San Jose mayor pushes housing vouchers for homeless shelters

As San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan continues to prioritize funding for temporary solutions over permanent housing, he wants the city to explore a new proposal — using monies from Section 8 housing vouchers for homeless shelters.

Santa Clara County Housing Authority leaders announced the plan during the April 15 joint meeting with the City Council. City officials gave their stamp of approval for the housing authority to look into diverting federal funds meant for permanent housing rental assistance to subsidize temporary housing. But homeless residents who move into temporary housing or shelters don’t pay rent, which could lead to rent assistance funding being redirected toward the operational costs for interim facilities.

A spokesperson for Mahan’s office told San José Spotlight it’s too early to know how tenant-based vouchers could be used in temporary housing communities, and city employees are still exploring ideas.

“Every night someone sleeps on our streets is a policy failure,” Mahan told San José Spotlight. “Our unhoused neighbors can’t afford to wait five years for traditional affordable housing to be built. We need federal housing dollars to support the kinds of lower-cost interim housing that cities are delivering now. These are private, dignified units — and they deserve the same support as any other form of affordable housing.”

The housing authority manages about 17,000 Housing Choice (Section 8) vouchers for low-income residents. Councilmembers Peter Ortiz and Pamela Campos pushed back on the idea of extending the voucher program to shelters. Ortiz said while he supports exploring avenues to relieve the city’s unsheltered population, he has reservations about the program’s use beyond rent assistance.

“Would this come at the expense of traditional tenants who are seeking rental vouchers to avoid homelessness in the first place?” he said at the meeting. “There could be serious, longterm consequences to further diversion from permanent housing solutions … interim housing without a pathway to permanent housing will ultimately only deepen the conditions that have caused this crisis.”

The Section 8 vouchers funded by federal dollars are designed to ​​provide rental assistance for lower-income families, seniors, and persons with disabilities.

Mahan pointed to the renovated 72-room complex Pacific Motor Inn and the still-developing temporary housing site on 1st Street as recent examples of the city and housing authority’s successful collaborations. He said many of the city’s interim housing sites like the converted motels, meet the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s quality standards.

Housing Authority Executive Director Preston Price said although the housing authority has historically been focused on permanent housing, the potential redirecting of rental assistance funds to keep shelters running could become a really hard trade off.

“We really have been charged with the responsibility of working with the local elected officials like City Council and the County Board of Supervisors to create alternative investment strategies that have the best outcome based upon what the community wants to see happen,” Price said at the meeting.  “(Taking) vouchers to serve someone who is unhoused at an interim site technically would come from an existing voucher holder.”

Angie Garcia, housing authority deputy executive director, said their goal is to explore the opportunity to use available resources to support “alternative housing” — including modifications on existing shelters.

“We would start with an assessment of all the (homes) that are currently part of the city of San Jose shelter system that may potentially meet the HUD criteria,” she said. “Because we are bound by certain requirements to meet the housing quality standards, we would see which sites meet those standards as of today.”

Allowing housing vouchers to be used for temporary housing could lead to city officials diverting even more resources away from traditional housing, critics of the proposal said, especially permanent affordable housing.

Campos echoed Ortiz’s concerns about being careful not to shift voucher use in a direction that unintentionally limits opportunity or reinforces temporary models as longterm answers.

“We should also reflect on how that aligns with the original purpose of the voucher program, which is to expand Housing Choice and mobility — especially in neighborhoods that may not otherwise be accessible,” she said Tuesday.

Price said they submitted their plan to HUD following approval from city councilmembers.

“We’ve been working hard on making the voucher program more efficient and being able to serve more families with the same dollars,” he said. “Over the last few years, we have leased 2,160 vouchers in the city of San Jose at 45 properties. There are 10 properties under construction right now that will have another 426.”

Contact Vicente Vera at [email protected] or follow @VicenteJVera on X.