Dear District 2 Neighbors,
Two of my top priorities since taking office have been increasing public safety and productively addressing our City’s homeless crisis. I am committed to exploring the most compassionate, immediate options that benefit all residents of our community.
I understand and sympathize with your concerns related to homelessness and the multitude of encampments that seem to be popping up across our City. My team and I received your emails and phone calls, and we want you to know that we are listening and taking action to address your concerns while simultaneously providing resources and services to unhoused residents.
I would like to explain to you how the City currently handles calls for removal of homeless encampments and shopping carts. Our City’s under-staffed, yet hard working Homeless Concerns Team is tasked with the tremendous responsibility of responding to every resident concern, noticing abatements, removing encampments and shopping carts, and providing outreach to the unhoused individuals.
When Homeless Concerns receives a request for abatement from a resident, a Council Office, or a City Department, the team first must assess the concern for: health and safety issues, size, and environmental impact before taking action. Larger encampments with greater impacts on the environment are prioritized. The prioritized concern enters the queue for abatement and a schedule for noticing is set. This can take several weeks because the City is currently under court mandate to prioritize litter and trash removal as well as maintenance along creek beds and waterways. This means that more than 80% of abatement resources are directed towards cleanups along Coyote Creek, Guadalupe River, and other water tributaries that feed into the San Francisco Bay.
Additionally, case law requires reasonable notice prior to seizing or destroying a person’s belongings. The City Attorney has determined that a minimum of 72 hours notice is sufficient under the Fourteenth Amendment right to due process. Encampments are noticed by posting signage in the area warning of an imminent abatement as well as through communication and outreach from non-profit organizations contracted to provide resources and services to the unhoused residents. After the encampment has been noticed and the minimum 72-hour period has passed, clean-up crews arrive on site to remove tents, debris, and other items left behind.
During most abatements, Homeless Concerns staff allow unhoused residents to take their belongings and even offer storage options for those who need and accept them. All unhoused individuals and families displaced by abatement are offered mental health services, medical care, case management, and emergency shelter. These outreach services are provided by the County of Santa Clara and non-profit organizations, not the City of San Jose. Some individuals accept the services and are placed in shelters while many others choose to relocate their encampment to another area. The abatement process is time consuming, costly, and unfortunately, does not address the root of the problem: a countywide shortage of services and shelter beds.
In addition to cleanups and abatements, San Jose funds various programs intended to provide unsheltered residents with relief from living on the streets, including: Safe Parking programs, Overnight Warming Location (OWL) programs, Bridge Housing Communities, and permanent supportive housing units. Unfortunately, there simply is not enough shelter space for the 6,000+ unhoused individuals on our streets.
I remain committed to pursuing real, thoughtful, and productive solutions to our housing crisis. I have directed City staff to evaluate Bridge Housing Communities, sanctioned encampments, navigation centers, and storage lockers. I have supported Safe Parking programs and Overnight Warming Locations in District 2. I put forth a memorandum recommending zoning changes to reduce regulatory barriers and streamline emergency shelter and transitional housing. I am working with Code Enforcement to improve or City’s shopping cart ordinance to prevent carts from littering our streets.
Solving homelessness in San Jose will require coordination and collaboration among all levels of government and with multiple stakeholders. Together, we must make significant investments in comprehensive wrap-around services that include: compassionate mental health, drug rehabilitation, medical services, job training and assistance, and other needed support to help people become self-sufficient.
And of course, we need to build more affordable and accessible housing for all.
Most importantly, we as a society need to change the narrative around homelessness. We need to approach this crisis with empathy -- not fear. We MUST stop treating houseless individuals differently than our other neighbors simply because they do not have a stable place to call home. We need to accept solutions, developments, and services in all our neighborhoods and all our communities. I hope that as we navigate this statewide housing crisis, we will all treat each other with dignity and respect.
This will not be easy, but I am determined to support and implement a multitude of innovative solutions to address this complex and longstanding problem.
I ask that you stay engaged and become a part of the solution: follow me on
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HELPFUL CONTACTS FOR HOMELESS CONCERNS:
If you feel unsafe or threatened, immediately call 911.
For non-emergency situations such as noise complaints or parking concerns, call 311 or 408-277-8900.
To report concerns along Union Pacific Railroad tracks, contact: 1-888-877-7267,
RMCC_in@up.com
To report concerns in District 10, which borders our District 2 on the west side: Councilmember Johnny Khamis,
district10@sanjoseca.gov
(Councilmember Khamis represents the west side of Monterey Road, from Senter Road to Branham Lane).
For More Information on the Bay Keeper’s Settlement, click
here
.
