The Sunnyvale City Council unanimously approved an overhaul of the Village Center Master Plan Tuesday. The new plan redefined how seven aging retail spaces, called village centers, will be zoned for commercial, residential and mixed use. Cementing these details will help protect some of North Sunnyvale’s grocery stores — including the biggest one, a Lucky’s Supermarket — but won’t stop development proposals that have already been filed.

The city has already received and approved development proposals for some of the sites, including Lakewood Shopping Center and Fair Oaks Plaza. The proposals include razing existing businesses to build about 182 townhomes.

The original 2017 plan was meant to encourage redevelopment of the centers. But as proposals came in, residents grew concerned that upgrading the sites threatened the removal of grocery stores and food resources in historically underserved neighborhoods.

More than 1,800 people signed a petition calling for the city to halt the projects. Himanshu Sethi, who lives in the San Miguel neighborhood, organized the petition and said he was disappointed that the council adopted the master plan without deeper protections for grocery stores and necessary retail amenities.

Sethi said he wants the city to be more specific in its zoning, because giving a broad definition of “retail” doesn’t protect businesses that provide necessary services. He wants to learn more about possible programs to support the small, family-owned businesses that’ll be displaced in the redevelopment, such as Speedy’s Tacos or Taj Mahal Fresh Market.

“The city can do a better job at planning for these things, to make sure these vital services and these vital businesses don’t go away,” Sethi told San José Spotlight. “This area will become a food desert and not enough urgency is being put into preventing this crisis.”

Councilmembers lamented Senate Bill 330, which makes it easier to build affordable and moderately priced housing by limiting local government control. The 2020 law allows developers to request unlimited waivers on city requirements, including retail requirements.

“I have heard over the past year and then from some of my residents, from my constituents in North Sunnyvale, about the impact of loss of retail, the loss of fresh food, the loss of grocery stores,” District 5 Councilmember Richard Mehlinger said at the meeting. “What makes it painful is what little power it feels that we have under existing state laws to prevent these objectively destructive changes.”

SB 330 limits the city’s ability to deny projects, so Lakewood Shopping Center and Fair Oaks Plaza are still on the chopping block. The city launched an incentive program for these locations, allowing developers to decrease or remove the projects’ affordable housing to increase their retail footprint, but the program has yet to see results.

Brittany Behr and her fiance Leland Bond moved to the San Miguel neighborhood about four years ago. They frequent the small and family-owned businesses at Fair Oaks Plaza, which they said are the only restaurants and grocery stores within walking distance of their neighborhood.

“We both really support housing and adding housing, especially making housing more accessible,” Behr told San José Spotlight. “The problem is, we feel that the land use is really inefficient and that sacrificing these businesses that are a backbone of the community isn’t the answer.”

Contact B. Sakura Cannestra at sakura@sanjosespotlight.com or @SakuCannestra on X.

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San Jose City Council unanimously approved a $73.7 million multifamily housing revenue bond on June 10 to close the remaining gap needed to finance the $160-million affordable housing development with developer Affirmed Housing. The 191-apartment complex will be 100% affordable housing, with 128 onsite parking spaces.

“Without the city’s funds, the project would be significantly delayed. These funds are pivotal to the project’s success,” Rob Wilkins, Northern California vice president of Affirmed Housing, told San José Spotlight.

The Arcade at 1371 Kooser Road will offer 139 apartments for those making 40% to 70% of the area median income, or between $73,700 and $129,010 for a family of four. In addition,  50 apartments will be set aside for unhoused residents and those making less than 30% of the area median income, or under $55,290 for a family of four. Two apartments will be for management. The 7-story development will feature 50 three-bedroom apartments, 48 two-bedrooms, 18 1-bedrooms, and 75 studio apartments.

The building will be partially powered by solar and have energy-efficient appliances, in addition to an outdoor area for hosting barbecues, a computer room and free VTA passes for all residents.

Construction was originally scheduled to start in 2023, but Wilkins said financing took longer than expected. Construction will commence next month, with an anticipated December 2027 completion date.

Vice Mayor Pam Foley, whose District 9 includes The Arcade site, did not respond to requests for comment.

Affirmed Housing has multiple affordable developments underway. The Berryessa Transit Center project will add 195 affordable apartments to North San Jose. The developer will transform the busy transit corridor on King Road, which runs runs parallel to the site, with several miles of bus-only lanes, bike lanes and 29,000 feet of walkways.

Last year, the developer received a $38 million grant to build the Berryessa apartments. The grant came from the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program, which finances projects that integrate affordable housing and environmental sustainability.

Affirmed Housing has also developed four other properties in San Jose, including Villas on the Park, San Jose’s first affordable housing development built with Measure A money, Vitalia, Fairways and Vela.

The Arcade will be the developer’s second largest project in San Jose, after the Berryessa site.

Alex Shoor, cofounder and executive director of nonprofit Catalyze SV, said the more affordable housing developed in San Jose, the better.

“Everyone is touched by the housing shortage,” Shoor told San José Spotlight. “How great will it be to have your neighbors who are homeless no longer be homeless and just be neighbors living in the apartment near you? That’s a whole lot better for everyone involved. Every homeless individual that we can get into housing in the neighborhood means they’re not on the street, on your street corner.”

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

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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.

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The San Jose Planning Commission held a public hearing Wednesday for Alviso neighborhood residents living near a proposed 100% affordable housing project by developer Cloud Apartments at 7 Topgolf Drive. Housing advocates with organizations like CatalyzeSV and the Greenbelt Alliance said the eight, seven-story buildings would alleviate the need for more housing and retail in the area — but not everyone agrees.

Richard Santos, a longtime Alviso resident and neighborhood advocate who represents the area on Valley Water’s board of directors, said the buildings would be a misuse of the established green space surrounding Topgolf and create traffic congestion. He also pointed to city officials finding the project to be inconsistent with existing development zoning policies in the area.

“This will not be a complimentary welcome to our laid-back community,” Santos told San José Spotlight. “During heavy traffic, 49er games and concerts, this bumper-to-bumper traffic cuts through the Alviso community … This would put our library, our kids and senior citizens in unsafe situations.”

Cloud Apartments is looking to invoke a state law known as “builder’s remedy,” which allows developers to bypass local zoning requirements when a city is late getting a state-certified housing plan.

District 4 Councilmember David Cohen, whose district includes the project, wants the developers to involve Alviso residents in the planning process.

“I have encouraged the developers of the project to engage in robust community engagement,” he told San José Spotlight. “They are attempting to invoke state laws that allow them to bypass city zoning and council input, so I hope they listen to the community feedback they receive.”

The project qualifies under builder’s remedy because San Jose’s state-mandated housing plan was out of compliance when the developer first submitted the application. Planning department officials will make a final determination at a later date.

“The purpose of the item before the Planning Commission is not to approve or deny the project but to provide an opportunity for the public and local government officials to comment,” Planning Director Chris Burton said in a recent memo. “The project proponent believes the project qualifies for Builder’s Remedy because it provides housing for low-income households.”

More than one dozen residents spoke at the planning commission meeting, with most joining Santos in opposing the project for similar concerns.

Chair Anthony Tordillos remained neutral throughout the two-hour discussion, and encouraged the developers to increase community benefits and take residents’ concerns into consideration. The project can be approved by planning department officials without additional public hearings.

“This is a very interesting project,” Tordillos said at the meeting. “We’re looking at a type of housing that we don’t often see come before the commission, a middle-income project that is not reliant on any public subsidy.”

All 780 apartments will be affordable for households making 80% of the area median income (AMI) — $159,550 per year for a family of four in Santa Clara County.

A San Jose planning department spokesperson said the developer can choose to modify the project after Wednesday’s hearing.

“Builder’s remedy is what makes this project possible as it’s not in an area zoned for housing,” spokesperson Marika Krause told San José Spotlight. “Builder’s remedy may allow the project to go through a more streamlined review process.”
Catalyze SV Executive Director Alex Shoor said his members support the project for its affordability, proximity to transit and inclusion of 16,238 square feet of commercial space.

He said he wants to see the developer lower the AMI threshold to make the apartments more accessible to lower income families.

“Our members would love to see that number come down a little bit, or diversify so we get 60%, 50% and 30% AMI on at least some of the units, because as you know, 80% of AMI is still so expensive,” Shoor told San José Spotlight. “North San Jose is an area that is prime for building new communities, some areas feel like a blank canvas.”

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The City Council voted unanimously June 17 to approve loans totaling $72.5 million to nonprofit Community Development Partners to build an affordable housing 160-apartment complex at 525 N. Capitol Ave., of which a little more than $25.7 million is through lender Citibank. A portion will be funded by Measure E, a property transfer tax voters approved in 2020. Councilmembers made the decision without discussion.

A June 13 memo from Housing Director Erik Soliván stated $130 million will be needed to finance the project. Solivan’s memo breaks out how the project will obtain the financing through a series of loans, fees and other measures. Santa Clara County officials committed to loaning $8 million to the project in 2023 when Community Development Partners first announced the plans. Construction is expected to break ground next month and be done by April 2027.

“We need more housing for residents at all income levels in San Jose,” Deputy Housing Director San Banu told San José Spotlight. “The project at 525 N. Capitol Ave. is leveraging city financing to deliver 160 units of deeply affordable housing, including permanent supportive units for individuals who aren’t self-sufficient, and apartments set aside for military veterans.”

The apartments range from studios to three-bedrooms and 71 will be affordable to people making 30% of the area median income — $68,320 annually for a family of four in Santa Clara County. There will be 25 apartments affordable to people making 50% of the AMI and 62 for those making 60% of the AMI.

City housing officials increased the recommended loan by $5 million after Housing Trust Silicon Valley withdrew a $5 million pledge.

“There are many projects that need funding. As this project neared closing, the financing gap was filled by other sources, which allowed us to redirect our support to other affordable housing developments,” a Housing Trust Silicon Valley spokesperson told San José Spotlight.

Of the $15 million in Measure E funds dedicated to the project, about $1.7 million was allocated from the fund’s “extremely low income” housing priorities.

Councilmembers voted earlier this month to reallocate permanent affordable housing funds from Measure E in the 2025-26 budget and dedicate $39.2 million to propping up temporary shelter to address growing homelessness.

Mayor Matt Mahan made emergency interim housing a centerpiece of his budget plan this year and successfully proposed redirecting as much as 90% of Measure E dollars for temporary shelter.
Community Development Partners President Kyle Paine said they’re grateful to the city for its support.

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

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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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Habitat for Humanity has been renovating the historic Pallesen Apartments building, now located at the corner of Fourth and Reed streets, and will sell the condominiums to first-time buyers when the rehabilitation is complete in August. The 115-year-old building — comprised of four, 1,100 square-foot two-bedroom condos — will have a new foundation and roof, as well as new flooring, cabinets, bathrooms, appliances and more. The restoration costs about $2.6 million. Scape San Jose LLC, the previous owner, donated the building to Habitat for Humanity.

The homes are targeted for low-income families — households making up to 80% of the area median income or less than $159,550 for a family of four — and very low-income families making between 30% to 50% of the area median income, or less than $100,450 for a family of four.

The families will not be required to make a down payment. San Jose is providing $250,000 in down payment assistance, or $62,500 per condo, to lower the sales price of the homes through Measure E funds.

The condos are valued between $510,000 and $620,000, but families will pay a monthly mortgage rate of no more than 35% of their income. Monthly payments will be between $2,000 to $2,800, depending on income, and will be a fixed rate over 30 years. These payments include insurance and maintenance fees. If the family decides to move out before the home is paid off, the nonprofit will buy back the property and sell it to another low-income family.

The building has a deed restriction to remain affordable for the next 99 years, Ben Grubb, the nonprofit’s project manager, said.

“The idea is that housing can be a thing that you no longer have to worry about,” Grubb told San José Spotlight. “The difference between affordable home ownership versus affordable rental is that you’re not (just) changing the lives of two or three people. You’re changing the lives of 4, 10, 12, 24 people over the course of many years.”

Renovations were supposed to be complete by 2023, but delays in getting funding for construction pushed back the timeline, Grubb said. Santa Clara County provided $1 million in Measure A funds, a $950 million affordable housing bond approved by voters in 2016. The project also received loans from the Housing Trust Silicon Valley and Google.

The building, a Mission Revival-style fourplex built in 1910, was saved from demolition a few years ago when downtown residents and the Preservation Action Council of San Jose successfully raised $300,000 to move it to the corner of Fourth and Reed streets. The historic building was going to be knocked down to make way for a high-rise, mixed-use project in 2021.
Prior to the move, the building sat at 14 E. Reed Street for more than 100 years. It was home to Danish immigrants, who rented the rooms to local working class people. Although the house is on San Jose’s historic inventory list, it has to be part of the national registry to avoid being demolished.

“We’re trying to save neighborhoods,” Mike Sodergren, board president of the Preservation Action Council, told San José Spotlight. “We’re also trying to preserve architecture that reflects the cultural identity. When we do this, it preserves a unique sense of place.”

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

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Housing Trust Silicon Valley, a nonprofit community development group, announced on June 11 it will award a $50,000 grant to the School of Arts and Culture at Mexican Heritage Plaza. As the plaza celebrated 25 years in San Jose, school leaders said they want to bring health care, affordable housing and economic development to the Mayfair neighborhood through “La Avenida,” a cultural district meant to attract development.

“We recognize that the strength of our region’s affordable housing ecosystem is rooted in the capacity of community-based developers who are deeply connected to the neighborhoods they serve,” Housing Trust Silicon Valley CEO Noni Ramos said in a statement.

School of Arts and Culture representatives said they have raised more than 90% of La Avenida’s $30 million goal — but need community help filling the gap. The $50,000 grant will be used to purchase a mostly vacant property on 1747-1785 Alum Rock Ave., directly across from Mexican Heritage Plaza.

The district is envisioned as a 6-acre mixed-use development with affordable housing, local businesses and social service providers. The projects aim to address threats of displacement in the Mayfair neighborhood and greater East San Jose.

“A fully developed La Avenida would be a major win for East San Jose and for the city’s broader economy. With major events coming in 2026, we need to invest in our cultural, business and entertainment districts beyond downtown,” San Jose Chamber of Commerce CEO Leah Toeniskoetter told San José Spotlight, referring to SuperBowl 60 and the FIFA World Cup. “This project brings investment, local ownership and jobs to a historically underserved corridor — and helps to position San Jose as a city that grows inclusively.”

SV Creates CEO Alexandra Urbanowski, also a School of Arts and Culture board member and San José Spotlight columnist, said the $50,00 grant is an important recognition of the leadership role the school plays in the local arts community, as well as in the Alum Rock and East San Jose neighborhoods and business districts.

Alum Rock Santa Clara Street Business Association leaders said a recent $100,000 grant will go toward building a gateway structure for the upcoming cultural district.

“The school is well positioned to lead the further development of an important cultural district in our city, which will demonstrate how the arts can be pivotal in building community health, social cohesion and economic vitality,” Urbanowski told San José Spotlight.
City officials voted last month to add La Avenida to the list of entertainment zones with reduced alcohol consumption restrictions ahead of the 2026 Super Bowl and World Cup events.

“The grant will help the school build its infrastructure and capacity to provide equitable access to arts programming for residents, pay to local artists and resources for all the smaller arts organizations that call the Mexican Heritage Plaza home,” Urbanowski said. “What a nice message today to counter recent federal funding cuts to the arts.”

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

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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.

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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. 

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