San Jose wants to pay $113 million to convert four hotels into housing to help solve its homelessness crisis. Funding is expected to come from the state’s Project Homekey program, which subsidizes emergency housing run by local governments and nonprofits. Applications opened Sept. 30, and individual funding may be awarded as soon as 45 days after...
Homelessness
Homelessness
State orders San Jose to halt implementing hotel rent
San Jose’s Housing Department violated a state agreement by setting monthly rents too high for formerly unhoused residents living at the SureStay Hotel. Now the city needs to recalculate. In April 2020, homeless residents vulnerable to COVID-19 received free emergency shelter in hotels across Santa Clara County through Project Homekey—the state program subsidizing emergency housing run by local governments and nonprofits. After...
San Jose plans dynamic initiative to house and employ homeless
Responding to the growing homeless crisis, San Jose has ambitious plans to shelter and employ thousands of unhoused residents within the next five years. The Rules and Open Government Committee voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend the City Council support a housing blueprint and efforts to employ homeless residents to clean up the city. The council...
San Jose squashes proposal for prefab homeless housing
The week started with San Jose Councilmember Matt Mahan announcing an ambitious proposal for housing up to 5,000 homeless residents on public land by the end of next year. His colleagues killed the plan before the week was out. Mahan told San José Spotlight he’s disappointed by the outcome of Wednesday’s Rules and Open Government Committee meeting,...
Santa Clara County could spend $25 million on prefab homeless shelters
Building more housing is the key to fighting the growing homelessness crisis in Santa Clara County. Two officials want to give a local nonprofit $25 million to do so. Supervisors Joe Simitian and Otto Lee announced a proposal Thursday to grant LifeMoves, the region’s largest temporary housing provider, a multi-million dollar contract to help it...
San Jose unveils new goals to solve homelessness
San Jose aims to cut its homeless population by 20% by the end of next year through a new initiative to provide more housing and job stability. Mayor Sam Liccardo, joined by Councilmembers Sergio Jimenez, Dev Davis and Pam Foley, announced a plan called “Compassionate and Clean San Jose” Wednesday that would triple the number...
Neighbors decry safe parking site for San Jose homeless
A coalition of San Jose residents are fuming that their elected leader left them out of discussions about a safe parking site for homeless individuals in their neighborhood. An empty parking lot in North San Jose just south of Highway 237 holds at least four RVs and four unhoused residents after close to 70 people were swept from an encampment...
San Jose councilmember proposes prefab housing for homeless
San Jose Councilmember Matt Mahan has a solution to help end homelessness: Prefabricated homes on public land. That’s the proposal the District 10 councilmember will bring before the city’s Rules Committee on Wednesday. He hopes San Jose and Santa Clara County can identify sites to build prefabricated units, or housing that can be assembled quickly off-site while a foundation is being...
Santa Clara councilmember criticizes neighboring lawmaker over homeless site
Backlash over a safe parking site in San Jose for the homeless has bled into a neighboring city. Santa Clara Councilmember Kathy Watanabe took to Nextdoor earlier this month to share an email she sent to San Jose Councilmember David Cohen. The email blasts a safe parking site at 71 Vista Montana for homeless people...
Why can’t San Jose solve its homelessness crisis?
Despite decades of robust efforts and hundreds of millions of dollars spent, San Jose’s homelessness crisis continues to grow—leaving residents, officials and advocates frustrated. For some unhoused residents in Columbus Park, the largest encampment in San Jose, the solution to their problem is simple: Give them housing. “Everybody out here wants to live in a home,” said...