San Jose expands cleanup crew that employs homeless residents

Neighborhoods stretching outside of immediate downtown San Jose will see cleaner streets and more job opportunities for homeless people in that area.

Downtown Streets Team, a nonprofit that beautifies the city and offers a stepping stone for unhoused residents to reenter the workforce, is expanding its services into Luna Park, Alum Rock, Calle Willow and East Village business districts. The workers in the program will be sprucing up the streets, while reaching out to people who are homeless to connect them with services and jobs.

“This is just common sense,” Mayor Matt Mahan said. “Meeting our homeless neighbors’ basic needs while they help clean up the city and turn their lives around is the most simple yet transformative thing we can do for them and our entire city.”

Mercy Wong doesn’t know where she’d be without the Downtown Streets Team. In 2006, when Wong became homeless, she saw people wearing bright shirts with the Downtown Streets Team logo cleaning the streets. She stopped to talk to them and immediately wanted to join the program. Through it, she was able to get employment and stable housing. When her income fell short, she was offered stipends to help pay rent. 

“They’ve done great things for me. We all need it. There’s a lot of homeless people out there that need real jobs and homes just to be stable,” Wong told San José Spotlight.

For every one person housed nearly two become homeless in Santa Clara County. The county’s 2023 biennial count of homeless people reported San Jose has 6,340 unhoused residents, 4,411 of whom live on the street, along rivers or in tents. This number doesn’t paint the full picture of homelessness in the city, as it only measures people experiencing homelessness on a single night. The survey is often considered an undercount.

Wong said it pains her to see those who are homeless, especially women and children who are left vulnerable to assault. She understands this intimately as a survivor of domestic violence and becoming homeless temporarily when she fled her abusive partner.

“It puts tears to my eyes,” she said. “Kids like that should not be homeless.”

On the team’s first day at Luna Park, workers picked up 10 bags of trash and debris. Since launching downtown in 2005, the nonprofit has collected 7 million gallons of debris, helped nearly 300 people secure housing and moved 200 people into permanent jobs, according to the program director.  

Luna Park is lined with restaurants and shops, and Alum Rock, Calle Willow and East Village business districts are home to long-standing businesses. 

“It’s very important as councilman for District 3 that we not only focus on downtown, but we focus on business districts like Calle Willow, Luna Park, Alum Rock, East Village because they are also the heart of our city in San Jose,” Councilmember Omar Torres said. “Every business deserves to have a clean and safe corridor to serve their customers.” 

The outreach team invites homeless people they encounter to their weekly meetings where they provide meals, case management and job opportunities. Meetings happen every Wednesday at noon at Crossroads Church. The organization offers temporary employment opportunities and connects people to its business partners such as Caltrans for full-time jobs.

“Without the Downtown Streets Team, where would we be?” Wong said.

Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or follow @joyce_speaks on X, formerly known asTwitter.