As an attorney, city council member and now Assemblymember in California’s 27th district, Ash Kalra has managed to travel far and has come full circle when it comes to home. He grew up in the Hayes neighborhood in San Jose and lives there today. He credits his eleven years spent as a public defender in the Santa Clara Public Defender’s office as a big part of what shaped his view on housing, adding that part of what brought him to Housing Trust was the idea to make housing a reality for everyone in the community and the public/private business model.
Kalra, whose term as a board member of Housing Trust just ended, came to serve our organization in late 2008 and said he appreciated CEO Kevin Zwick’s leadership as the Bay Area shifted from the Great Recession to the housing crisis we know today. Kalra, who is Chair of the Aging and Long Term Care Committee, has also seen the number of homeless climb in amount and in age over that time. “Right now there are more first time homeless who are seniors than ever before,” said Kalra. “We have to solve this problem and we all have to chip in with resources and ideas to solve it.”
“Even those in the past who were either hesitant or opposed to the idea of the government getting involved are seeing the dire need that is out there now,” said Kalra. “People need a workforce they can house and they need to be able to attract people to come here. Business leaders, CEOs and homeless advocates are now all ringing the same alarm.”
“These are homes, not some abstract unit of measurement,” said Kalra, who is enthusiastic about the four new Housing Trust board members whose terms just began. “We are doing this for the families and for the homeless and the veterans and the seniors and everyone who is struggling to get by here. And we are going to get to a better day because we all push forward in an optimistic way.”