Op-ed: Don’t arrest us — listen to us first

Individuals who received emergency financial assistance were 81% less likely to become homeless within six months, according to a major study from the University of Notre Dame.

But instead of investing in real prevention, San Jose is moving to arrest, cite and displace people for being poor — policies that hurt far more than they help. Mayor Matt Mahan is proposing a series of punitive ordinances aimed at unhoused residents, backed by a new police unit.

As people who have experienced homelessness here in San Jose, we know firsthand why this won’t work. Not because we reject solutions, but because we’ve lived through insufficient systems that left us with few good options.

We are Raymond, Adrianne and Cassandra. Each of us wanted shelter. Each of us tried. And each of us had good reasons why the options available weren’t safe or viable. Each of us was able to eventually make it out of homelessness not because we were forced into shelter, but because we were able to access services appropriate to our own needs.

Raymond, a Black man living with PTSD from incarceration, couldn’t risk entering a crowded shelter where his trauma would be triggered daily. He needed mental health support and a safe space to recover — not more contact with a carceral system that already disproportionately harms Black San Jose residents, who are 6.5 times more likely to be jailed than white residents.

Adrianne was a new mother with a newborn, sober and desperately looking for help. But shelter after shelter told her there were waitlists. Her only choices were to stay with someone dangerous or sleep outside. When the mayor talks about penalizing those who decline shelter, we wonder why he’s not focused on the 1,400 people already waiting for a bed — including many mothers like Adrianne.

Cassandra was living in her car while attending school and working two jobs. She was offered shelter — but with a 7 p.m. curfew that would have forced her to quit work. For her, saying no to shelter wasn’t about resistance — it was the only way to make it out of homelessness for good.

These are the complex realities we face every day.

The mayor’s proposal rests on a flawed assumption: that unhoused people simply need more “motivation” to accept services. But the services must be there — and they must meet real needs. Often, shelters are packed dorms with no privacy, strict curfews, religious requirements and separation from loved ones, pets or critical medications. For people with trauma, disabilities or mental illness, these conditions can be inaccessible or even dangerous.

We understand the public’s frustration. We feel it too. Living outside is painful, humiliating and unsafe. But punishing people for surviving won’t fix the problem — it just makes it harder to escape. Criminal records follow us, making it harder to find work and housing. Arresting people for being unhoused creates a revolving door, not a way out.

San Jose has better options. We need real housing, compassionate case management, mental health and addiction support and expertly trained outreach workers with lived experience of homelessness, not the current plan to assign outdoor clean-up crews to conduct outreach.

We need to prevent homelessness before it starts. The Notre Dame study didn’t call for more police, it called for basic financial help to keep people in their homes.

We don’t need threats or handcuffs. We need trust, options and a city willing to meet us where we are. San Jose can do better, and if we want real solutions, it must.