Welcome to my legislative website. It is an honor to have this opportunity to serve my community. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any comments, questions or concerns that you may have with the district—or with your state government.
Veterans exemplify the best values of our country, and have earned the respect and gratitude of a grateful nation. To that end, I wanted to make you aware of two programs that may be of interest to you or the honorably discharged veterans in your life. Click on the graphic for more information.
For the third year in a row, California is offering an Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for working low-income families and individuals. This year, the eligibility thresholds were lowered so that more people could qualify. Click on the graphic for more information.
By allocating $1 million last week toward a creek restoration project set to rejuvenate threatened and endangered species and reduce flooding in Pescadero, county officials locked in funding needed to begin a dredging effort experts expect will give the Butano Creek a chance to reset.
Also backed by California State Parks and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, the project to re-establish more than a mile of the Butano Creek channel, remove 45,000 cubic yards of sediment and restore more than 10 miles of habitat for steelhead trout and coho salmon has been a focus for Supervisor Don Horsley, landowners, government agencies and community organizations for years.
Since starting school last fall, Sacramento City College student Shae Fox has slept, studied and lived in her car twice. She recently moved into an apartment and is now waiting on her financial aid money to be processed in order to pay rent. But she’s worried about keeping a roof over her head.
“I can’t catch a break,” Fox said. “I just want to unpack my stuff somewhere. I just want to call a place my home. I want to get mail somewhere.”
A new survey released this month suggests Fox is not the only student going through this experience: 19 percent of community college students in California have faced homelessness in the past year.
For a growing number of community college students in California, one of the biggest concerns isn’t exams or essays—it’s finding a safe place to sleep in their cars at night.
An estimated 20 percent of the state’s 2.1 million community college students have experienced homelessness or don’t have a stable place to live, according to a report released this month by California Community Colleges. Many of them rely on their vehicles for shelter.
“The most difficult thing about sleeping in your car is trying to find a place to park and sleep, and being able to sleep comfortably knowing that no one’s going to come by, that neighbors aren’t walking by saying, ‘Who’s sleeping out there?” said Brianna Rodriguez, a former student at East Los Angeles College who previously experienced homelessness.
STANDING TALL ... Palo Alto resident Christine Blasey Ford, who has become known for going public with her sexual-assault allegations against now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, has been selected as the 24th Assembly District's Woman of the Year, state Assemblyman Marc Berman's office announced on Monday. Ford, 52, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University, was picked for her "remarkable act of courage" in testifying about her claims before the Senate Judiciary Committee in late September. "Dr. Ford exhibited strength and dignity under the most extraordinary conditions, and in telling her truth, she paved the way for countless other survivors to tell their own," Berman said in a statement. Ford is currently not teaching classes at the university, but is continuing to conduct biostatistics research and work with doctoral students.
Nineteen percent of students attending California’s community college system have experienced homelessness in the last year, while 60 percent have experienced recent housing insecurity and 50 percent have struggled with food insecurity, according to a report released Thursday, March 7.
The study, conducted by the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice at Temple University’s College of Education in Philadelphia, surveyed nearly 40,000 students at 57 community colleges during the fall semesters of 2016 and 2018.
For Anthony Phillip White II, being in community college while homeless was exhausting, embarrassing — and eventually unrealistic.
Just out of a four-year stint in the Marines, White moved to Oceanside in 2014 to attend MiraCosta College. A single father, he planned to share a home with friends and his then-5-year-old son Trey as he sought to become the first in his family to earn a college degree.
But the house didn’t work out, and his part-time job in a camera store didn’t pay enough for a place of his own. Trey had to stay with his mother in Nebraska, and White moved into his Chevy Silverado, working during the day, taking classes in the evening and searching out safe places to park at night. After eight months in the truck, with help from a veterans group, he got an apartment and got his son back. But trying to parent and pay bills while still making it to class was too hard.
California’s housing crisis has left hundreds of thousands of community college students either homeless or facing the threat of being homeless.
A new California State Assembly bill offers a potential remedy — letting students sleep in their vehicles in campus parking lots and structures.
Assembly Bill 302, sponsored by Assemblyman Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto, would require the California Community College system to make their college parking system accessible overnight to any enrolled student in good standing. State law already requires that community colleges provide homeless students with access to shower facilities on campus.
Christine Blasey Ford, the Palo Alto psychologist who accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of trying to rape her when they were in high school, has been named the 24th Assembly District’s Woman of the Year by Assemblyman Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto.
Ford, 52, continues to do biostatistics research and work with doctoral students at Palo Alto University but is not currently teaching classes, a university spokeswoman said yesterday (March 4).
Berman will present Ford with the award at a private event later this month.
“In a remarkable act of courage, Dr. Ford put the country ahead of her own well-being, speaking out in the most public way imaginable about her sexual assault,” Berman said in a statement. “Dr. Ford exhibited strength and dignity under the most extraordinary conditions, and in telling her truth, she paved the way for countless other survivors to tell their own.”
SACRAMENTO – Today Assemblymember Marc Berman (D- Palo Alto) has the distinct privilege of recognizing Palo Alto resident Dr. Christine Blasey Ford as the 24th Assembly District ‘Woman of the Year’. As a way to highlight outstanding women during Women’s History Month, legislators select one exceptional woman from each Assembly District to honor for her contributions to the community and the state of California.
A slate of Peninsula lawmakers are trying to ease the path for school districts seeking parcel taxes by lowering the voter support threshold required for the local funding measures to pass.
State Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, introduced with co-authors Assemblymen Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, and Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto, legislation designed to push the parcel tax approval requirement to 55 percent.
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