San Jose D3 candidates talk housing, downtown vibrancy

San Jose City Council District 3 candidates shared their ideas on how they’d represent the downtown on Thursday at a forum hosted by San José Spotlight and San Jose Woman’s Club. Seven candidates are vying for the vacant seat in a special election.

In a room packed with residents, the candidates — mayoral Deputy Chief of Staff Matthew Quevedo, Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley Executive Director Gabby Chavez-Lopez, San Jose Planning Commission Chair Anthony Tordillos, pro tem judge Irene Smith, retired Sheriff Lt. Adam Duran and knife sharpener salesman Philip Dolan — didn’t hesitate to express their views on homelessness, the city’s budget, housing and downtown vibrancy. Candidate Tyrone Wade, a retired family counselor, was unable to attend.

The candidates are competing to represent downtown after disgraced former Councilmember Omar Torres resigned amid allegations of child sexual abuse. Councilmembers appointed Carl Salas to the seat in January to temporarily represent the district until the special election on April 8.

San José Spotlight reporter Brandon Pho peppered the candidates with numerous questions.

Homelessness and housing

San Jose has about 6,340 homeless residents, including 5,500 who are unsheltered, according to city data. Many of those residents call downtown home.

Mayor Matt Mahan unveiled an initiative Thursday where homeless people who choose not to accept shelter after three attempts within 18 months could be arrested for trespassing.

Quevedo, a staffer for Mahan, was the only candidate to agree with the mayor’s plan. He said the city can’t do much else if a homeless person repeatedly refuses services, but added he wants to increase temporary housing.

“All of us are paying $60,000 per person just for them to be homeless on the streets,” Quevedo said. “By doubling down and accelerating the pace in which we build interim housing, safe sleeping and safe housing sites, we are reducing the cost.”

Chavez-Lopez said she had a “visceral reaction” to Mahan’s initiative. She wants to focus on homelessness prevention so the crisis doesn’t grow into a potential recession caused by people losing their homes and jobs.

“Prevention is our first line of defense, and so as we look at rental assistance, eviction protections and making sure that we preserve affordable housing, those are really clear and tried and tested (methods),” Chavez-Lopez said.

Dolan didn’t directly say if he supported the mayor’s plans, but said the city needs to get homeless residents battling substance use and mental health issues out of San Jose. He said there needs to be more accountability at City Hall regarding homelessness solutions.

Tordillos disagreed with Mahan. He wants to increase the affordable housing stock as a solution.

“That means streamlining and getting government out of the way when folks want to build new housing in our city,” he said. “It means legalizing newer and cheaper forms of housing across our communities and it means providing them an incentive in an economic environment where housing could be successfully constructed.”

As a retired law enforcement official, Duran said homeless people don’t belong in jail, but rather deserve a more compassionate approach. He said jails can’t hold all of the people who could be arrested, adding officials can place homeless residents in an involuntary psychiatric hold in hospitals under California law.

Smith also disagreed with Mahan and advocated for congregate shelters where homeless people are provided a bed in a large room with other unhoused residents. She said tiny homes are too expensive and slow.

“The only way to address this crisis of 5,500 people that are unsheltered and living on the street is with urgency,” Smith said. “With large-scale shelter congregate community housing … we can house people within two to five months.”

Budget

San Jose is facing an estimated $60 million budget deficit for fiscal year 2025-26.

Tordillos said the city should reevaluate its business tax as a prime opportunity to address the fiscal uncertainty. He said San Jose’s tax brings in less revenue than neighboring cities.

“That means small businesses end up paying disproportionately more while the largest corporations in San Jose pay much less than in other cities,” Tordillos said.

Chavez-Lopez said officials need to make San Jose a destination rather than a pass-through city to attract revenue.

Smith said the city has too many core services and programs diluting the budget.

“We lack focus and efficiency, and as a result, our quality of life suffers. We need to limit our core services,” she said. “We can cut things and find where the redundancies are between San Jose and Santa Clara County.”

Duran said officials need to encourage businesses to operate in San Jose to drive sales tax.

“We want the entrepreneurship, we want revenue into our areas … start to mix up the residential as well as retail,” he said.

Quevedo said San Jose must become a safer and cleaner city to attract investors into the community who could boost the city’s dollars.

Dolan said it relates back to housing.

“We should be with these developers and building these houses as fast as possible so we can sell it and start getting the property tax,” he said.

Downtown vibrancy

Downtown San Jose is still recovering from the pandemic’s effects. Commercial vacancy rates in the area hit a 10-year high in 2023, and this year, Silicon Valley’s commercial vacancy rate passed 20%.

Duran said an emphasis on public safety could rejuvenate downtown and its small businesses.

“We cannot cut the police department, so (we need to) help our small businesses, help with entrepreneurship, incentivize them to come into our city with small interest loans, tax deferrals and also mentorship programs,” he said.

Tordillos said downtown needs a bigger housing supply to bring more people to experience the area’s vibrant arts and culture.

Dolan pointed to events that draw people downtown.

“We need more of these … people-growing festivals on (days like) a Thursday night,” he said.

Chavez-Lopez said officials should reevaluate land use policies to reactivate empty buildings.

“The pandemic happened, a lot’s changed,” she said. “So we gotta look at our general plan, we’ve got to look at how do we activate outdated commercial zones that are going to sit empty forever unless we continue to look at how do we rapidly reuse those spaces.”
Smith said San Jose should revamp its reputation to be a cleaner and safer place people want to visit.

Quevedo also said boosting housing opportunities is the way to go.

“When we bring dense housing that makes sense in downtown near transit, then we attract businesses and we attract others to come to a vibrant downtown,” he said.

Check out San José Spotlight’s guide for voting in the special election on April 8.

Contact Annalise Freimarck at [email protected] or follow @annalise_ellen on X.