SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) – San Jose is adding 150 new beds to get unhoused people off the streets. The city council approved a proposal to build new affordable housing in the southern part of San Jose, off of the Great Oaks Exit of Highway 85.
The mayor’s office says that once that new housing is built, homeless people who live in RVs and encampments around it will be asked to accept shelter or leave. Members approved the contracts to build the new facility at a city council meeting last week.
Right now the space is an empty lot, but soon, a housing complex will stand with 150 beds. It is a small step to help bring the thousands of currently unhoused people in San Jose off the street.
“It is very difficult. And… some people here are not very nice, so your stuff gets stolen and the trash is not being picked up,” said Sharon Lee, who lives at the encampment at Via del Oro and Monterey Road.
Lee says volunteers used to take trash out of their encampment but that stopped three months ago. She also says there are rumors this camp will be swept soon.
Lee has also been on a housing waitlist for years. She hopes that the wait will be over when this new facility gets built in her backyard.
Mayor Matt Mahan says the beds will first be offered to those unsheltered in the immediate area.
“Those who have refused and remain will be abated. We will clean up those encampments and tell people that they can accept shelter or they will have to move along,” he said.
The city would then make it so that camping near the shelter is illegal. Mahan says it’s a good step but still not enough.
“We know there’s more need than now. We’re going to keep building shelter, housing, safe parking. We’re even looking at safe sleeping sites because we need to create safe alternatives to encampments,” he said.
Lee says she’s tired of living in the encampment and looks forward to the day she and thousands of other unhoused people in San Jose can get housing.
“We could do better than that. All the taxes, the bag money, the recycled money, the pot money, they got it,” she said.
KRON4 spoke with housing advocates in San Jose and they say more housing, rather than crowded homeless shelters, is the way to go. They say they want to ensure homeless people have every option available to them if the city wants to have their tents swept.
