santa Clara

Universal health care could be Dems’ first step

As the Democrats struggle to find their footing, perhaps it is time for them to push bold policy changes, not merely trying to restore control or what was lost.

Imagine if you didn’t have to wonder whether you would have health coverage through an employer, have to go to a decimated VA facility, seek care through the workers’ compensation program or fit eligibility guidelines for Medi-Cal, marketplace insurance or Medicare. Universal health care is just one example to reimagine the future of the Democratic Party. There are so many more. People are hungry for real solutions.

— Ruth Atkin, Emeryville