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...
San Jose mayor expands trash-picking program for homeless
Some San Jose homeless residents could soon have a job that pays nearly $25 an hour. That’s the announcement that came from Mayor Sam Liccardo Thursday after he expanded the San Jose Bridge program, an initiative that employs homeless residents to pick up trash. The expansion will make room for up to 100 unhoused workers across...
State opens more funding for Santa Clara County supportive housing
When Charlotte Burris first called the Santa Clara County Office of Supportive Housing to get out of the van she uses for shelter, there were only spaces for unhoused residents with COVID-19. Burris said she tested positive shortly after calling and received temporary housing, describing it as a gift in disguise. “I’ve been homeless for...
Local nonprofit helps house residents of North San Jose encampment
Getting dozens of homeless residents shelter and services isn’t easy, especially when it has to happen in a matter of weeks. But HomeFirst CEO Andrea Urton said it’s doable when you have the right resources. Residents last week were forced to leave a massive homeless encampment at Component Drive in North San Jose on land...
San Jose tenants allege management kept COVID hospitalization quiet
Raymond Ramsey says he never relies on his property manager to share details about other tenants—because they often don’t. But he’s baffled that he learned about a recent COVID infection in his building through the local gossip mill. Ramsey, a former unhoused resident, moved into Santa Clara County’s first supportive housing complex, Second Street Studios...
San Jose to transform park alongside homeless encampments
The city plans to transform the dilapidated flatlands at Columbus Park in North San Jose into a premier public park and plaza—complete with playgrounds, sports fields and rest areas. But the “elephant in the room” is the presence of more than 200 homeless residents. The land surrounding Columbus Park is a sanctuary for unhoused people—and a...
How did housing homeless San Jose students in Airbnbs go?
Two years after launching a landmark program to house homeless San Jose students in Airbnb rooms, nearly half the participants dropped out of the program and ended up in hotels. The program, officials say, took major blows from COVID-19 and other logistical problems. Sparky Harlan, CEO of the Bill Wilson Center that helped run the program,...
Homeless women say Apple treated them like ‘critters’
The encampment Apple swept near its property in North San Jose was home to several women — and one of them says the tech giant treated her like a “filthy little critter.” The homeless camp near Component Drive housed up to 100 people inside tents and cars for at least two years. Apple, which plans...