The state plans to give San Jose $4.8 million to help clear encampments and provide support to unhoused residents. But it’s a mere drop in the bucket compared to what the city needs to tackle homelessness.
Gov. Gavin Newsom doled out $130.7 million last week to assist in reducing the number of homeless people statewide. Local advocates say the money won’t go far, and that the state needs to invest more in solutions.
Todd Langton, founder of the Coalition for the Unhoused of Silicon Valley, said he’s worried the money will be spent on sweeping encampments rather than building up supportive services.
“The state and local governments are doing these things backwards,” Langton told San José Spotlight. “We have to have some place for (homeless residents) to go, some place effective where they can receive the services they need, where they can feel safe and an environment where they can flourish and start their transition back to traditional society but they’re constantly being abated.”
The funding comes from the state’s Encampment Resolution Funding grant program and follows Newsom’s July order that local jurisdictions be more aggressive at clearing encampments.
Langton said the city should redirect its resources for abatements toward constructing and operating transitional and permanent housing, like safe sleeping sites, though he’s concerned the city’s safe sleeping site plans are too restrictive and homeless residents would steer clear. He worries residents won’t be able to bring their pets or significant others to their tents, and that the tents will be too close to each other.
The state funding is meager for what San Jose wants to accomplish. Officials are looking to open eight safe sleeping sites throughout the city, with each tent having a maximum price tag of $40,000. For 500 tents, that would be up to $20 million.
The city has also been trying to get a safe parking site up and running at 1300 Berryessa Road. The project has cost the city about $8 million, though the price tag went down from $16 million after design changes in May. San Jose has one operational safe parking site at the Santa Teresa VTA light rail station, which can house up to 42 residents.
The city has yet to announce how the money will be spent, Tasha Dean, a spokesperson for Mayor Matt Mahan’s office, said.
“We’ll be putting out a press release or doing a media event later this week or next to provide more details on the (state) grant and what it’ll be used for,” Dean told San José Spotlight.
Ray Bramson, chief operating officer for Destination: Home and a San José Spotlight columnist, said he’s unfamiliar with this round of funding, but is glad to hear the state’s increasing its investments in unhoused support at the local level. He said he didn’t want to speculate on where the money could be spent, but added that in general, homeless encampments will continue so long as people don’t have a place to stay.
“We keep saying the best way to address encampments is to fund shelters and housing for people living outside, and the city has done a great job of that in the past, but we think more of that investment is absolutely the best way to ensure we can end homelessness,” Bramson told San José Spotlight.
Out of the 18 jurisdictions allocated funding, San Jose received among the least. Cities with smaller homeless populations, such as Richmond or Berkeley, received hundreds of thousands more.
Langton said the city’s allocation could have been political, but it’s also likely many jurisdictions lack the local resources that exist in San Jose. A state audit published in April found San Jose doesn’t adequately measure the effectiveness of its homeless solutions, nor does it keep track of its homeless expenditures. Langton said the allocation could have been in retaliation for some of Newsom’s quarrels with San Jose, including with Mahan over Proposition 36, but also said Newsom has strengthened his push for cities to abate homeless camps in preparation for future political endeavors.
“I just think he’s posturing for possibly a position in the cabinet, or he’s looking at 2028 and 2032 for his presidential run,” Langton said. “He’s gotta get things cleaned up so he starts right in his backyard there in Sacramento but again, they’re wasting so much money on these abatements.”
Contact B. Sakura Cannestra at [email protected] or @SakuCannestra on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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