Riding on the coattails of Santa Clara County’s homelessness prevention program, California will be creating its own statewide prevention strategy. State officials are planning out their first homelessness prevention strategy after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1924 last month. The law requires the California Interagency Council on Homelessness to come up with a blueprint for measurable...
San Jose food pantry faces opposition from neighbors
When Lighthouse Food Rescue & Distribution first started handing out groceries in San Jose’s Northside neighborhood in 2020, Robert Wright welcomed it and its mission to feed disadvantaged residents. He pitched a Lighthouse yard sign in front of his house near the food pantry, which sits at the corner of East Julian and North 17th streets in the...
Overlooked for housing, San Jose homeless residents face second sweep
For homeless people in San Jose, sweeps are a fixed part of their lived experience — the stress of packing up their belongings, the fear of losing their valuables and the hunt to secure another corner to camp until they are kicked out and forced to start all over again. But for residents such as...
San Jose tells food pantry it must shut down
A popular San Jose neighborhood food pantry is at risk of closing again after being hit with more zoning violations. Lighthouse Food Rescue & Distribution was cited by San Jose on Sept. 25 for hosting its food distribution on the sidewalk and for not following zoning rules, as a food distribution center is no longer...
New methodology reveals drop in San Jose street homelessness
Walking trail use is up. Wildlife is returning. Large homeless camps have been dismantled. San Jose officials said the city has reached the end of the “era of encampments,” and is steaming ahead into its next era of slashing down street homelessness. San Jose has reduced unsheltered homelessness by 32% over the past 18 months, using...
Santa Clara County sees challenges for 5-year homelessness plan
Santa Clara County is charting how it plans to tackle homelessness over the next five years in one of its most challenging periods. The county’s next iteration of its Community Plan to End Homelessness, a template to guide its priorities through 2030, will focus on four key strategies: homelessness prevention, housing retention, increasing services for people on...
San Jose homeless residents without stable housing, one year later
When San Jose dismantled its largest homeless encampment last summer, Mayor Matt Mahan praised moving hundreds of people out of Columbus Park into housing. However, residents said their experience in temporary housing has pulled them backward, not forward. One year after the city swept the 370 RVs that had congregated in Columbus Park, many people...
Santa Clara approves plans for temporary homeless housing
After years of revisions, public debate and negotiations between city, Santa Clara County and nonprofit leaders, Santa Clara has taken another step toward bringing a family-focused interim housing community to a vacant, county-owned site near Lawrence Expressway and Benton Street. Supporters said the project will provide temporary housing and supportive services for families experiencing homelessness...
Supreme Court ruling allows San Jose to penalize homeless people
San Jose hasn’t hesitated to implement a wave of policies and programs aimed at tamping down homelessness since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling opened the floodgates to ban homeless people in public spaces. Since the Johnson v. Grants Pass ruling two years ago, San Jose has wasted no time extending its ban on the hours...
RV bans in San Jose reduce vehicles on streets by 60%
RVs that used to be ubiquitous on San Jose’s streets have dropped by more than half since the city began upping the pressure on people living in vehicles. While officials say this has created cleaner and safer neighborhoods, those vulnerable say these policies are pushing them over the edge. Since last January when San Jose...