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San José Spotlight
San Jose sees safe sleeping sites as option for homeless residents
By Joyce Chu,
15 hours ago
As San Jose develops plans for sanctioned homeless encampments, Mayor Matt Mahan traveled to San Diego to see what he could glean.
San Diego, at the forefront of safe sleeping sites for unhoused people in California, has two sanctioned locations that support a total of 533 insulated tents. The locations provide on-site case management and resource referrals, restrooms, showers, laundry services and meals.
Mahan told San José Spotlight he plans to model the city’s safe sleeping sites after what he saw in San Diego. He said there will be services, security and sanitation — similar to how the city’s tiny home sites are run.
“It’s a very viable first rung on the ladder. It’s a significant improvement over unmanaged encampments,” Mahan told San José Spotlight. “It appears to meaningfully improve conditions to those experiencing homelessness and the broader community that’s dealing with the impacts of trash and noise and fires and other challenges associated with encampments.”
Mahan’s goal is to move roughly 500 people who are living by the creeks into sanctioned tent sites. The sites will have between 100 to 200 tents each and will be built on public land or land the city can lease.
San Jose is considering eight sites for sanctioned encampments, including parcels off Lelong Street, Willow Street, 3278 Almaden Road, Tully/Monterey and 1157 E. Taylor St. The city is conducting studies to see which locations are most feasible, with the goal of the sites opening by next June.
Todd Langton, founder of the Coalition for the Unhoused of Silicon Valley, feels safe sleeping sites would be a quality of life improvement for people living in tents by the creek.
“We’ve gotta get away from the status quo, which is spend and waste a lot of money, and everybody working independent of each other,” Langton told San José Spotlight.
Property owners living near proposed safe sleeping sites have opposed them. Earlier this year, Willow Glen residents protested turning a vacant lot in their neighborhood into a city-sanctioned homeless camp for fear of being threatened by homeless individuals or having their cars broken into.
The Willow Glen Neighborhood Association has come around to supporting safe sleeping sites, though it doesn’t want the sites near homes. The neighborhood association is only in favor of the VTA parking lot in Willow Glen as a potential sanctioned encampment. They want rules to be implemented including no drugs, alcohol and walk-up enrollment, and they want the site to be limited to three years. Mahan said that no drugs and weapons will be allowed onsite. Pets will be allowed.
“We want to be part of the solution. And we really want the sites to be successful so that it can be expanded,” De Anna McNeal Mirzadegan, president of the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association, told San José Spotlight. “For them to be successful, there does have to be rules, screening and security. Otherwise, it’s unmanaged and lots of problems occur.”
With more than 4,400 homeless people living on the street, along rivers or in tents, the city can’t build affordable housing fast enough. After years of resistance toward safe sleeping sites, city officials unanimously approved moving forward in June.
The city could spend $15 million on safe sleeping sites over the next two years, taken from Measure E, a property transfer tax approved by voters in 2020. The funds will be used to design, build and operate the sanctioned locations, costing anywhere from $18,000 to $40,000 per tent, or $9 million to $20 million for 500 tents.
This year, the city’s focus is on building temporary housing solutions, including safe parking sites and emergency temporary housing, with a goal of adding 628 tiny homes before next July.
About $25 million of Measure E funds have been shifted toward clearing the waterways and creating temporary housing for homeless residents. That only leaves $11 million for building affordable homes this fiscal year.
“If (Mahan) wants to end encampments, why is he building encampments?” Sandy Perry, board vice president of the South Bay Community Land Trust, told San José Spotlight. “It’s okay as a temporary measure, but after a few months, the city needs to figure out how they’re going to get people into permanent housing.”
Contact Joyce Chu at[email protected]or follow @joyce_speaks on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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