During a Tuesday San Jose City Council meeting, councilmembers unanimously passed resolutions surrounding interim and emergency housing to help mitigate the housing crisis in the areas of Downtown and South San Jose respectively.
The first location, regarding the Guadalupe emergency interim housing program, is located at the police administration parking lot in downtown and will include an expansion of tiny homes as a “committed” addition into the 2023-24 city budget, according to the resolution memorandum.
The future five-year general fund forecasts for the city is expected to certify operating and maintenance costs in relation to the housing project.
General fund forecasts are the city’s predictions in revenue to predict future budgets for San Jose, according to the City of San Jose website.
Other actions in the memorandum include a contract with Devcon Construction, Inc., the company that the city is working with to build the expansion, and to increase the contract amount by $2,300,000 for a new total amount that can not exceed $8,300,000, according to the council agenda.
During the meeting, Mayor Sam Liccardo thanked the organizations that have contributed to the current quick housing builds that are currently located in the Guadalupe site while the city works on expanding emergency housing.
Shaunn Cartwright, member of the all-volunteer team serving the San Jose unhoused community Unhoused Response Group, said it was nice to see the city expand their resources to different parts of the city including South San Jose.
“The south side is a resource desert. Districts 2, 9 and 10 have no resources whatsoever,” Cartwright said in a phone call. “The majority of the resources out there actually come from advocates and nonprofits, more like churches and stuff that are trying to fill in the blanks.”
Districts 2, 9 and 10 include the neighborhoods of Oak Grove, Willow Glen, Almaden, Santa Teresa and Cottle.
Cartwright said she hopes that sweeps occurring in South San Jose are being done more humanely than the sweeps occurring on Spring Street, near the Guadalupe emergency housing units.
“[Sweeps have] been going all this time, except now they're starting to randomly sweep people in the creek,” she said. “Some of the people are being swept with no warning. So you just see people being swept and walking away in tears, barefoot, with no belongings.”
City council also moved forward with a resolution to adopt Agenda Item 8.3, which includes accepting an award of about $51.5 million in Homekey Program Round 2 funding from the California Department of Housing and Community Development.
The Homekey program in California is an opportunity for local public entities to help develop a wide range of housing types including motels, hostels, single family homes, multifamily apartments and more, according to the California Department of Housing and Community development Homekey webpage.
Mercy Housing is one of the U.S.’s largest affordable housing organizations which contributes to the development and preservation of affordable housing across the country, according to its website.
The $51.5 million funds are expected to go toward the Mercy Interim Housing, located on Branham Lane and Monterey Road, to address the needs of individuals and families at risk of houselessness or already experiencing houselessness.
The award is expected to be split up into construction, which includes about $40.7 million from Homekey, with about $10.8 million being used to operate the site for seven years, according to the council presentation.
Housing Policy Manager Rachel VanderVeen, said during the meeting that the development would include 204 units, which would provide interim housing for individuals and couples.
VanderVeen also said the interim housing unit is designed to be converted into permanent housing, should the city allow it.
“Half of the units will be set aside for chronically homeless and the site will be managed using housing first principles, meaning that the site will be a low barrier shelter allowing people to move in right off the street,” she said. “Creating a place for them to stabilize and receive bus services to help the residents gain a footing in their lives.”
Currently, the interim housing units would not include basic amenities with the option of kitchenettes being built in should the site be converted into permanent housing.
Houseless people in San Jose are concerned with emergency housing as policies surrounding accessing interim housing is incredibly restrictive, according to a Oct. 20 Spartan Daily article.
Cartwright said people who are being swept from areas including Spring Street are moving into other areas, choosing not to take tiny homes because of the lack of basic amenities.
“A lot of people aren't taking tiny homes,” she said. “That's one of the reasons they aren't taking tiny homes is because they don't have things like the kitchenettes or there's only so many areas where some of the tiny homes have attached bathrooms.”
Tiny homes and interim housing have become a quick solution in the Bay Area to help unhoused people find temporary housing while cities seek more permanent solutions, according to a Sept. 25 Mercury News article.
In Santa Clara County, people who left tiny homes landed in permanent housing 43% of the time between June 2019 and June 2022, according to the Mercury News article.
District 2 Councilmember Sergio Jimenez said the expansion of emergency and interim housing is important and there’s more the South San Jose area can do in relation to the housing crisis.
“Many of the residents I represent continue to say that South San Jose is doing too much. We're doing a lot of these projects,” Jimenez said. “So I've often told my residents that it may seem that way, there's other districts that I think have done more, but we shouldn't say it in such a way in which we're upset about it and we should acknowledge that it's a good thing that we're stepping up and doing what needs to be done to help the issue of our unhoused residents forward.”
Cartwright said she feels even with the passing of these ordinances, the city will not change its treatment toward unhoused people during encampment sweeps.
“I don't think they're going to change that and that's terribly frustrating and upsetting because of all the trauma,” Cartwright said. “You know, sweeps can be less traumatic for people if you communicate clearly and treat them humanely. But I don't think that the city or that [Parks, Recreation & Neighborhood Services] is interested in that.”
