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...

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...

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,...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...