San Jose and Santa Clara County are set to receive tens of millions of dollars for homelessness prevention and housing. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the latest round of funding last week, totaling $827 million across more than 100 communities, from the Homeless, Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) program. San Jose is getting $28.8 million and...
San Jose leaders push Proposition 36 as critics fight back
A coalition of elected officials that Gov. Gavin Newsom dismissed as “just a couple mayors,” is raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in an effort to reverse lenient rules on retail and drug crimes. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan announced the “Yes on 36” ballot measure committee with Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen and Sacramento...
San Jose sees safe sleeping sites as option for homeless residents
As San Jose develops plans for sanctioned homeless encampments, Mayor Matt Mahan traveled to San Diego to see what he could glean. San Diego, at the forefront of safe sleeping sites for unhoused people in California, has two sanctioned locations that support a total of 533 insulated tents. The locations provide on-site case management and resource referrals, restrooms,...
‘Absolutely stunned’: San Jose mayor inflates costs of not sweeping homeless camps
State officials are contradicting claims made by San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan in his push to redirect affordable housing money to homeless sweeps and shelters. Mahan has argued the city faces $60,000 in daily fines per pollutant if the city doesn’t address pollution from homeless encampments near creeks by June 2025. It’s driving his renewed...
NAACP rebukes San Jose police over viral mayor security altercation
The region’s NAACP chapter is rebuking San Jose police for the viral incident earlier this week in which a pedestrian attacked Mayor Matt Mahan’s security detail after a verbal dispute turned physical. The Rev. Jethroe Moore, president of NAACP San Jose/Silicon Valley, on Wednesday sent a critical email to acting Police Chief Paul Joseph about the incident,...
San Jose election spending reached all-time high in 2022
Campaign funding flooded into San Jose elections in 2022, making that cycle the most expensive in city history. A report compiled by transparency watchdog Maplight found mayoral candidates and individuals vying for five San Joes City Council seats raised more than $7 million collectively in 2022, an all-time high. That amount omits independent expenditures, which...
San Jose mayor’s budget plan saddled with a shortfall
A looming multimillion-dollar deficit will force San Jose to make cuts in the next budget. Instead of detailing what will be lost, Mayor Matt Mahan has outlined his nonnegotiables. His March budget message prioritizes addressing street homelessness and blight, increasing public safety and making San Jose easier to invest in. Those may seem like the same...
San Jose mayor touts plan to end homelessness
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan has a plan for the city’s homeless residents, ranging from temporary housing to encampment clearings, but the budget may not be able to support it. Mahan plans to push for more temporary housing, camp sweeps and a program that reconnects homeless people to their families as part of budget discussions for...
Housing for San Jose homeless residents is a ‘big mess’
A multimillion-dollar effort to put homeless people in pre-built housing — that San Jose officials championed as cheap and revolutionary — is delayed due to homes arriving unfinished. The $70-million three-story modular housing project that San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and his predecessor Sam Liccardo heralded at 1 Branham Lane also has mold, plumbing and...