Mountain View looks to update its plan to tackle homelessness

For nearly a decade, Mountain View has poured money into programs and services to try and turn the tide of homelessness in the city. But it still has not been enough to stave off housing insecurity for a large number of residents.

Now Mountain View is looking to address the situation with updates to its homeless response strategy, with a goal of providing enough services that homelessness is a rare occurrence. City Council members this week mulled over ways to improve the plan, including more safe parking, transitional housing and even buying old apartment buildings.

“The city’s approach to addressing homelessness has been multi-pronged, and the city does its part as a medium-sized city, considering various constraints,” said Deputy City Manager Kimberly Thomas, who presented a draft of the plan to the City Council on Jan. 28.

Since 2016, the city has dedicated about $1 million each year to programs and services for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. It has also committed nearly $170 million in total funding to increase the supply of affordable housing in the city since 2014, according to the council report.

Despite these efforts, there are still hundreds in Mountain View without a roof over their head. For every household exiting homelessness, more than two are taking their place, the report said.

The last homelessness census, taken in 2023, indicates that there were 562 people experiencing homelessness on a given night in Mountain View – a situation that is fluctuating but not necessarily abating, according to the city.

Getting closer to “functional zero”

On the whole, the council supported the homeless response strategy, a 10-year plan that lays out Mountain View’s goals for addressing homelessness. But Council members also questioned whether the city could do more to get closer to “functional zero,” a milestone indicating that a community has resolved homelessness.

Council member Pat Showalter stressed the importance of preventing homelessness before it occurs.

“We just have to get that number down,” Showalter said, referring to the imbalanced ratio of more people entering homelessness than exiting it. “We got to get it below one, eventually to get to functional zero,” she said.

Council member Lucas Ramirez described functional zero as a potentially useful goal, if not as a metric than at least as something to strive for to measure success, he said.

Ramirez also expressed support for direct financial assistance to help people in need, like a guaranteed basic income program.

“I think it helps struggling households who are at risk of homelessness,” he said. “Not simply because they’re unable to pay a rent check but they may have a significant medical debt (or) some other financial catastrophe that is creating distress not easily resolved just with rent relief.”

Council members also backed a proposal to create a robust resource hub or navigation center, although had some second thoughts about it too.

Council member Alison Hicks noted that navigation centers are useful as a centralized location where people can get help in one place. But it also can lead to problems if people go there and don’t have much else to do, she said.

Several council members advocated for more interim housing solutions, like expanding safe parking sites and setting up transitional shelters, similar to LifeMoves.

However, City Manager Kimbra McCarthy pointed out complications to both scenarios. Finding new sites for safe parking has been a big hurdle, she said. It also would be challenging to create another site like LifeMoves, as the city committed the initial funding for it from the state and would be difficult to replicate, she said.

Hicks suggested looking into more safe parking in the Shoreline area, a part of the city slated for redevelopment. It might be possible to leverage affordable housing funding for it, she said.

Housing preservation as a strategy

Council member John McAlister expressed the most skepticism about the homelessness response strategy, saying that Mountain View hasn’t proposed anything new from what it has tried to do in the last decade. “We still have homelessness … We found a bunch of ways to sort of kick it down the road, but we haven’t solved it or reduced it,” he said.

McAlister proposed that the city purchase older apartment buildings that then could be used to house low-income residents, or for any other purpose, he said.

Housing Director Wayne Chen noted that the city has been developing a housing acquisition and preservation program, somewhat similar to what McAlister had proposed. The city would work with outside partners, like nonprofit developers and community land trusts, to acquire older apartment buildings that then would be converted to income-restricted housing. The city would help leverage the funding but would not be a landlord or property manager, Chen said.

For Council member Emily Ann Ramos, putting a dent in homelessness was a big task and at times overwhelming, she said. But she also stressed the importance of action, viewing functional zero not as a direct target but more like a North Star.

“We aren’t planning to go to the North Pole, but as long as we know where it is and we can direct our directional rudder toward it, we can make our way through this crisis,” Ramos said.

This story originally appeared in the Mountain View Voice. Emily Margaretten joined the Mountain View Voice in 2023 as a reporter covering City Hall.