John,

Especially over the holidays, we need to be thinking about the nearly 170,000 people in California who don’t have a place to sleep or a roof over their heads. Homelessness is a tragic crisis here in California and we have to fix it.

Over the past year my team and I have been pushing aggressively for a comprehensive plan to combat homelessness. Our plan includes 3 parts:

1. directing more federal dollars to crisis areas like ours 2. expanding mental and behavioral healthcare and 3. building more affordable housing.

That’s why I’m excited to share with you a big win we just passed through the House in the Build Back Better Act - we’re going to be able to build 1 million new affordable housing units across the U.S.

A great example of what we can accomplish is Modesto’s 1612 Project, which is an unprecedented effort locally to build affordable housing for low and moderate income folks and become a new hub for local businesses.

There’s no silver bullet to solving homelessness, but this legislation is a huge step in the right direction. Housing costs are skyrocketing here in California and making sure everyone can afford a roof above their head is a no-brainer.

We have a long way to go but wanted to make sure you knew our hard work was paying off!

Thanks for reading,
Josh