Perry: We need real plans, not false promises

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan recently announced a new mathematical model developed by the housing department would “enable San Jose to end unsheltered homelessness” for only 5% of the cost of previous models. Unfortunately, this claim is a gross distortion of reality and of what the new model itself actually says.

For years now, the mayor and his real estate industry backers have complained that the cost of ending San Jose homelessness with permanent housing is about $1 million per unit, or about $5 billion overall. This not only exaggerates the actual unit costs, but ignores the fact that some 80% of that expense would be paid by other entities, primarily the federal government, and would not come out of San Jose’s city budget.

Even if we accept the mayor’s per-unit figure, ending homelessness with permanent housing would only cost the city $1 billion, not $5 billion. The cost of managing permanent affordable housing is included in the upfront development funds, and therefore does not impose an additional burden on the city budget down the road.

The mayor arrives at his 5% claim by counting only the $254 million capital cost of building out the emergency interim housing and shelter systems. He conveniently fails to count their estimated $234 million annual operating costs. The projected lifespan of permanent housing is some 50 years, so an equivalent time period for emergency interim housing and shelters would cost the city an additional $11.7 billion in operating costs (50 x $234 million). Even if slightly reduced due to efficiency savings and county assistance, this would not only entirely wipe out Measure E funds, but also dramatically slash funding parks, libraries, community centers, fire stations, etc.

Ironically, even while many of the mayor’s wealthy allies claim they oppose “greedy nonprofits,” the mayor’s interim and temporary housing proposals would plow literally billions of dollars more into nonprofit service providers than our existing programs do now.

Furthermore, the mayor’s claims ignores key factors necessary to reach the “functional zero” homelessness described in the housing department report. First, the model rests on the assumption that we can reduce or stop the inflow into homelessness, but does not specify any new plan or funding to do so. In addition, the housing department’s “functional zero” model clearly states the entire project depends on securing funding to “build significantly more permanent supportive housing.” Yet this is precisely what Mayor Mahan is proposing to prevent, through his plan to shift Measure E funds permanently away from housing.

Because they oppose any taxpayer subsidy, the mayor and his allies claim it makes no difference whether permanent housing subsidies come from the federal government or from city funds. It actually makes all the difference in the world. Federal housing subsidies make up only 1% of the federal budget. A tiny shift in government priorities could easily house all our people, all across the country, and end the national nightmare of homelessness altogether. But forcing cities with limited tax revenue to pay for that housing would literally bankrupt them.

We do not have to accept this situation. San Jose should not have to choose between permanent and interim housing, when what we need is both. Like health care, housing is a basic human right. Instead of accepting the status quo, we should join the growing rebellion against the Trump administration and demand an economy that serves human needs instead of private profit. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used to say, “God never intended for one group of people to live in superfluous inordinate wealth, while others live in abject deadening poverty.”

Sandy Perry is board vice president of South Bay Community Land Trust.