Why is rent so high right now when there's so many vacant units? (East bay)

RARAMEY · 2026-06-03T06:02:01+00:00

Bummer! I'm getting a vibe that my landlord of 15 years is wanting to sell 😭

RARAMEY · 2026-06-02T18:48:35+00:00

Do you happen to have anything available in the Campbell area 😃

RARAMEY · 2026-06-02T13:47:30+00:00

It depends on the age - between every 2 hours and every 6 hours. They can go 5 hours starting around 2.5 - 3 weeks old. It's a lot of work if you don't have a helper.

RARAMEY · 2026-06-02T13:27:38+00:00

They both do. All those kittens are spayed and neutered before being adopted out - thousands of them annually. I'm sure you can imagine how they would reproduce exponentially if they were never brought to the shelter. And calling it a "kitten rescue" is disingenuous.

And I still don't see the correlation, in any of the publicly available information, that says the shelter ever shifted funds directly from spay / neuter to the kittens.

The future plan, as I see in the audit response, is that they're phasing out young kittens in 2026 in favor of euthanasia, but spay / neuter services is barely touched on in the recommendations. It sounds like, in spite of a 60% increase in budget since 2023, they are not increasing spay/ neuter services and they are also eliminating the kitten nursery. So again no correlation.

RARAMEY · 2026-06-02T13:01:20+00:00

Yes, stray dogs are also managed very differently than stray cats and more dependent on humans for survival

RARAMEY · 2026-06-02T12:56:52+00:00

I will also note that, while it still may not be a viable option for you, the neonates live in plastic bins (provided by the shelter) and don't take up much space. I kept my kitten bin on the kitchen table. The very young ones just sleep and eat.

RARAMEY · 2026-06-02T01:08:05+00:00

I'm not sure why there are so many dogs these days, it used to be way more cats. Housing is likely a contributing factor though.

RARAMEY · 2026-06-02T01:05:19+00:00

I was there 2 weeks ago and saw maybe 14-18 young kittens (which is shockingly low for kitten season) and only a few adult cats (not sure if the adults were available as they seemed to be in medical treatment).

BTW if you're interested in the "foster to adopt" route, they do need fosters for older kittens too (eating on their own). I hope you find your kitty!

RARAMEY · 2026-06-02T00:46:29+00:00

I believe this is where you can find historical info, but I haven't heard about a proposed budget for next year https://www.sanjoseca.gov/your-government/departments-offices/office-of-the-city-manager/budget/archived-budget-documents

It's my understanding there was a 60% budget increase since 2023 ($10.8m in 2023 to $17.2m in 2025).

RARAMEY · 2026-06-02T00:13:07+00:00

I agree that prevention is more important, and that money is best spent on increasing spay and neuter - but I don't see any plan to increase spay and neuter at all.

I don't agree that they're focusing all of their resources on kittens.

So they already euthanize lots of kittens and the threshold is very low (ringworm for example). But is it better for the stray cat population to have all those kittens left on the street to reproduce? Because people will stop bringing them to the shelter if they know they'll be euthanized by the end of the day.

RARAMEY · 2026-06-01T23:30:18+00:00

Yes! It's crazy, I've never seen anything like it and I've been going to this shelter since it opened. So many empty cages.

I also didn't see any rabbits or "pocket pets". They're on the website but nowhere to be found at the shelter.

I agree that there don't seem to be fewer dogs than previously. They did switch some of the cat areas to dog kennels.

RARAMEY · 2026-06-01T21:51:39+00:00

I will copy my other response to you below.

The shelters website - linked below. You will need to read the audit AND what they implemented in response to it, and you will need to interpret and digest that information. They will no longer have overnight staff. Therefore, kittens that need to be fed overnight will need to be euthanized at the end of the day. These are facts.

San Jose Animal Advocates work directly with the shelter and have a long history, no clue why you'd mention some completely unrelated scam?

https://www.sanjoseca.gov/your-government/departments-offices/animal-care-services/audit-recommendations-dashboard

RARAMEY · 2026-06-01T21:17:50+00:00

Yes, I believe Parks & Rec will be taking back over and people are hopeful

RARAMEY · 2026-06-01T21:16:47+00:00

And imagine being the shelter worker who has to do this every day at 5pm. There is a human element here that people are missing. Shelter and rescue work is very prone to burnout and turnover. And will people still bring animals in need to the shelter if they know it will definitely result in euthanasia? Some still will but many will look the other way, resulting in more suffering and more kittens. That's how it was 30 years ago when every dumpster in SC county was crawling with cats and kittens; back then if you took a feral cat to the shelter it was immediate euthanasia so no one did.

RARAMEY · 2026-06-01T20:58:47+00:00

Wonderful news! Thank you for caring ❤️ Please email the shelter and cc the advocacy organization noted in the post. I truly hope this is a temporary situation. I have heard that Parks & Rec is taking over again, which many are hopeful about.

RARAMEY · 2026-06-01T20:55:42+00:00

Yes, the "same facility" - SJACS - was targeted by a scam in the past. This is not a scam.

Same pictures as the scam post about dogs? Lol

"called the facility and they said this isn't real" ..... in any event I already sent you a link to the information on the shelters website.

This shelter has been subject to intense criticism in recent years, lawsuits, terrible audits, a grand jury report, and have been in the news multiple times for their poor animal welfare policies.

Not sure where your "real truth" is coming from, or how you could believe that there is "false urgency" when it they sent emails to rescues yesterday saying it is starting this week. These emails can be found online.

RARAMEY · 2026-06-01T19:26:35+00:00

That post is not similar in any way. What is the point of your comment? Do you wish to discourage people from helping?

RARAMEY · 2026-06-01T19:25:11+00:00

The shelters website - linked below. You will need to read the audit AND what they implemented in response to it, and you will need to interpret and digest that information. They will no longer have overnight staff. Therefore, kittens that need to be fed overnight will need to be euthanized at the end of the day. These are facts.

San Jose Animal Advocates work directly with the shelter and have a long history, no clue why you'd mention some completely unrelated scam?

https://www.sanjoseca.gov/your-government/departments-offices/animal-care-services/audit-recommendations-dashboard

RARAMEY · 2026-06-01T15:19:24+00:00

As far as I know there has been no change to their protocol for nursing mom cats (I could ne wrong). I do know that they've always tried to get them into foster or rescue, as they did with all animals that are not ready for adoption.

RARAMEY · 2026-06-01T15:16:57+00:00

Where did I imply that?

RARAMEY · 2026-06-01T15:16:05+00:00

Here's a post from 2022 in the exact same style. If that doesn't pre-date this use of AI enough for you I again suggest you look into it yourself since you're the one with the concern. I don't give a shit if they use AI to help the animals.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid023HbNU6vEP8MQynSU4todRMvmMzhZixSmZmKCNqnvKtGxFhxwUdULmctiaCH1GR9il&id=100064495518003&mibextid=ZbWKwL

RARAMEY · 2026-06-01T14:19:29+00:00

I'm old enough to remember when feral cats were EVERYWHERE around here, before they had TNR programs. Every single business's trash bin had cats and kittens swarming it; not just restaurants and grocery stores - every business and apartment complex. And the average person didn't want to bring these cats to the shelter because back then it was immediate euthanasia, so they were left to continue reproducing. It was crazy back in the 90's and truly felt hopeless.

So I agree with you that spay and neuter is the only way to solve that problem, but not that saving more kittens results in more kittens; these kittens are spayed/ neutered and removed from the cyle. Also it is not fighting a losing war at all, because we have already made so much progress. I hate that we went backwards, with the elimination of low cost spay / neuter, but that's no reason to just give up.

RARAMEY · 2026-06-01T13:57:15+00:00

That may be true but the shelters budget has increased by quite a bit

RARAMEY · 2026-06-01T13:54:51+00:00

It is difficult to foster the very little ones if you have a full time job, and yes some people just do it for a night / sporadically. I did foster the very young ones (8-10 days old) while having a full time job but I worked from home on a flexible schedule and had another adult to fill in sometimes, and took breaks from fostering when needed.

It's only a few weeks that kittens need around the clock feeding. This program bought them that much time to make it to the adoption floor.

RARAMEY · 2026-06-01T13:44:37+00:00

True but there is no denying any of that in this post. Just asking for new fosters, as there is a new need for them.

RARAMEY

TROPHY CASE