Editorial: San Jose misses the mark with functional zero

To bring homelessness to “functional zero,” San Jose will need to commit hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming years to be able to say the number of people exiting homelessness is greater than those becoming homeless — unless city officials rethink their approach.

Building more temporary shelters, tiny homes and safe parking and sleeping sites may appear to be an expeditious way to get unhoused people off the streets. But over the long term it doesn’t solve the more pressing problem: the lack of permanent housing. Without a significant, simultaneous investment in this part of the housing continuum, the reality of functional zero is a pipe dream.

The math simply doesn’t work in this unilateral approach. The flow of people will stall and costs for temporary housing will become prohibitive when factoring in needed dollars for ongoing supportive services and facility upkeep.

The San Jose Housing Department estimates operational costs for these temporary solutions at $234 million annually. That’s on top of the $255 million in one-time costs Mayor Matt Mahan said is needed to build out a temporary shelter system to lift an estimated 5,500 people off the streets.

Mahan argues permanent housing is a $5 billion investment, based on each apartment costing $1 million multiplied by 5,000-plus unhoused people. Realistically, it’s more likely multiple people will be living in these apartments and unlikely to be a 1-to-1 ratio.

His calculations are even more questionable based on the housing department’s math, which brings it down to $200,000 per apartment. That’s based on a city investment of 20% per affordable housing project and factors in funding from other resources, such as Santa Clara County and the state.

What’s more disconcerting is how the mayor appears to be pushing to get there. There’s a 2025-26 budget proposal to reallocate $39 million in the Measure E affordable housing bucket toward short-term homeless needs. These funds, meant to cover construction of affordable development for extremely low to moderate income households, would be wiped out for fiscal year 2025-26 and perhaps beyond. If approved, San Jose officials would essentially ignore a voter-mandated measure in order to serve the mayor.

Affordable housing would be shoved to the backburner in favor of more temporary housing, creating a lopsided set of priorities.

City officials need to take a hard look at what is happening here.

Functional zero is not going to work if people on the streets can’t get into temporary housing because those people can’t get into permanent housing. Everything is interconnected. Housing solutions can’t exist in silos, that’s not how a functioning system works. They need to coexist.

Two years ago a Santa Clara County report revealed that for every one household housed nearly two households become homeless. How is that going to change if the city doesn’t balance the scales and only sees the solution through a quick-fix lens?

Moryt Milo is an editor at San José Spotlight. Contact Moryt at [email protected] or follow her at @morytmilo on X, formerly known as Twitter. Catch up on her monthly editorials here.