Final 12 months, San Jose spent $116 million on packages to alleviate its homelessness disaster. What did it get for the cash?
For one, the funds helped transfer greater than 1,800 homeless individuals into everlasting housing, in accordance with a brand new metropolis report.
However San Jose’s homeless inhabitants spiked 11% final 12 months to round 6,700 individuals, highlighting the dire challenges the town faces getting individuals off the road and out of shelters because it struggles to construct sufficient inexpensive housing for everybody who wants it.
“Sadly, individuals in San Jose are falling into homelessness sooner than we are able to home them,” Kelly Hemphill, division supervisor of homeless options, mentioned whereas presenting the report back to the town council on Tuesday.
The report comes as frustration mounts over the town’s homelessness response, as many residents see the disaster worsening regardless of a surge in spending lately.
Between July 2021 and June 2022, about $57 million of the town’s homelessness funding got here from the federal authorities, $51 million straight from the town and one other $8 million from the state, in accordance with an on-line metropolis dashboard.
That spending — making up about 2.5% of the town’s $4.7 billion in complete expenditures — went towards creating and working shelters and supportive housing, serving to homeless individuals cowl preliminary hire funds and different prices of shifting into a brand new house, in addition to rental assist to stop evictions that might result in homelessness.
Metropolis officers couldn't present homelessness spending totals for prior years. Nevertheless, in the course of the 2020-2021 fiscal 12 months, the town housing division alone spent practically $120 million on homelessness — greater than San Jose’s complete homelessness spending in 2022 — because of a flood of federal COVID-19 emergency funding.
However because the pandemic dollars proceed to dry up amid rising financial uncertainty, the town could have to spend extra of its personal cash to fund its homelessness packages.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who campaigned on a extra aggressive strategy to fixing homelessness, has in his current funds plan requested the town to construct 1,000 new interim shelter models this 12 months whereas additionally cracking down on encampments.
In contrast to dorm-style shelters, San Jose’s interim websites present particular person rooms in transformed motels and prefabricated cabins or tiny properties. The purpose is to supply homeless individuals extra privateness and stability in order that they’re extra more likely to settle for shelter and providers, together with working with caseworkers to search out everlasting housing.
Jennifer Loving, chief govt of Vacation spot: Dwelling, a South Bay homelessness options advocacy group, is skeptical of the mayor’s plan, arguing the town ought to as an alternative focus that funding on low-income and supportive housing. She mentioned that whereas interim websites assist get individuals off the road, many shelter residents have little hope of discovering lasting properties given the area’s extreme inexpensive housing scarcity.
In keeping with the most recent rely, about 5,000 homeless individuals lived exterior final 12 months. The opposite 1,700 had been in interim and dorm-style shelters.
“We’re fixing homelessness for individuals that aren't homeless,” Loving mentioned. “Extra short-term choices are nice, however to go full sail and all in on that is extremely short-sighted.”
In keeping with the town housing division’s report, virtually half of the 912 individuals who stayed in interim shelters final 12 months moved into everlasting housing, although the outcomes assorted extensively throughout the town’s seven websites open in 2022. A few of the websites had a most keep of six months, whereas others had extra flexibility. San Jose spent over $29 million on constructing and working the shelters. At present, the town has about 500 interim models, officers mentioned.
The town, with the assistance of service suppliers throughout Santa Clara County, moved a complete of 1,857 unhoused individuals into everlasting properties in San Jose final 12 months. That’s in comparison with 1,733 individuals in 2021 and a pair of,023 individuals in 2020, in accordance with metropolis studies.
On Tuesday, councilmembers additionally mentioned how the town can discover extra money for inexpensive housing now that Measure A — a $950 million inexpensive housing bond accepted by Santa Clara County voters in 2016 — is sort of out of funds.
One choice is a proposed Bay Space-wide housing bond value as much as $20 billion that will come earlier than voters in 2024. It might imply as a lot as $2.1 billion for San Jose and $2.4 billion for the remainder of Santa Clara County.
“This regional housing measure is a really important alternative, and it does look more likely to transfer ahead,” Mahan mentioned.