Choose one topic below and discuss how you would solve the issue:

10 participation points:

Monday:
Discussion topic: What I said:
Housing The housing issue can be solved by either
lowering prices for houses or by making
more jobs available for people so they can
be able to pay for it.

What another person said: Summary of discussion:

They could make lower end houses so I think that the people making these
people in San Francisco and other places houses should allow homeless people to
can afford a place to live. join programs that allow them to either
pay for houses by decreasing the price, or
make more jobs available so they can
work.
Tuesday:
Discussion topic: What I said:
Oil I said that we can use oil reserves from
other countries and pay them back so we
don't have to rely on oil from Russia.

What another person said: Summary of discussion:

They said that if we use oil reserves and If we free up oil reserves from Canada and
start the piping from Canada so we can pipe it down to the US, then we can get oil
use oil from them. without having to take it from Russia.

Wednesday:
Discussion topic: What I said:
Ukraine Invasion The issue of the Russians invading
Ukraine comes from a lot of things, but
the important ones is wanting to maintain
political control in Ukraine so that they
can integrate back into the Soviet Union
and how Ukraine wants to join NATO so
they can be protected from Russia.

What another person said: Summary of discussion:

They said it also has to do with Russia not The invasion of Ukraine is important
wanting Ukraine to fight back as their because it lets us see how much Russia
military was occupying an area between wants to take back Ukraine and not
Russia and Ukraine. letting them be independent as well as
wanting to make them less of a threat and
restore political control in Ukraine.
Thursday:
Discussion topic: What I said:
Gun Control I think we can limit the use of guns if and
ghost guns by cracking down on gun
running so we can stop the selling of guns
without a trace.
What another person said:
They said how we can also
Limit how we use guns by limiting ammo
capacity, less stocks, and weaker caliber
bullets.
Summary of discussion:
In total, the main issue is “ghost guns” and
how they cannot be traced so people can
sell them without having to worry which
means we have to after them so they can
be stopped and we can limit the selling of
illegal guns.

The gap between the goals of government programs intended to help

low-income and vulnerable Californians and the reality many of those residents
experience was made evident Wednesday in a number of key areas:

— Housing

● In Oakland, four brand-new townhomes that will house between eight

and 12 homeless people rent-free have been sitting empty for about a
year even as thousands of people sleep on the streets — partly due to
the city’s complex permitting and code requirements, the Mercury News
reports. Requirements for the townhome project include building parking
spaces — even though most residents won’t have cars — and painting
vents on the roof.
● And in San Francisco, at least 400 homeless people have been waiting
more than a year to move into permanent supportive housing units —
even though 888 were vacant as of Feb. 22, according to a stunning
investigation from ProPublica and the San Francisco Public Press.

— Wages

● California workers trying to recover unpaid wages and benefits from their
employers are entitled to a hearing in front of the state Labor
Commissioner’s Office within 120 days of filing a complaint. But the
statewide average wait time for a hearing last month was 812 days —
nearly seven times longer, a KQED investigation found. In San Francisco,
the average wait time last year was 968 days; in Oakland, it was 1,160 days.
● María Moreno, lead organizer with the Restaurant Opportunities Center
of the Bay: “Our workers are not in a position to wait years for damages.
By then they might already be evicted from their home, or moved on from
their job.”

— Health care

● Buoyed by federal subsidies, a record 1.8 million Californians are

currently enrolled in Covered California, the state’s health insurance
 marketplace. But if the subsidies aren’t renewed at the end of the year,
more than 150,000 Californians could decide to drop their coverage due
to the high cost, 1 million low-income residents would see their premiums
more than double and many middle-income people would see annual
cost increases in the thousands of dollars, a Covered California analysis
found.

However, momentum is building in Sacramento to ease some of the financial

burdens shouldered by California’s poorest residents.

● Undocumented workers — who are ineligible for many state and federal
safety net programs — could collect unemployment benefits under a pilot
program proposed by Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, a Coachella
Democrat.
● Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed slashing the maximum fee for late
payments on traffic tickets and other fines from $300 to $150. Those fines
are “exorbitant” when compared to other states’, are disproportionately
levied on Californians of color and criminalize poverty, according to a
new report from Debt Free Justice California.
● State Sen. Nancy Skinner, a Berkeley Democrat, introduced a bill
Wednesday to limit California courts’ ability to levy high interest rates in
legal judgments involving personal or consumer debt.
● And Republican lawmakers are intensifying calls to suspend California’s
gas tax in the face of rising inflation and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“The cost of living is devastating families, students, seniors and our most
vulnerable,” said Assemblymember Laurie Davis of Laguna Niguel.

You can look up your legislature for CA-

https://calmatters.org/legislator-tracker/home/