San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan has set himself on a launchpad for higher office, from TV interviews in other cities to big policy promises that have chafed the left.
But the mayor’s political future will rely on the state he leaves San Jose in — and whether he’s fulfilled his promises to bring people indoors, clean up city streets and breath new economic life into California’s third largest city.
Mahan, who declined to comment, has made national headlines by pushing to tie city leaders’ pay raises to their performance, arrest homeless people who refuse shelter and prioritize public dollars for temporary shelter over permanent affordable housing.
San Jose isn’t a strong mayor city where the mayor holds more power than the City Council, and it’s difficult to credit the city’s progress — or blame its problems — on just one of the council’s 11 members. At the same time, Mahan has elevated his regional profile by going against Gov. Gavin Newsom and projecting a CEO-like approach to leading the city, even if his ideas hinge on colleagues’ support.
So how is San Jose doing after more than two years under Mahan’s watch?
Housing and homelessness
Mahan’s mayoral campaign focused on “common sense” approaches to eliminating the city’s most glaring crisis: homelessness.
His approach favoring temporary homeless shelter over permanent housing is bringing more people indoors, despite the city’s unhoused population increasing since he took office.
There are 6,503 homeless residents in San Jose according to this year’s point-in-time count — up by 237 people from 2023. About 2,544 people have shelter, compared to 1,929 in 2023.
San Jose reached a shelter utilization rate of 92% this year between January and March, just under the 95% target rate, according to the city’s homelessness dashboard. The city is on track to meet Mahan’s goal of opening 1,400 new shelter beds before the end of the year — if you count approximately 101 parking spaces for households living in RVs. Just more than 1,300 of those beds account for emergency interim housing and converted motels, according to Sarah Fields, spokesperson for the housing department.
Mahan has used this progress to justify efforts to crack down on homeless people living along public right-of-ways. He’s long argued “compassion without accountability” threatens to push homelessness efforts backward. His proposal to arrest homeless people who refuse shelter multiple times won council approval in June.
Mahan has also achieved his yearslong plan to reallocate the city’s largest source of funding for permanent affordable housing construction — set aside under the voter-approved Measure E — toward temporary shelters instead. Councilmembers agreed to divert 90% of Measure E funds toward temporary shelter last month.
The mayor’s methods have been criticized as criminalizing homelessness and overlooking issues like wealth inequality.
“(Mahan’s) very much about optics versus results,” Todd Langton, executive director of Agape Silicon Valley, told San José Spotlight. “Temporary solutions aren’t effective for people if there isn’t enough permanent affordable housing waiting for them. The cost of living is going up. Meanwhile he’s increased (encampment sweeps). That’s exacerbating the problem because people’s possessions get destroyed.”
In contrast, people who agree with the mayor’s approach say things appear to be on the right track. Among them is Monterey Corridor Business Association President Shyam “Sean” Panchal.
Panchal lauded Mahan for piloting a program cracking down on RV parking in his corridor that’s home to about 1,500 commercial and heavy industrial businesses.
“I think Mayor Mahan has done a fine job,” Panchal told San José Spotlight. The (RV program) has been a good — maybe fantastic — start in that it’s created a bright glimmer of hope that we can return these streets back to their intended use for business purposes.”
Public safety and government accountability
Mahan campaigned on making government more accountable to residents. But he’s been unsuccessful at achieving one of his more attention-grabbing proposals — tying pay raises to performance for councilmembers and department leaders. Mahan’s colleagues shot down the idea during June’s budget session.
One proposal Mahan has fulfilled is the creation of a city data dashboard. The dashboard scores San Jose’s progress on issues that include clean streets and public safety.
According to the dashboard, 65% of residents who responded to surveys in the third quarter of fiscal year 2024-25 saw San Jose as a “very safe” or “somewhat safe” city compared to 63% of residents in the third quarter of fiscal year 2023-24. Positive responses to a similar street cleanliness perception survey have also trended upward since 2023. Meanwhile, the dashboard shows code enforcement blight caseloads have trended downward.
But customer satisfaction scores for graffiti removal, illegal dumping, junk pickup and abandoned vehicles decreased between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 fiscal years, according to the dashboard.
Economic development
Economic development is a critical issue for Mahan as a pro-business leader in a city often seen as divided between labor and business interests. Eliminating vacant storefronts and supporting new business openings and downtown activity are key to growing San Jose’s tax base amid a structural budget deficit.
The number of residents who rate downtown San Jose as a vibrant place has hovered between 43% and 49% over the last two years — several percentage points below the city’s target of 55%, according to the city dashboard.
That vibrancy will see its most critical test when nearby Santa Clara — which lacks its own downtown options for visitors — hosts the FIFA World Cup and Super Bowl in 2026.Economists found San Francisco came out on top with economic benefits during the 2016 Super Bowl, even though the event took place at Levi’s Stadium in the South Bay. Mahan and other local leaders have vowed to change that this time around — and regional economic reports show San Jose rebounding in downtown foot traffic at a higher level than San Francisco since the pandemic lockdowns.
Bob Staedler, a principal at San Jose-based land use and development consulting firm Silicon Valley Synergy, questions whether San Jose can compete with San Francisco for major fanfare events surrounding the games when the mayor of San Francisco is on the Bay Area Host Committee.
He also said permitting times are still lagging for small businesses due to large caseloads and spread-thin city workers. Applications can take as many as 13 weeks for city planning staff to review, according to city project review schedules.
“When you delay permits for an interminable amount of time, it really hurts the chances for success of that small business person,” Staedler told San José Spotlight. “Timely permit approvals are the linchpin of a healthy economy.”
Yet Staedler — a frequent and vocal Mahan critic — also recognizes his wins.
City officials recently announced a historic power delivery agreement with PG&E that sets the stage for infrastructure upgrades to host more data centers and two new high-voltage transmission lines to power an estimated 1.5 million homes.
“The PG&E memorandum is a big success for him – it’s something he’s been talking about before,” Staedler said. “It’s a huge milestone for the city in terms of growing in ways that are most profitable for the tax base.”
Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X.
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