San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan supports Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order to abate encampments on state property but says California must do more to create “shared responsibility” in tackling the homelessness crisis.
Ahead of a meeting with the governor’s office, Mahan is arguing that California should create a shelter production mandate, similar to the way the state approached housing requirements with the Regional Housing Needs Allocation to avoid a situation he likened to “Groundhog Day.” The housing allocation sets a minimum number of residences local governments need to add.
“I want to emphasize an equal commitment from the state and counties and cities to stand up for basic shelter and treatment,” Mahan said. “We need to have a place for people to go and we have to hold people accountable.”
Newsom issued the order last week, taking a hardline approach to ramping up sweeps and encouraging local governments to follow suit. It came on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that permits cities to abate homeless encampments even if they do not have adequate shelter space.
“The state has been hard at work to address this crisis on our streets,” Newsom said. “There are simply no more excuses. It’s time for everyone to do their part.”
California has thrown billions of dollars at its homelessness crisis, including $24 billion over the past five years. The state also has given more than $1 billion to local governments to remove encampments and relocate homeless residents to shelters.
However, results of a statewide audit released earlier this year cast doubts over its effectiveness with questions swirling over the reliability of the data the state collects to track outcomes. The audit also claimed that San Jose failed to adequately track the effectiveness of the $300 million it has spent on programs.
Homelessness has hit California harder than any other state in the country, accounting for nearly 30% of the nationwide total. The nine-county Bay Area accounts for about 20% of the state’s 181,000 homeless population. San Jose has an estimated 6,340 homeless residents, close to 70% of which are categorized as unsheltered.
While committing San Jose to be an able partner to statewide agencies, Mahan said the governor’s order would not have any immediate short-term impact on San Jose’s path forward to combating homelessness, which has been a major pillar of his agenda as mayor.
Mahan said that previous statements he made about encampment sweeps only working if there were available shelter spaces were misconstrued as some form of rebuke of Newsom but his larger point was that the sweeps are a “partial solution” to the bigger picture.
The larger question San Jose and other cities face is that if they clear encampments, there are not readily available places for residents to go, creating the “Groundhog Day” scenario where cities pay millions of dollars to conduct sweeps only to have to return again and again when tents reappear.
That led Mahan to realize the state can play a part in creating “shared responsibility,” where each city has a targeted number of shelter spaces to meet.
The state follows a similar process with the Regional Housing Needs Allocation, or RHNA, which establishes a set number of housing units for different income categories that each municipality or county must plan for in a given eight-year cycle to meet housing needs.
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Under Mahan’s leadership, San Jose could add 1,200 spaces for homeless residents in this year’s budget after redirecting some funds initially slated for affordable housing. The city also has looked at expanding safe parking and sleeping sites to help create alternatives.
The city is building sanctioned encampment sites for the nearly 500 residents living along city waterways to reduce trash and pollution and comply with the Clean Water Act.
“We have to also ask ourselves, ‘But, then what?’” Mahan said. “If we don’t have a shelter or treatment bed, where will those people go?”
