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February 13, 2020
News
NEWS BRIEFS Add and Drop Deadlines For most courses, the last day to add or drop with a refund is Feb. 29. The deadline for some courses is on a different date. Students should always check the deadlines for their specific courses by logging into MyPortal and viewing their class schedule. Immigration Webinar Riverside City College Outreach is holding a webinar overviewing the immigration removal process and offering advice on how to protect yourself. The presentation will be held in the Charles A. Kane 202Q Conference Room on Feb. 26 from noon-2 p.m. Coffee and Consent Coffee and Consent is meant to educate the public on issues surrounding sexual assault. Student Services will be offering free coffee, advice, and information on what “consent” is from 9-11 a.m. outside the Digital Library on Feb. 25 and outside the Bookstore on Feb. 26. 2020 Riverside Mayoral Candidate Forum Seven Riverside mayoral candidates will participate in a forum at Avila’s Historic 1929, located where Mission Inn Ave. meets the 91 Freeway, from 1-3 p.m. on Feb. 26. The event is free and open to the public, but those planning to attend should register at iechamber.org. Voter Deadlines and March 3 Elections The California presidential candidate primary and Riverside mayoral elections will be held on March 3 from 7 a.m.-8 p.m. The last day to register to vote is Feb. 18. For new citizens, who are sworn in after Feb. 17, the voter registration period is from Feb. 18 to March 3. The last day to request a vote-by-mail ballot is Feb. 25. The elected mayor will serve a term of four years. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote, the two candidates with the highest number of votes will advance to a run-off election to be held on Nov. 3. To get campus events listed, contact viewpoints. news@gmail.com.
LEO CABRAL | VIEWPOINTS
Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey discusses housing during his State of the City Address at the Riverside Convention Center on Jan. 30. Bailey is in the final year of his term but assured residents that he “will not be a lame duck mayor.”
Bailey discusses city’s housing crisis CITY from page 1 needs.” The mayor explained that the city must find ways to lower the costs of housing, speed up development, increase the diversity of housing options and ensure that the workforce is trained to meet the demands of the necessary development increase. He announced plans to create a housing action team in the next month to ensure that 18,000 housing units are built across Riverside over the next ten years. The team will aim to present a plan to the City Council in the next six months. According to Riverside’s 2019 Point in Time Count, a federally mandated annual census of homeless persons, there were 439 people living on the streets of the city last year, which was a 19.9% increase from 2018. Bailey rebutted the claims that homeless people are content with life in the streets. “I often hear that our homeless population doesn’t want our help,” Bailey said. “Yet 220 individuals have gone through the laborious process to qualify for permanent supportive housing. And they continue to wait because we only have 16 permanent supportive housing units in the city.” Bailey reported that the city has witnessed an increase in the number of women over age 50 that have entered homelessness in recent years, while Riverside only set apart 5% of its affordable housing units for seniors through the consistent rent increases of the past decade. According to the mayor, local school districts have also identified 122 children living in cars, substandard hotels and the
streets. He asked that residents commit to partnering with the city and local districts to ensure that every child in Riverside is housed by the end of the year. The mayor claimed that some of the influences on homelessness are out of the city’s control, such as inadequate mental health services and permissible drug use policies, which he said would not be changed due to their direct ratification by voters. “As a result, our city continues to bear an undue burden for the costs and impacts of homelessness,” Bailey said. “Does that make sense to you?” Bailey claimed that Riverside has seen some success in addressing homelessness and now has 273 permanent supportive housing units in the works due to a $32 million investment by nonprofit housing developers and the local religious community. These projects include downtown’s Mission Heritage Plaza and the St. Michael’s Project, which the City Council approved a $2 million loan for last May in spite of vocal opposition by some Ward 5 residents. According to the Press Enterprise, the Riverside
Planning Commission said that the St. Michael’s Project “doesn’t fit the character of the neighborhood” when it denied the plans on Feb. 6. The decision can be appealed to the City Council within 10 calendar days. Jose Alcala, secretary of the Riverside Community College District Board of Trustees, called the city’s plan to address homelessness “courageous,” but warned that the public should not expect an immediate return on the required investments. “The return here is more of a holistic thing,” Alcala said. “I know that there are folks that are like, ‘We have budgetary issues in the city so why are we taking this on?’ It’s the right thing to do. I look forward to however I can help out myself.” Jaqueline Garcia, a Riverside City College student, expressed skepticism toward the idea that development in the city is alleviating the housing crisis. “I see they’re trying to build more housing,” she said. “But where I live, they built new housing two years ago. And the prices are so high that not one unit has been rented.” Garcia interviewed social workers and homeless people
I often hear that our homeless population doesn’t want our help. Yet 220 individuals have gone through the laborious process to qualify for permanent supportive housing. -- Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey
The 2019 Point in Time Count found a total of 2,811 homeless people in Riverside County last year. This includes 163 veterans, 264 youths, 79 families with children and 196 people over the age of 62. Of the total people counted, 2,045 of them are unsheltered. Overall, homelessness in Riverside County increased 21% from 2018. as part of a research project. She claims to have found that homeless people in the Santa Ana Riverbottom rely on each other for survival more than they do on city services due to the long waits and low capacities of city facilities. Riverside’s Redevelopment Agency, which was tasked with providing affordable housing, was dissolved in 2012 after the Supreme Court upheld a state bill that required the agency to pay the state in order to avoid elimination. Mayor Bailey called this the loss of an important asset in the fight against homelessness. “This must be fixed by the legislature,” Bailey said. “Until then, I call on this community, private developers and city leaders to work side by side toward a mutually beneficial, inclusionary zoning policy that will generate long term, stable revenue for affordable housing projects.” Leo Cabral contibuted to this story.
