San Jose’s first tiny home village on private land already half full

San Jose’s newest temporary housing site will be a litmus test as to whether using private land to build shelter will be a good model for reducing homelessness.

The Via Del Oro tiny home site, which can house up to 150 people and allows pets, opened Thursday. San Francisco-based nonprofit DignityMoves built the homes on land owned by philanthropist John A. Sobrato, who is leasing the property to San Jose for $1 annually for the next decade. The 135 individual rooms are each equipped with a bed and nightstand, and eight rooms are ADA compliant. The village will have shared bathrooms and kitchen space. Nonprofit HomeFirst will provide case management and three daily meals. The site is already half full.

Via Del Oro cost $17.2 million to build on the 2.5-acre site. It will take $2.7 million a year to operate, or about $18,000 per bed.

“This site is really our first test case of using private land and showing that these kinds of innovative partnerships can work,” Mayor Matt Mahan said at the opening. “We have to keep innovating to make sure that every public dollar goes further and has more impact. There’s a lot of underutilized private land, not just in San Jose, but all over the state.”

Sobrato has donated millions of dollars to local temporary housing projects, including $5 million for the 204-room multi-story modular housing site at Monterey Road and Branham Lane. He said if the Via Del Oro project turns out well, more land is available to expand the facility.

“We can double the amount of units on the remaining land,” Sobrato said. “Housing is so expensive, we can’t do it alone. We’re going to solve this issue, and I’m delighted to have a part in that.”

Formerly homeless resident Zachary Plumeau, 29, said he’s been given a second chance in life by being offered housing at Via Del Oro.

Drug addiction caused him to spiral into homelessness four years ago. He was living in his truck, moving from one street to the next whenever a sweep happened. Rescuing a dog half a year ago made him realize he needed to get his life together. Now that he’s housed, he’s been able to quit his addiction. He’s looking at getting his electrical training card reinstated so he can start working as an electrician again.

“I feel comfortable enough to attack the addiction,” Plumeau told San José Spotlight.

The city has a goal to reach “functional zero” of unsheltered homelessness — the point where more people are being housed than falling into homelessness — by focusing on constructing more temporary housing. The city plans on adding 1,400 beds or spaces this year, though there are roughly 5,500 unsheltered homeless people living on the streets.
Via Del Oro is San Jose’s fourth temporary housing site to open in the past eight months, adding a total of 524 new beds or spaces. Pacific Motor Inn opened last August, the Branham Lane modular site in February and the Berryessa safe parking site last month. More sites are scheduled to open, such as the safe sleeping site on Taylor Street in June, the Cherry Avenue tiny home site in September and five hotel conversions into shelters later this year.

“There is a finish line. There is a point at which we have enough beds for everyone in San Jose,” DignityMoves CEO Elizabeth Funk said.

Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X.