The county connected 17,485 homeless individuals to permanent housing as of 2024, and is on track and may even exceed the goal of housing 20,000 individuals by the end of 2025. But on the flipside, preventing more people from falling into homelessness remains a struggle, according to the 2020-2025 Community Plan to End Homelessness.

“We work really closely to have our system be tied together,” Santa Clara County Deputy Executive Consuelo Hernandez told San José Spotlight. “That is really what has been successful, is the political will to say yes to shelter, yes to housing (and) recognizing prevention is a critical component of stopping the inflow.”

Households were connected to permanent housing through various means, whether that was reuniting with a family member, finding an apartment on their own or receiving subsidies for rent through housing vouchers. A majority connected to permanent housing through vouchers, including 3,789 people placed in permanent supportive housing — 95% who have remained housed. Included in the nearly 17,500 people connected to stable housing are 5,514 individuals placed in rapid rehousing, a program that provides short-term rental assistance. Approximately 74% still remain housed.

In addition to connecting people to housing, over the last five years the county has added 1,240 shelter spaces — growing shelter capacity to 3,122 spaces — and expects to have a total of 3,858 in fiscal year 2025-26. More than 23,000 people have been served in the shelter system since 2020. Last year, 22% of people in the system moved into permanent housing, or nearly 1,750 people. Half of them received rental subsidies.

The county also expanded its Homelessness Prevention System by 65% to serve more than 2,500 households each year. The system provides rental subsidies to those on the verge of eviction. In 2023, families received an average assistance of nearly $7,400.

But the county faces a rocky future as it charts the next five years and struggles to keep up with the number of people falling into homelessness.

The county set to reduce the inflow of new households becoming homeless to 3,330 by the end of 2025. However, last year 4,098 new households fell into homelessness, about 200 families less than the year prior — and about 800 households higher than its goal for this year. In 2024, for every one person housed, 1.8 fell into homelessness.

Homelessness is at an all-time high in Santa Clara County with 10,711 homeless residents, compared to 9,903 in 2023 and 10,028 to 2022, based on preliminary results from this year’s point in time count conducted in January.

This has happened despite significant investments in temporary and permanent housing, with more than 1,300 affordable apartments constructed over the past two years funded through Measure A, a $950 million affordable housing bond approved by voters in 2016.

“I really think it’s a math problem at this point. We can give services all day long and it’s never going to change the fact that nobody can pay the rent,” Debra Townley, who serves on the Community Plan to End Homelessness steering committee, told San José Spotlight. “Everyone can get healthy mentally (and) physically, everybody can get trained on a new job. But if they can’t pay the rent, they’re still going to be homeless.”

As the cost of living continues to increase and looming federal cuts undermine social safety nets, more people will face precarious circumstances. In addition, state funding for homeless solutions could be slashed  for the next fiscal year, sending cities and counties scrambling to close the funding gap.
Santa Clara County officials said they remain committed to finding solutions to reduce homelessness. As the county strategizes the next five years, officials are focused on maintaining the current shelter capacity over the next year. It’s also conducting a randomized control trial for rapid rehousing to find what works in the system.

“We’re really committed to demonstrating the effectiveness of these programs so that we can show that these public dollars are, in fact, having a positive impact on thousands of folks in our community, even though we still are in the midst of the homelessness crisis,” Kathryn Kaminski, acting director of the county Office of Supportive Housing, told San José Spotlight.

Officials are waiting to see what cuts will come down from the federal level before diving into creating the next phase of the Community Plan to End Homelessness. Although the federal budget needs to be finalized before the close of the fiscal year in September, the Trump administration is aiming to have it done by July 4.

“The (office of supportive housing) team is very creative. They’re always looking at streamlining their operations, reducing costs, leveraging other resources in the county,” Hernandez said.

Contact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com or @joyce_speaks on X.

The post Santa Clara County fights to stop homelessness appeared first on San José Spotlight.

The Rapid Engagement Support Team (REST) works to assist homeless residents caught up in sweeps. REST aids with recovering a person’s property after a sweep, providing information on how to get back towed vehicles and educating individuals on their rights. The grassroots group helps file requests to extend a disabled person’s time in an encampment, provides meals and supplies, works to find people housing and more. REST is modeled after the Rapid Response Network, a network of volunteers providing information and assistance during U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) raids.

It’s comprised of supporters and partners including the Unhoused Response Group, Community Seva,  Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, Helping Hands Silicon Valley, Hello Angels, Lighthouse Food Rescue and Distribution, Showing up for Racial Justice and more. REST is working to secure funding to create a hotline where homeless residents can dial in during a sweep and advocates can report police activity.

“The mayor has essentially declared war on homeless people, and it is important for unhoused people to be supported quickly by us first responders who can bring them what they need,” Shaunn Cartwright of Unhoused Response Group and lead organizer of REST told San José Spotlight.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is rolling out a policy to arrest homeless people who refuse shelter, and wants to create a police unit and outreach team to track and handle these cases. The city is also upping the ante on sweeps, clearing out encampments by the waterways and installing concrete K-rails to prevent re-encampment. Starting Aug. 18, the city will begin tackling the RV encampment at Columbus Park, where more than 80 vehicles have crammed into the park area and along Asbury, Irene and Spring streets. Clean up is expected to last until October.

Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services spokesperson Amanda Rodriguez said the area has become increasingly unsafe. She said outreach teams will be at the park daily as the sweep date nears.

“Between now and then, outreach workers will continue engaging with individuals in the area to help them connect with shelter, services and resources,” Rodriguez told San José Spotlight.

As San Jose is working to clear encampments near the park by the Guadalupe River from West Taylor Street to Interstate 880, advocates have been on the Guadalupe River Trail offering assistance. Helping Hands Silicon Valley has put multiple veterans into a hotel using money they received from Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Otto Lee’s office.
Cartwright assisted several transgender women on the Guadalupe River Trail who had nowhere to go and were afraid of moving into an unfamiliar area. She is trying to get one of them into New Haven Inn, an adult LGBTQ+ shelter.

“It’s also shameful that for a city and county that has so many unhoused LGBTQ people that there’s only space for 18 people in the whole county,” Cartwright said.

Assistance and intervention

Intervention is often the difference between life and death for the homeless population, as many have health conditions. Last year, nearly 200 homeless people died in the county, 50 who had cardiovascular disease and 68 who had high blood pressure, according to the coroner’s data.

Being unsheltered also exposes people to the extreme heat or cold. Last October, San Jose logged its hottest week ever recorded as temperatures spiked above 100 degrees. There were 10 documented heat-related deaths countywide — compared to zero in 2023. The Columbus Park sweep will happen during the hottest part of the year.

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Santa Clara County has 10,711 homeless residents, up 8.2% from two years ago, according to preliminary results from this year’s point in time count conducted in January 2025. This has happened despite significant investments in temporary and permanent housing, where more than 1,300 affordable apartments have been constructed over the past two years, funded through Measure A, a $950 million affordable housing bond approved by voters in 2016. As the cost of living continues to increase and federal cuts undermine social safety nets, more people will be pushed off the edge.

The county has not yet released data breaking down the increase by municipality, but homelessness is expected to have increased in San Jose — one of the most expensive cities to rent or buy a home. In 2022, the city had the fourth highest homeless population per capita in the nation.

The county has helped move more than 8,000 people from homelessness to housing between 2023 and 2025, officials said in a statement. They cite the lack of affordable housing, wage gaps and structural inequities as factors in the rise in housing insecurity and homelessness.

County Executive James Williams said the county will continue making investments into homelessness solutions, even as it faces threats to federal and state funding.

“Effectively addressing poverty, inequality, and homelessness requires a systemic, comprehensive approach — one that necessitates deep collaboration and responsiveness at all levels of government,” he said in a statement. “Our community must address the root cause of homelessness: a lack of affordable housing supply at all levels.”

Every two years, Santa Clara County participates in a two-day, federally mandated point in time count to gather information on the number of homeless people on streets and in shelters. The count helps the county, state and federal government assess demographics and how to allocate money to help alleviate homelessness. Point in time counts are considered an underestimate of homeless people.

This year, the county switched methods on how it counted homeless people and also chose a different vendor, Simtech Solutions, Inc. Due to the switch in methodologies, the county won’t be able to compare this year’s data to results from previous counts, limiting the ability to infer trends.

Santa Clara County had 9,903 homeless residents in 2023, slightly less than the year prior. Since then, the county has added 235 new shelter beds, bringing the total number of available temporary housing beds to 3,697. The number of sheltered homeless residents has risen 30% since 2023.

The numbers come as San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is focusing on creating more temporary housing options for homeless residents, including hotel conversions into transitional housing. The San Jose City Council recently reallocated Measure E affordable housing funds for short-term housing from nearly $40 million that was originally intended for permanent affordable housing.

“This latest count demonstrates that we have a lot of work ahead of us,” Mahan told San José Spotlight. “The good news is that the 30% increase in sheltered individuals shows that when we invest in safe alternatives to the streets, we can move people indoors. We look forward to seeing San Jose’s numbers as part of the full report — and to scaling what’s working.”

Homelessness in the county previously peaked in 2022 during the pandemic, at 10,028 homeless people. The county saw its lowest number over the past 15 years in 2015, at 6,556 homeless people.

During and after the pandemic, the county focused on homelessness prevention. Between 2020 and 2024, 33,193 people received homelessness prevention assistance and more than 23,000 people were supported in temporary housing and shelter, according to the latest Community Plan to End Homelessness. The plan, which adopts a multi-pronged approach to homelessness, also found 17,485 people gained stable housing.

Over the past decade, there have been 5,135 new affordable homes built through Measure A, with a majority dedicated to homeless people and extremely low-income households. But for every one person housed, nearly two become homeless. Santa Clara County will continue to grapple with an ever-increasing number of homeless residents as federal cuts will ripple down.
Next year, nearly 1,000 vulnerable households will lose their emergency housing vouchers that subsidize rent — similar to Section-8 vouchers. People with these vouchers only pay 30% of their income for rent and the federal government subsidizes the rest.

In addition to the sunsetting of the housing voucher program,  the Santa Clara County Housing Authority is bracing for a potential 10% cut to its other housing voucher programs next fiscal year, which could result in a loss of 2,000 additional vouchers. Officials said they won’t know how much will be cut until the start of the federal government’s fiscal year in October.

Sandy Perry, board vice president of South Bay Community Land Trust, said the problem lies in unaffordable rent, and criticized Mahan’s handling of the crisis because numbers have increased under the mayor’s leadership. He said San Jose and the county need both temporary and permanent affordable housing, not one or the other.

Perry said the state and federal cuts, along with the depletion of Measure A funds and local policies, have all led to a “perfect storm.”

“We’re headed for just an incredible collision of crises,” Perry told San José Spotlight. “I think it’s important to understand that a city by itself is not going to solve this as a problem.”

The final point in time count results will be released late summer or early fall.

Story updated June 20 at 4:59 p.m. Original story published June 20 at 3:50 p.m.

Contact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com or @joyce_speaks on X.  Contact B. Sakura Cannestra at sakura@sanjosespotlight.com or @SakuCannestra on X. Contact Annalise Freimarck at annalise@sanjosespotlight.com or follow @annalise_ellen on X.

The post Santa Clara County homelessness hits new high appeared first on San José Spotlight.

The California Legislature on June 13 passed a $325 billion preliminary budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year, and the state’s main source of homelessness funding — the Homelessness Housing, Assistance and Prevention Program — has been zeroed out. The funding can be used toward homelessness prevention, rental assistance, temporary and permanent housing, outreach, services and shelter improvements. Last-minute budget details are being hashed out before the fiscal year starts on July 1, but the potential axing of the program could have a devastating effect in Santa Clara County and San Jose in coming years.

San Jose will lose about 550 beds and spaces in temporary homeless housing if it doesn’t find other sources of funding, Housing Director Erik Soliván said. Because of the timing of when state dollars are distributed, the impact on the city won’t be felt until fiscal year 2026-27, resulting in a loss of about $30 million.

“What happens to the people who are in (those units)? The impact will be big,” Soliván told San Jose Spotlight. “Those funds are vital to not only the continuation of shelter operations, but also the work we do around outreach and engagement and providing services to encampments.”

The state established its program six years ago to give one-time grants to reduce homelessness. With the funding, California’s 13 largest cities have created 17,000 shelter beds and served more than 150,000 people. This fiscal year, the state set aside $1 billion for the program, and $760 million is left to be allocated.

Since the start of the program, San Jose has received nearly $120 million in grants in five rounds of funding. San Jose applied for $25.3 million this fiscal year, and awards will be announced and distributed next fiscal year. The city has allocated the largest chunk toward interim housing at $39 million and put $23 million toward new emergency shelters and navigation centers. San Jose has also has invested $14 million in street outreach.

“If we walk away from that now, we are not just walking away from progress. We are walking away from people,” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said in a statement. “Because if (the state program) disappears, our ability to respond to this humanitarian crisis goes with it.”

Santa Clara County has received a total of $114 million from the program, with the largest amounts of money being allocated toward funding operations at temporary housing sites, at nearly $50 million, and homelessness prevention at more than $20 million.

Kathryn Kaminski, acting director of the Santa Clara County Office of Supportive Housing, said the county would begin to feel the impacts of cuts starting fiscal year 2026-27.

“The county has been strategic and thoughtful about leveraging (Homelessness Housing, Assistance and Prevention Program) funding with other sources and allocating it over multiple years to prevent immediate disruptions of the system,” Kaminski told San José Spotlight. “However, discontinuation, delay or significant cuts to HHAP funds may require us to wind down or significantly reduce capacity of programs given the fiscal challenges at the local, state and federal levels for critical programming including temporary housing, basic needs and homelessness prevention.”

Nearly 10,000 homeless residents live in Santa Clara County, according to a 2023 count. Results for this year’s count have yet to be released. San Jose has 6,340 homeless residents — the fourth highest population of homeless people per capita in the nation.

While San Jose waits to see if its recent bid for funding is successful, the city will continue construction of its planned temporary housing sites, including Cherry Avenue tiny home site, the expansion of the Rue Ferrari tiny home and the Cerone safe parking site — all slated to open in the fall. The city also has five hotel conversions into temporary housing in its pipeline. San Jose aims to add more than 1,000 shelter beds and spaces this year.

Soliván said the housing department is making contingency plans for future state funding cuts. The preliminary budget outlines $500 million in state program funding to be restored for the 2026-27 fiscal year, half of what was distributed in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
Officials are already preparing for a challenging year ahead with the county anticipating $70 million in proposed cuts from the federal budget, which would slash funding for Medi-Cal all the way to housing vouchers.

“It’s absolutely the worst time to see continued reduction in funding and services for our most vulnerable residents,” Ray Bramson, chief operating officer at Destination: Home and San José Spotlight columnist, told San José Spotlight. “My hope would be that we find a path forward to make it a permanent funding source, because we’re going to need this investment for a while to truly make a difference.”

Story updated June 23 at 9:45 a.m. Original story published June 20 at 8:30 a.m.

Contact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com or @joyce_speaks on X. 

The post State could strip Silicon Valley’s homeless funding appeared first on San José Spotlight.

The San Jose City Council voted 9-1 on Tuesday to approve the “vanlording” policy, as it was written last week, to ban the advertising and renting out of RVs to homeless residents intending to use the recreational vehicles as homes. These RVs are prohibited from parking and sleeping on city streets and private property after August. District 2 Councilmember Pamela Campos was the sole “no” vote.

Campos shared concerns about the amount of discretion police would have issuing trespassing citations and arresting people living in their vehicles without the involvement of the property owner. But city officials countered that without this policy in place there would be no concrete policy for vanlording enforcement.

Campos said the city’s two safe parking sites are insufficient to accommodate the 800 RV dwellers across San Jose. The sites only have space for 128 vehicles total.

“It’s important being thoughtful in our process for how we are moving forward on (policies) that will both support the needs of our business and property owners, while also maintaining civil liberties to our residents,” Campos said at the meeting. “In a political climate where people are fearing leaving their homes due to immigration concerns, I think it’s incredibly important that we are sensitive in our approach.”

District 4 Councilmember David Cohen, who said in March the policy isn’t meant to target people living in RVs, expressed his concern over the final language targeting homeless residents.

“We need to make sure that they have the ability to manage once the property owner gives notice,” he said at the meeting. “My preference in this case is to (ask) for implementation of the trespassing policy … but come back on what our implementation policy plans will be around that as we go into fall.”

The policy comes on the heels of the city’s RV tow-away zones program. San Jose plans to select up to 30 temporary tow-away zones and 10 permanent sites to clear RVs for street sweeping and cleanup. Implementation is scheduled for this year.
Vice Mayor Pam Foley said the goal of the policy is to relieve San Jose property and business owners who have already requested police assistance in addressing recreational vehicles.

“That’s problematic, particularly if you have a property owner who’s already posted a “no trespassing” sign and given police verbal authorization, as Police Chief Paul Joseph said,” she said at the meeting. “To wait for the property owners to come out and sign something in writing before police take action … puts the property owners’ property at risk.”

Contact Vicente Vera at vicente@sanjosespotlight.com or follow @VicenteJVera on X.

The post San Jose bans homeless people renting RVs appeared first on San José Spotlight.

Sweeps are planned from June 16 to June 30 to clear encampments where dozens of people are living in tents along the Guadalupe River from West Taylor Street to Interstate 880. The city plans to sweep Columbus Park next month — where homeless residents are living in more than 80 vehicles and RVs — and expects to finish clearing the site by October. Once the areas are cleared, the city will implement no encampment zones to keep people from setting up camp again.

The city originally planned to clear Columbus Park at the end of the year. But Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services spokesperson Amanda Rodriguez said the area has become increasingly unsafe.

“Columbus Park has become one of the largest and most challenging encampments in San Jose,” Rodriguez told San José Spotlight. “Conditions have deteriorated to the point where it is unsafe for the people living there, city and nonprofit staff providing services and the surrounding community.”

Homeless residents have been pushed into Columbus Park due to the temporary RV bans across the city. The park was completely cleared out three years ago because it sits under the flight path of San Jose Mineta International Airport, after the Federal Aviation Administration threatened to withhold millions in federal funding.

Once swept, the city plans to transform the dilapidated space into a park with synthetic soccer fields, courts for horseshoe, futsal, basketball and pickleball, picnic areas and a play area for children.

Homeless people living in the area don’t know where they will go next. Gabrielle Aguirre said the impending Columbus Park sweep has made her feel stressed. She’s been consolidating her belongings and trying to find someone with a truck to tow her inoperable trailer out. Aguirre said she’s received no offers for housing.

“It’s really depressing,” Aguirre, 42, told San José Spotlight. “It’s hard losing the little you have. We’re just trying to get back on our feet.”

Rodriguez said Columbus Park is a focus area for consistent outreach and support. She said HomeFirst regularly visit the park to offer services and build relationships.

“Their team provides street-based case management, helps individuals enroll in the Homeless Management Information System and encourages them to contact the Here4You hotline for information about shelter opportunities,” she said.

District 6 Councilmember Michael Mulcahy, whose represents the areas getting swept, did not respond to a request for comment.

Todd Langton, executive director of Agape Silicon Valley, has made several trips to the Guadalupe River trail in the past week to talk to the people who will be swept.

“I’ve spoken so many of them (and) none of them have been offered housing,” Langton told San José Spotlight. “(Mayor Matt Mahan) has brainwashed (citizens) into thinking that all the unhoused have a place to go, and they’re refusing shelter. And that is an outright lie.”

The city aims to add more than 1,400 shelter beds and spaces this year, but that’s not enough for the roughly 5,500 people who are unsheltered. Four temporary housing sites with a combined 524 beds or spaces have come online in the past year, including Pacific Motor Inn last August, the Branham Lane modular site in February, the Berryessa safe parking site last month and Via del Oro in April. Officials recently approved the mayor’s plan to allow police to arrest homeless people for refusing shelter.

Bill Wells, 55, has been pitching his tent around the Guadalupe River near Hedding Street for two decades. He’s put all his belongings in a cart in anticipation of the sweep. He doesn’t know where he’ll go next.

“I can’t pull myself out of it on my own. I need help,” Wells told San José Spotlight. “I’d like to get one of these tiny homes (so) I could work. I’m a hard worker.”
Wells wants to find work in a restaurant or kitchen, but not having somewhere to shower makes it difficult to get a job, he said. He’s also apprehensive about leaving his two dogs unattended, and finding shelter that will accommodate both dogs can be tricky.

He’s skeptical he’ll be offered housing, even though others around him have obtained shelter.

“Nobody has been out here longer than me,” he said. “I don’t know how they judge who needs what and who gets what.”

Contact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com or @joyce_speaks on X. 

The post San Jose to clear Columbus Park — again appeared first on San José Spotlight.

The conversion of the Bristol Hotel, located on the San Jose-Campbell border at 3341 S. Bascom Ave., is already in the works. It will be transitional housing for about 60 mothers and their children and women aged 60 and older. It’s the only hotel out of five San Jose plans to lease as temporary housing straddling the border. The other hotels include the Casa Linda Motel, a Motel 6 and the Fontaine and Alura inns.

The project has generated a firestorm of opposition from San Jose and Campbell residents.

@sanjosespotlight

More than 100 people packed the Camden Community Center Wednesday to speak against a West Valley hotel converting to temporary homes for homeless women and children. The conversion of the Bristol Hotel, located on the San Jose-Campbell border at 3341 S. Bascom Ave., is already in the works. It will be transitional housing for about 60 mothers and their children and women aged 60 and older. It’s the only hotel out of five San Jose plans to lease as temporary housing straddling the border. The project has generated a firestorm of opposition from San Jose and Campbell residents. Read more at SanJoseSpotlight.com #sanjose #campbell #westvalley #siliconvalley #localnews #homelessness #housing

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Campbell resident Mars Tang led the charge against the hotel conversion through an online petition that has gained more than 1,200 signatures. His qualms with the site include its proximity to schools and the safety of their students, traffic hazards and the effects it could have on Campbell. But Campbell has no jurisdiction and can’t do anything about San Jose’s plans for the site.

“We’re (not) against or opposed to provide the home to homeless people. We feel bad about that,” Tang told San José Spotlight. “What we oppose is this site, this location. It just makes no sense.”

San Jose has already entered an agreement with the Bristol Hotel’s property owners to lease its 47 rooms for two years, at roughly $30,000 a room or about $1.4 million annually. It will be funded by the roughly $14 million the San Jose City Council allocated in its fiscal year 2025-26 budget toward its hotel conversion strategy, which includes future plans to acquire the sites for permanent housing.

The council doesn’t have to approve the site, which could open as early as August, because it already approved the hotel strategy last year. That approval frustrated residents, including one woman who asked how the city would know the residents don’t use substances and are legal citizens, saying she knows “drugged-out moms” who need a “full-time adult nanny.”

Future residents will receive wraparound services, including meals, case management and 24/7 security. The hotel could help some of the 32.2% of San Jose’s female homeless residents, along with the growing older adult unhoused population. San Jose has more than 6,200 homeless residents as of 2023 data.

A University of California San Francisco Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative study shows one in five women who fall into homelessness in California are fleeing domestic violence.

San Jose Vice Mayor Pam Foley, who represents District 9 where the hotel is located, hosted the community meeting. She said many residents support the conversion, but were too afraid to speak up at the hostile meeting. She’s heard these concerns before and said when these sites are managed properly, they’re safe and have little effect on the community.

“I believe it’s possible to address valid concerns of the community while standing firmly in our responsibility to provide stability to people who have faced challenges that have left them without options,” Foley told San José Spotlight.

Foley will continue working with Campbell officials, including Mayor Sergio Lopez, who said he’ll continue conveying neighborhood concerns to San Jose officials because he wants it to succeed. Campbell has a much smaller homeless population than San Jose, at 92 residents as of the 2023 point-in-time count.

“We need regional solutions,” he told San José Spotlight. “And I really think if this is done right, there can be a major benefit to Campbell residents and to addressing homelessness here.”

The Bristol Hotel’s property owner did not respond to requests for comment, including questions about what will happen to the 10 to 12 employees, such as Liliana Fierro.

Fierro has worked the night shift at the hotel for four years and said her team was only told about the conversion last week. She said the hotel’s been a hidden gem for the past 25 years.

“It’s extremely stressful, frustrating because I don’t want to have to go out and search for another job again,” Fierro told San José Spotlight. “It’s hard enough already to try to make ends meet.”
San Jose already owns four hotels it’s converted into housing for homeless residents, including the Pacific Motor Inn that opened last year.

But those hotels aren’t limited to housing for mothers with children and women 60 and older — a resource Alison Cingolani, director of policy at nonprofit SV@Home, said is desperately needed. She’s disappointed in the community’s response to the Bristol Hotel conversion because the belief that homeless women and children create an unsafe neighborhood is unfounded.

“Most of us are much closer to the potential to be unhoused than we would imagine ourselves to be, or that we would like to think,” Cingolani told San José Spotlight. “These are just human beings just like all the rest of us who are trying to get by, even more so to provide for their children.”

Contact Annalise Freimarck at annalise@sanjosespotlight.com or follow @annalise_ellen on X.

The post West Valley residents angry over hotel turning to homeless housing appeared first on San José Spotlight.

White said she hardly sees her caseworker and is never informed of when a new affordable housing development is opening. Since moving there in November 2023, she only knows of a handful of people who have been placed into housing: one couple who moved into the Via Del Oro tiny home site and an individual who moved into permanent housing.

“Our caseworkers don’t have speciality training,” White told San José Spotlight. “I haven’t seen her since March.”

San Jose’s first safe parking site opened July 2023 and provides space for 42 RVs to stay there without fear of getting swept. But residents said supportive services and help toward finding permanent or transitional housing are not being met. They said LifeMoves, the nonprofit housing provider managing the safe parking site, has tight rules for what residents can and can’t do, including who can visit. Some residents say they’d rather be on the street than stay there.

The site sits on a 115,000-square-foot lot next to the Santa Teresa VTA light rail station. San Jose has a five-year contract with VTA to lease the site for free, and pays $1.5 million in operational costs annually to LifeMoves. The contract renews every July.

A LifeMoves spokesperson said the organization has helped place 15 people into housing since 2023.

“As with most Silicon Valley-based interim housing programs, broader systemic challenges — such as limited affordable housing stock, inflation, increased cost of living, stagnant wages and limited subsidies and resources — can significantly impact a client’s ability to achieve a positive exit,” spokesperson Maria Prato told San José Spotlight. “While we work closely with clients to prepare them for stable housing, these external factors often create barriers that are beyond the scope of the program.”

Strict rules, no leniency 

LifeMoves is kicking White out because her In-Home Supportive Services caregiver violated the visitor policy for failing to sign in and out numerous times. San José Spotlight reviewed the letter.

White said LifeMoves workers started harassing her after she began advocating for herself and other residents. She pushed for longer visitor hours, bottled water when their water source wasn’t working for three weeks and for LifeMoves to pay to fix her septic tank, which she said was broken by the contractor who flushed it.

In the letter, LifeMoves gave White an opportunity to appeal her case. White chose to leave earlier than her termination date because her brother, who is her IHSS worker, was no longer permitted on the site.

White said her fibromyalgia has been exacerbated since moving to the site, making it difficult for her to walk or stand. She relies on her brother to help her get groceries, run errands and walk her dogs.

Prato said LifeMoves can’t discuss individual client situations, but caregivers can be banned from the site if workers deem their behavior to be disruptive.

“The reason that people don’t want to come in is because they take away all of our rights,” White said, referring to Mahan’s policy to arrest homeless people who refuse offers of shelter.

Other residents expressed similar badgering by LifeMoves workers.

Debbie Cattivera, 62, was kicked out of the safe parking site last year after living there for half a year. Cattivera claims LifeMoves told her to leave because she left her car in the parking lot too long while unloading groceries.

“I was being harassed more by them than I was by the police on the street,” Cattivera told San José Spotlight.

White said Cattivera’s absence affected other residents because she helped people get gas and groceries. Many residents at the site don’t have operable RVs or cars.

One resident, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, said LifeMoves workers used to take them grocery shopping, but stopped.

“I’m even worse being here,” they told San José Spotlight. “They don’t help you. Nobody is getting on these (housing) lists.”

LifeMoves representatives said they offer cost-free transportation through Lyft to help residents get to the market or necessary appointments.

Prato said LifeMoves is actively interviewing for housing and employment specialists. She said workers are being asked to refrain from giving rides due to liability concerns, and have handed out a small number of bus and light rail passes.

“While we understand that this can present challenges, we encourage clients to lean on their personal networks when appropriate, as building and utilizing social support systems is an important step toward long-term independence and stability,” Prato said.

Homeless advocate Gail Osmer, who has been trying to help the safe parking site residents, said the city shouldn’t renew the contract with LifeMoves.

“We need to protect our unhoused and we aren’t,” Osmer told San José Spotlight.

Councilmember George Casey, whose District 10 covers the safe parking site, did not respond to a request for comment.

White is trying to get into the Berryessa safe parking site run by nonprofit WeHope, or the safe parking site in Mountain View run by MOVE Mountain View — but both sites are full. When she leaves the Santa Teresa site this week, White will try to find a place in Mountain View to temporarily park her RV, since San Jose has been making it difficult for people with RVs to park on the street due to its temporary, rotating RV ban.

“I regret coming in here,” White told San José Spotlight. “My physical body is deteriorating living in this place. We’re all adults here, but we are treated like we are in prison.”

Editor’s note: A past version of this story did not provide information about how LifeMoves assists clients and lacked information about one resident who could have appealed her termination from the housing site.

Contact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com or @joyce_speaks on X.

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Mahan held a news conference Wednesday to talk about how he is redefining his “Responsibility to Shelter” initiative. When it first rolled out in March, Mahan said those who refuse shelter three times within an 18-month period would be subject to a trespassing violation and an arrest, with the goal of connecting individuals to treatment. Mahan has since revised his position, saying each person’s situation should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. But homeless people could be charged for other reasons when refusing shelter.

“At some point, we have to acknowledge that a small subset of folks on our streets simply are unable or unwilling to accept and benefit from what the city can do, in which case we have to get them into a behavioral health court (or) a county run treatment center,” Mahan said at the news conference.

To implement the policy, the city could create a new in-house outreach team to build a case file of every homeless person they encounter. At the outreach worker’s discretion and after repeated attempts to offer shelter, the worker may then refer the case to the police.

This specialized outreach team would be created under the Housing Department’s Enhanced Engagement Program (EEP). It would have a total of seven staff members, including three people from the housing department and four workers from Beautify SJ, which is under the Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Department that oversees encampment sweeps. This team will be responsible for tracking engagement, gathering data and for sharing information with the new police unit designed to enforce the Responsibility to Shelter policy. The outreach team would be deployed to large homeless encampments and waterways.

Mahan said that while three refusals of shelter could still be a good threshold, he wants outreach workers to use discretion on when to escalate the situation to an arrest.

Mahan wants to connect arrested people with the Santa Clara County Behavioral Health court system– despite county officials and a former judge stating Mahan’s policy will not work as he intends. Those who are arrested on trespassing charges will be released immediately, and won’t be able to go through the adjudication process to receive a referral to the behavioral health court.

“This proposal is misguided. It will not achieve its stated objective,” retired Judge Richard Loftus, who used to sit on the Behavioral Health Court, wrote in a letter to the San Jose City Council. “The justice system does not work the way this proposal contemplates.”

Mahan said homeless people could be charged for things like drug or firearm possession under his Responsibility to Shelter initiative.

“There will be an expectation that you have a responsibility to shelter, but we have to leave a bit of discretion for outreach and first responders to determine what that particular situation entails,” Mahan said. “And it may not be a trespassing charge. It could be a drug charge that gets somebody into a drug court.”

Instead of putting people in jail, another option could be to have the homeless person brought to the Mission Street Recovery Center, the mayor said. The Mission Street Recovery Center provides people with short stays of less than 24 hours to detox from alcohol. 

Tamiko Rast, president of the Japantown Business Association, said she and her family have been assaulted by homeless people multiple times and have made dozens of calls to the police over the past decade.

“These near weekly experiences have deeply affected us emotionally and financially. We are exhausted and we are afraid for our safety,” Rast said at the press conference. “Accountability is not the same as criminalization, but without a requirement to accept help some individuals never will.”

Contact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com or @joyce_speaks on X. 

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Since Mahan rolled out his “Responsibility to Shelter” policy in March, Santa Clara County officials and a former judge have pushed back on the plan that citing homeless people for trespassing will get them connected to the county’s Behavioral Health Court and into treatment. Mahan wants people who refuse offers of shelter three times within 18 months to be arrested on trespassing charges, but state law prohibits holding those who commit nonviolent misdemeanor charges in custody. Homeless people will be released within hours or days, thus preventing them from connecting to treatment. Couple this with the county’s massive shortage of mental health treatment beds — and a lengthy waitlist for not just unhoused people — and the mayor’s plan is on thin ice.

“This proposal is misguided. It will not achieve its stated objective,” retired Judge Richard Loftus, who used to sit on the Behavioral Health Court, wrote in a letter to the San Jose City Council. “The justice system does not work the way this proposal contemplates.”

In 1999, Superior Court Judge Stephen Manley launched the county’s behavioral health court, pairing close judicial oversight with intensive supervision and treatment services in lieu of jail. Offenders who go through this alternate court system are released on probation with a tailored treatment plan depending on level of need — whether that’s an acute psychiatric hospital, a residential treatment facility or an Assisted Outpatient Treatment program. But beds or services need to be available for the system to be successful.

Every month, these individuals are required to appear in court and update the judge on their progress. For those who have committed a misdemeanor, that process can take a year — a felony charge could take up to two years. If the offender commits another crime or fails to appear for their court hearings within that period, they can be sent back to jail.

No beds, no treatment

A person’s referral to behavioral health court is a collaborative decision between the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, behavioral health treatment team and public defender or lawyer representing the defendant. But in order to access the system, the person must be in custody and go through the adjudication process — something that won’t happen if they are released immediately from jail.

Supervising Deputy District Attorney Brandon Cabrera, who works in the behavioral health court, said it’s already extremely busy, serving more than 3,000 clients a year. In addition, the waitlist for people in jail to get into a treatment facility hovers between 100 to 125 people, Cabrera said. If there are no treatment beds available, the defendant remains in custody until a spot opens up.

The county has 1,268 beds for various levels of treatment: 374 beds in locked facilities for acute need, 322 beds in skilled nursing facilities and mental health rehabilitation centers, 378 beds in residential adult facilities for people with mental health issues and 194 beds for people detoxing from substance use.

In 2022, Santa Clara County Supervisors Susan Ellenberg and Otto Lee declared a mental health crisis in the county due to the lack of treatment beds and called for more investments and a coordinated response. Since then, the county has added 208 beds, including 53 acute in-patient beds at the San Jose Behavioral Health Inpatient Psychiatric Hospital.

“Our biggest issue in the collaborative court system is space and capacity of beds,” Cabrera told San José Spotlight.

In a May 12 joint statement to the city council, Lee, District Attorney Jeff Rosen, Sheriff Bob Jonsen and County Executive James Williams said arresting and releasing people for low-level offenses is counterproductive — taking away resources and aggravating the criminal justice system.

“We ask that you consider the impacts that these additional unnecessary and ineffective arrests and bookings will have on our community’s criminal justice system,” the letter said. “At a time of tremendous budgetary challenges, city policies should not divert limited public safety resources to address what is ultimately a problem caused by the lack of affordable housing in our cities.”

Mahan shot back at the county, stating misdemeanor charges have historically been used to compel treatment.

“Before Proposition 47, diversion programs paired with accountability proved effective at encouraging people to engage in treatment through the justice system,” Mahan wrote in a May 15 letter to the county. “Other states continue to use similar tools successfully.”

When reached for comment, Mahan referred San José Spotlight to his letter.

Health care, not handcuffs

However, County Public Defender Damon Silver said he’s not familiar with any evidence-based research that shows arresting and criminalizing homelessness has been successful. Numerous studies indicate it makes matters worse.

“Half-baked incarceration-based proposals inevitably exacerbate the problem and will likely result in catastrophic outcomes for this vulnerable population,” Damon told San José Spotlight.
Mahan called for the county to reconsider its plans to get rid of the Psychiatric Emergency Response Team known as PERT, a model program where a licensed clinician pairs with a police officer to respond to mental health crises. The county has shifted its focus to the Trusted Response Urgent Support Team, a non-police, mobile crisis intervention team to helps deescalate mental health situations.

Williams said there’s a reason why doctors aren’t placed in a 911 call center.

“It’s far more effective to have clinicians in clinical settings, and instead give professional dispatchers the training, resources and tools to accurately and timely direct emergency calls,” the county executive told San José Spotlight. “As we have communicated to the city manager, we are available to offer expertise to assist the city on the challenges its dispatch center currently faces — only triaging 64% of medical emergencies and with a 16% abandoned call rate, which should alarm every resident.”

Chris Ferry, who was director of mental health treatment in the county jail system for more than two decades, said Mahan’s policy is ill-conceived.

“Arresting all these people is just like clearing the encampments,” Ferry told San José Spotlight. “They’re going to be back in whatever amount of time. I don’t see it having a potential for success.”

Contact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com or @joyce_speaks on X. 

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