Tangela Babbitt, a senior project manager and consultant in Elk Grove who previously spent more than 11 years working for Sacramento County’s Department of Human Assistance, says she saw the problem from inside the safety net system. Her work included helping administer CalFresh, CalWORKs and Medi-Cal benefits for residents in crisis.

Babbitt points to the case of a Sacramento County mother facing eviction who spent two months calling 211 and the county for help. Each agency directed her back to the other, with neither able to clearly identify what assistance was available or who was responsible for guiding her through the process.

The woman, Babbitt said, was not simply lost in a bureaucratic gap. Rather, the system was structured in a way that allowed agencies to operate separately while assuming another office had the answer.

That concern has implications across California, including in Southern California and the Inland Empire, where rising rents, limited affordable housing and evictions continue to pressure low-income families.

A UC San Francisco study found that one-third of unhoused adults in California had previously held long-term leases and had been evicted, many for the first time. The research also found that an eviction order increases the likelihood of homelessness by more than 300%.

Those findings, Babbitt argues, show that California understands a major pathway into homelessness but has not built a coordinated prevention system capable of intervening before families lose housing.

The state has funded several rounds of homelessness prevention and response programs, including the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention program. But Babbitt says the state has not consistently required measurable outcome reporting tied to continued funding.

In other fields, she noted, organizations typically do not approve repeated rounds of funding without evidence that earlier phases worked. California, she argues, has distributed billions of dollars without creating a uniform statewide accountability system to measure results.

The California Interagency Council on Homelessness was created to help provide that oversight. In 2021, it was directed to gather statewide data on homelessness programs. But according to a state audit cited by Babbitt, the council produced one report and then largely faded from public view.

Babbitt said the result is a system that often measures activity rather than success. Dollars awarded, shelter beds funded and programs launched may show movement, but they do not answer the central question: whether people are still housed six months or a year later.

She emphasized that frontline workers are not responsible for the failure. Instead, she said the problem stems from decisions made at the policy and program-design level.

One proposal, Senate Bill 1160, would require county courts to report eviction outcomes by ZIP code. Babbitt called the bill an important step, but said better data will not be enough unless the state also changes how it governs funding and measures results.

She argues that California should require outcome reporting as a condition of ongoing homelessness prevention dollars, give the interagency council a more active oversight role, and measure success by what happens to people in crisis — not simply by how much money is distributed.

In the case of the Sacramento mother, Babbitt said the calls eventually stopped. She does not know whether the woman kept her home, entered a shelter or became homeless.

The larger problem, she said, is that California’s system did not require anyone to find out.

Original source: CalMatters

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This is equally true when it comes to private businesses as it relates to nepotism. Often their choices are worthy because it comes with an added sense of proprietorship, responsibility and accountability to ensure a family business succeeds. The business owners take a risk and when it doesn’t work out, they bear the impact of their choices.

It should work differently however, in the public arena. There is a code of ethics but you certainly would not know it from the way Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco takes care of his family on the public dime. As reported by the IE Voice in late October, Bianco has no concerns about nepotism as it relates to hiring his off-spring or promoting a sibling.

In October a reliable source confirmed Bianco had promoted his brother, Michael, to lieutenant over more qualified candidates almost as soon as he was sworn in as sheriff in 2019. And, just days ago, the public learned Bianco has promoted his brother Michael again, as if “Little Mikie” is the only candidate for advancement in the entire Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. This time Mike was elevated to captain of the Thermal Station. We all know the reason . . .. the higher the rank . . . the more money his brother takes home. I guess he is saying to other qualified candidates that filling his brother’s wallet “Trumps” their qualifications.

This is the type of right wing political maneuvering the nation experienced for four years at the national level and it is obvious this is the same level of thinking Bianco is using to run the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. I certainly have nothing against Michael and he may well be qualified. It is just a question of whether he was the most qualified. He might do a good job but did he deserve the opportunity to succeed or fail like other competitive candidates? From what I understand, he did not.

But, who can blame him for grabbing the gold ring when his brother Chad handed it to him merely because he felt empowered to do so.

The California Labor Code defines nepotism as “[T]he practice of an employee using his or her influence or power to aid or hinder another in the employment setting because of a personal relationship.” In this case, Bianco obviously did both.

Guidelines regarding nepotism are clearly detailed in Section 1051.2 (b) of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Standards Manual (DSM). It states, “Employees are prohibited from participating in, contributing to or recommending promotions, assignments, performance evaluations, transfers or other personnel decisions affecting an employee who is a relative or with whom they are involved in a personal or business relationship. Now, knowing Bianco as we do, we can bet he will offer some bumbling explanation about how he did none of these things–because he would certainly be in violation of established standards. But, I would wager we can be certain that he did. Why else would little brother Mikie be promoted twice in two years over others that many believe are better qualified?

Maybe Bianco will try and convince us that no one other than Little Mikie wanted to take the assignment in Thermal. That explanation would appear disingenuous as everyone knows pensions are calculated using a formula that includes years of service, and final average salary, among other factors.

Section I of the department’s DSM speaks to integrity stating, “We are dedicated to honesty and integrity in all our actions and will uphold our ethical beliefs regardless of the consequences. Our actions must be above reproach.”

I wonder if Bianco ever bothered to read the DSM despite its guidelines that state, “It is the responsibility and duty of every member to become thoroughly familiar with the contents of this manual.”

The one thing the DSM does not elaborate on is what are the consequences for violating DSM guidelines related to nepotism.

Apparently, it will be up to the voters to put an end to Bianco’s folly as sheriff and his continued disregard for ethical leadership.

Of course, this is just my opinion. I’m keeping it real.

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Stephanie E. Williams is an award winning investigative reporter, editor and activist who has contributed to several Inland Empire publications. Williams spent more than thirty years as a middle-manager in the telecommunications industry before retiring to pursue her passion as a reporter and non-fiction writer. Beyond writing, Williams’ personal interests include stone-carving, drumming and sculpting.

S.E. WILLIAMS | Contributed

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What is California doing about its sky-high housing prices? Just ask the state’s housing chiefs.

In this special edition of the California Housing Crisis Podcast, The Los Angeles Times’ Liam Dillon and CalMatters’ Manuela Tobias interview Lourdes Castro Ramírez, secretary of the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency; Gustavo Velasquez, director of the California Department of Housing & Community Development; and Tiena Johnson Hall, executive director of California’s Housing Finance Agency.

They each weighed in on the most controversial issues dominating the California housing crisis debate — including rent control, Proposition 13, and building market rate homes in low-income neighborhoods — and provided some insights into what their agencies are working on to address housing affordability.

Castro Ramírez, who oversees housing and various other state departments, commended the predictability afforded by California’s capped property taxes — a controversial measure that has been blamed for many of the state’s housing woes — in stark contrast to those in Texas, where she was previously head of the San Antonio Housing Commission. “The price of homes may be lower than the price in California, much lower; the property taxes that one pays (in Texas) and the increase in that tax year over year over year, makes it difficult to project and to anticipate how much of your income you’re going to be spending,” she said.

Johnson Hall, whose agency provides financing and loans to low-income renters and homebuyers, described a new program that will provide grants to low-income households looking to build accessory dwelling units in their backyards. She said her experience living in public housing as a single mother right out of college shapes and informs all of her work.

“I look at (housing) still from the lens of a 26-year-old woman who but for affordable housing would have been homeless,” she said. “It changed not only my life, but it changed my children’s life as well. I lead with that passion.”

Velasquez, whose agency finances affordable housing and assesses local housing building production, called rent control “one of those important anti-displacement tools that are in the toolbox,” and hailed the rent control in the District of Columbia as “this golden kind of model for rent control and it has worked organizing tenants and ensuring that they utilize these measures.”

Velasquez’s agency just tripled the number of policy staff and attorneys to ensure local jurisdictions plan for and build enough housing to meet the state’s regional needs through a new Housing Accountability Unit. The department is investigating the rejection last week by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors of a 495-unit apartment complex proposed for a parking lot.

“There are jurisdictions that will be unwilling. We know that,” he said. “But we have now, thanks to the governor and the state Legislature, additional resources to have more capacity to track this work, to monitor this work, and if need be, take enforcement actions as required by state law. So persistence is the key here.”

CALMATTERS | CONTRIBUTED

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