When Azazel Holmkvist was placed in a squalid home on East San Fernando Street, his case manager told him there was no other housing available.
The 42-year-old was receiving treatment at a residential program operated by Momentum for Health, one of Santa Clara County’s largest nonprofit behavioral health service providers. Holmkvist said he’s a survivor of sexual abuse as a child, domestic violence and homelessness. His scars have left him with anxiety and bipolar disorder.
Holmkvist was discharged from Momentum’s program and moved to a string of run-down unlicensed homes. The house on East San Fernando Street was rife with bed bugs, plumbing issues, broken appliances, drug use and verbal harassment, according to photos and interviews. His post-traumatic stress disorder was triggered.
“They place people in these homes all the time, I’m not the only one who this has happened to,” Holmkvist told San José Spotlight.
Holmkvist is part of a broken system in Silicon Valley. With licensed residential care homes shuttering and a lack of quality housing, many residents are placed in substandard housing, based on interviews with six current and former residents and visits to three unlicensed homes.
A county audit in 2020 revealed more than 30 licensed residential care facilities closed in Santa Clara County from 2014 to 2018 because they’re too expensive to operate, resulting in 262 lost beds. The decline of licensed homes means people with mental illness have meager options after being discharged from hospitals or residential care. The outcome often results in homelessness, jail or re-hospitalization, the audit found.
These homes are meant to help people who have stabilized in a locked facility or residential treatment program transition back into the community. There are two kinds of homes: unlicensed homes, also called independent living homes, and licensed residential facilities for those who need a higher level of care. The state Department of Social Services monitors licensed residential facilities to ensure cleanliness and care.
Independent living homes, however, are not required to be licensed and fall out of the purview of the county or state’s monitoring. They simply provide residents with a room. Anyone can turn their property into an independent living home for people with mental health illnesses or substance use disorder. To capitalize on rent, some landlords create partitions in the living room or stack bunk beds in the bedroom. Sources told San José Spotlight they’ve seen people sleeping on the floors or even outside in sheds.
The county does not know how many unlicensed homes exist.
“That’s a problem because it’s a hidden industry,” Lorraine Zeller from the Community Living Coalition told San José Spotlight. “It’s hard to place people in the licensed board and care when there’s not that many available. So you get people mixed in independent living (homes) that really should… be in the licensed board and care.”
To address the shortage of beds, county Supervisor Susan Ellenberg suggested using Proposition 1 money to purchase more homes and help landlords renovate homes.
Prop.1 is a $6.4 billion bond measure passed by voters in March that aims to build more housing and treatment centers for residents battling mental health and addiction, with a focus on housing for military veterans.
“We’re still getting (clarity) on what Prop.1 dollars can be spent on,” Ellenberg said.
Substandard living
Faced with a lack of beds, case managers put people who graduate from their agency’s crisis programs into unlicensed residential homes with no supportive services.
Holmkvist’s home had bedbugs and roaches, according to multiple residents. Windows let in cold air, the floors were uneven, washing machines didn’t work and faucets had no hot water, residents said. One room had mold, photos reviewed by San José Spotlight showed. Holmkvist slept on a cot that his neighbor provided.
“It was a slumlord nightmare house,” Holmkvist said. “They take us high-risk people and they put us in these poorly-managed homes.”
He said the owner Lilian, who asked that her last name not be used, and building manager, Jesse, did not honor his gender transition by referring to him as “she.” Holmkvist moved out in February 2023 after four months.
“Jesse said that I can be called a man when I was born a man. He threatened to break my arm. He threatened to choke me, to strangle me to death,” Holmkvist said.
Lilian denied there was mold in her home and said she honored Holmkvist’s transition. A visit on Wednesday showed a room with a large leak had been repainted and patched.
“I’m remodeling the rooms for new people to move in,” Lilian told San José Spotlight on Wednesday. “I’m trying to take care of this place, but it’s costing me a lot of money so I have to start somewhere.”
Holmkvist reported the situation to his new case manager at nonprofit Community Solutions, which provides services to domestic violence survivors, but he was told there are no trans-friendly homes.
“There are not enough places to put them and there are not enough quality places to put them. So it is definitely a seller’s market,” Community Solutions Director Erin O’Brien told San José Spotlight. “I do think that that is a system wide challenge.”
O’Brien said case managers visit the homes before moving clients there to ensure it meets their needs. If issues arise, they will move clients to another place.
Holmkvist said the owner threatened to evict him when he called code enforcement. With his anxiety mounting, he fled the house and became homeless for two months before another agency put him in a hotel, and eventually got him an apartment.
“I would never go back. Being homeless was safer,” Holmkvist said.
Profit over people
The county contracts with mental health agencies like Gardner Health Services, Momentum, Telecare and Community Solutions to provide services to those struggling with mental health and addiction. These agencies can subsidize all or some of their client’s rent.
Holmkvist’s $1,400 rent at the substandard home was fully covered. Another owner charges some residents $4,000 a month for their home, confirmed by a San José Spotlight review of records, which includes meals. A resident, who wished to stay anonymous for fear of getting kicked out, said the food there is unhealthy and sugary which exacerbates their diabetes.
When the resident approached the owner about the dietary restrictions, they said they were told no dietary accommodations would be made. At breakfast, there’s rarely enough milk to go around for cereal, and meals consist of hot dogs and spaghetti. The resident buys their own toilet paper because it’s not always available at the house.
“(The owner) can afford to buy better food. She’s getting paid to serve better food. She’s not doing it,” the resident told San José Spotlight. “I’m thinking, if there’s these funds available, a profit has to be made.”
O’Brien said $4,000 rent is not typical, but home operators who offer additional services such as food or cleaning can charge more.
The resident also said people do drugs in the homes and don’t get kicked out because owners get paid per resident.
More work to do
Since the 2020 audit, Santa Clara County has declared a mental health crisis. Yet not much has been done to hold landlords accountable for running squalid homes.
The county created a working group in February to explore solutions for the shortage of beds and dismal conditions at unlicensed homes for mentally ill people.
Advocates want the county to create a master list of all the licensed and unlicensed homes and to hold them to higher standards. They also want to explore tenant protections for people with disabilities.
“Right now I’m excited to hear the recommendations of the community advocacy group,” Supervisor Ellenberg told San Jose Spotlight.
Santa Clara County is rolling out a new process to streamline all rental assistance programs under one nonprofit partner, Abode Services. The county has also applied for a grant that would help acquire, construct or rehabilitate licensed residential facilities to prevent closures, and has set aside $2 million for a landlord incentive program to get owners to fix up their properties.
“With the closure of the licensed board and care homes, it really means less places to place individuals,” Margaret Obilor, division director with Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Services, told San José Spotlight.”And that’s the reason why we’ve resorted to really looking for other options.”
Holmkvist said he feels safe since leaving the squalid home in downtown San Jose. He volunteers at the Recovery Cafe and plans to become a drug and alcohol counselor. He’s been sober for nearly two years.
“My mental health is 100% better. I was able to process the trauma that I had been through and get a routine, get stable on my meds,” he told San José Spotlight. “I’ve been able to integrate into society with stable, safe housing.”
Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or follow @joyce_speaks on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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