Roger Niello vs. Paula Villescaz: Where candidates stand in California’s 6th Senate District race
Roger Niello
Age: 74
Party: Republican
Birthplace: Sacramento
Residence: Fair Oaks
Occupation: Small business owner
Education: Bachelor’s degree, UC Berkeley; master’s degree from UCLA
Offices held: Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, 1999-2004; Assembly, 2004-2010
Website: RogerNiello.com
What specific actions do you think state legislators could take to help unhoused residents and prevent homelessness?
There are few issues that demonstrate the failure of California leadership more than homelessness. Homelessness is diminishing the quality of life and safety in our communities — and perhaps most troubling, we are leaving thousands of Californians to struggle and die on the streets.
First and foremost, we need to reform state law to empower recovery for the mental health and drug addiction issues that underlie the homelessness crisis. On mental health, I support reforming conservatorship laws to make it easier for families, social workers, and law enforcement to take action when someone simply can’t act on their own accord. With regards to drug addiction, I support returning to the successful drug courts model which provided the ability of judges to require those suffering from addiction to receive treatment.
We also need to build emergency shelter to get the homeless off the streets immediately. Too often, local governments and state agencies have let perfection get in the way of progress. We need to build immediate, temporary emergency shelter that provides a place for the homeless to go that is safer than a tent on the sidewalk, and where social services are accessible. Homeless encampments deteriorate the quality of life in our neighborhoods and create a serious public health and safety risk. After creating additional temporary shelter space, law enforcement must be able to clear homeless encampments and enforce anti-camping ordinances. Finally, we also need to make it easier to build new affordable housing in California and provide a path from emergency shelter to permanent housing.
What do you think about the recent environmental legislation package lawmakers recently passed at the behest of Gov. Gavin Newsom? What strategies would you use to address climate change?
At a time when Californians are suffering from crippling inflation and skyrocketing cost of living, I believe California’s environmental policies promoted this year and in previous years go too far and would do immense damage to the business climate in California and the bottom line for many Californians.
Where I would like to do more is on the mitigation side. I support investing in water storage to mitigate for droughts of increasing severity and length. For too long, we have neglected to keep up with demand for increased water capacity and are paying the price in the form of prolonged and avoidable droughts. We have shovel-ready, voter-approved, bond-funded water projects that should be immediately given the green light to build. I also support improved flood control for the Sacramento region.
Aging infrastructure combined with increasingly severe weather patterns have created an increased risk of flooding in our region. We need flood-control measures to ensure the resiliency of our agricultural industry and regional transportation network. Finally, we need to invest in wildfire prevention and mitigation. Fires are only going to increase in severity and regularity, and we need to be sure we are being proactive about forest management and providing first responders with the tools and resources needed to protect our communities.
What can lawmakers do to cut through local red tape and promote more community housing construction?
By making it immensely difficult to build new homes in California, we have increased the cost of rent and locked out new buyers from the market. To reign in excessive housing costs across the board, we need to reform CEQA, reduce building fees and maintain a property-rights-oriented approach to housing policy.
Paula Villescaz
Age: 33
Party: Democratic
Birthplace: Austin, Texas
Residence: Carmichael
Occupation: Associate director of legislative advocacy, County Welfare Directors Association
Education: Bachelor’s degree, political science, UC Berkeley
Offices held: San Juan Unified School District board member, since 2016
Website: PaulaVillescaz.com
What specific actions do you think state legislators could take to help unhoused residents and prevent homelessness?
California is facing a homelessness crisis that isn’t fair to people without homes or to neighbors in our communities, who feel less safe. I support a housing-first approach to homelessness. Growing up, my family and I struggled to access affordable, consistent housing. I know first-hand that people must access necessities — like a safe place to live and food to eat — to maintain good mental and physical health, achieve personal goals, and contribute to our communities.
First, we must work to prevent homelessness. The fastest growing segment of unhoused neighbors are seniors. This is preventable if we make everyday necessities, like health care and housing, more affordable. Additionally, we must invest in subsidies to help them stay housed, and increase investments in the Adult Protective Services program to ensure that older adults do not lose their homes due to abuse, neglect, or exploitation. Second, we have to build more homes, and this includes holding cities and counties accountable for working collaboratively to create more housing and services for the homeless.
Finally, we have to expand access to substance use disorder treatment and mental health services, transitional housing services, and wraparound services such as job training and health care. I have the experience and determination to make this a top priority. As assistant secretary for the California Health and Human Services Agency, I helped coordinate the implementation of statewide programs to provide unsheltered California residents with housing and health care services, such as the No Place Like Home Program and Project Roomkey. What we know is that when an unhoused family or individual builds a relationship with a trusted provider — whether it’s a social worker, a medical provider, or other services provider, they are much more likely to succeed once a housing placement is found that also meets their other needs.
What do you think about the recent environmental legislation package lawmakers recently passed at the behest of Gov. Gavin Newsom? What strategies would you use to address climate change?
Climate change must be addressed with urgency and so I was pleased to see the legislature take bold action and set new targets. I am also glad that the 2022 budget included more than $54 billion in climate-related investments like substantial funding to protect Californians against wildfires, boost incentives to transition to electric vehicles, and expand the use of clean energy alternatives. To achieve 100% renewable energy in an accelerated and equitable way, we must take several steps.
First, we must modernize California’s electric grid so that clean energy can be reliably and affordably provided to every Californian. Second, we must ensure that green-economy trades and jobs are widely available so that communities and workers can thrive in a low-carbon economy. Third, we must provide incentives such as tax credits for individuals and companies to reduce their carbon footprint. We must do all this while also prioritizing the reduction of local pollution impacts in California’s most vulnerable communities.
What can lawmakers do to cut through local red tape and promote more community housing construction?
The state Legislature should pass laws that support increased production of both market rate and affordable housing. In the state Senate, I will support laws that promote upzoning and infill development, make it easier to build accessory dwelling units on vacant land parcels, provide debt relief to tenants and landlords, lower impact fees for new housing, and scale back excessive parking requirements for buildings close to public transit areas.
This story was originally published October 9, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Roger Niello vs. Paula Villescaz: Where candidates stand in California’s 6th Senate District race."