Construction Maison

Looking at the County of San Bernardino ’s Point in Time Homeless Count numbers , veterans comprised 8.2 percent of those who were homeless in the county in 2016, but that percentage increased to 9.6 percent in 2017. Although the increase was slight, it was moving in the wrong direction. We knew the numbers were not trending the right direction when my nonprofit organization purchased the five-acre parcel on the southwest corner of Texas Street and Lugonia Avenue in the city of Redlands nearly two years ago. At the time, we were also cognizant of the rich tradition city and community leaders had in supporting our veterans. The VA Loma Linda Healthcare System was a few miles away, and in fact opened an Ambulatory Care Center on Redlands Boulevard even closer to our property just last October. There were active AMVets and American Legion Posts in the community, and the service clubs in the community included many veterans. As an experienced affordable housing developer with a miss...

click to enlarge Rob Donnelly Sporting a bandanna over a graying ponytail, Arthur Madeiros sat bare -chested on the northwest corner of Church and Main streets on August 16, holding a cardboard sign that read: "Homeless Anything helps." The 50-year-old Rutland man had arrived in Burlington a week earlier, just hours before a fight among three itinerant men turned violent in City Hall Park . Police said Conner Lucas was intoxicated when he stabbed two fellow homeless men — one in the hand, the other in the neck — on August 9. Within 24 hours, Madeiros had gotten a knife of his own, for protection. He has no plans to use it, he said, but, "Of course, I'm nervous." He's not alone. The stabbing incident was the second in the last five months involving homeless men in downtown Burlington . In March, Louis Fortier allegedly used a knife to kill 43-year-old Richard Medina on the corner of Church and Cherry streets — in broad daylight. In additi...

Take a walk east from the gold-plated cupola of San Francisco City Hall and the landscape transforms into the Tenderloin, a patchwork of residential hotels, small delis and social service clinics that cater to the poor. It winds into the city’s main tourist corridor , and, farther along, a glossy cluster of condominium towers where upper- story penthouses cost millions . These symbols of extreme poverty and prosperity are wedged together in District Six, which serves both as a portal for visitors and a cauldron where San Francisco ’s most pressing political issues simmer . For 20 years, District Six voters have reliably concluded that the solutions to those issues come from the progressive viewpoint. And while it’s more than a year until the next election for supervisor, the contest is already shaping up as a test of whether that is still true. From the Tenderloin to the Mission Bay waterfront , District Six has seen a rush of development over the past two decades, and residents are ...

How plunging oil prices are reversing fortunes across Texas. Read all the stories in this series. MIDLAND — Thousands have been laid off. Tax collections are plummeting. Many are on the brink of homelessness.   Rows of drilling rigs and white company trucks sit idle — there’s no telling for how long. And, yet, amid the worst oil bust in decades, the energy capital of West Texas hasn ’t slowed down much. Several oil companies have recently built  office complexes in the area, and drilling continues , albeit at a more sluggish pace. The city plans to build a new convention center, and construction of a municipal courthouse is underway. Several more hotels, apartment complexes and eateries are expected to open   this year, and a second H-E-B grocery store just came online . "For hire" signs are ample, road crews prolific . And people still complain about the traffic. “People from the outside come in expecting to see boarded-up windows, 'for sale' signs everywhere,...