NAMED BEST CAMPUS NEWSPAPER IN CALIFORNIA FOR 2022 BY THE CALIFORNIA COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
Volume 160 No. 42 SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
City council talks houselessness
ALINA TA | SPARTAN DAILY
Mayor Matt Mahan presents a ceremonial proclamation during a council meeting before discussing houselesness in the city of San Jose at City Hall on Tuesday.
By Alina Ta STAFF WRITER
S an Jo s e’s C it y councilmembers discussed the city’s annual report on houselessness and their progress in aiding the unhoused community on Tuesday at City Hall. Jacky Morales-Ferrand, director of San Jose’s Housing Department, said the report covers how the housing department spent $36 million on programs serving unhoused individuals. “When I started the housing department 15 years ago, the housing department employed five people on the homeless response team and we had a little over a $2 million budget,” Morales-Ferrand said. “Today we have 12 members on the team and last fiscal year we managed over $43 million of funding.” Kelly Hemphill, division manager for San Jose’s Homeless Response Team said houselessness is a national crisis that exists beyond San Jose because the nation lacks affordable permanent housing. In San Jose, 77% of people experiencing houselessness were unsheltered, according to the 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. “Which means nearly 5,000 San Jose residents live outside on our streets in encampments in parks and vehicles,” Hemphill said. She said when the housing department began working on
a five-year plan to decrease houselessness by 2025, for every one household that moved to permanent housing, two or three became houseless “Unfortunately, people in San Jose are falling into homelessness faster than we can house them,” Hemphill said. She said for the first time in 2022, for every household that moves to permanent housing only another 1.7 households become houseless for the first time.
“Housing solutions include temporary and permanent opportunities to ser ve individuals and families experiencing houselessness,” Hemphill said “This means the people housed either lived in San Jose prior to becoming houseless.” She said many go to work and have their kids go to school or they spend most of their time in San Jose. “People from all jurisdictions in the county were served, but
affordable housing for individuals experiencing houselessness. San Jose currently has 2,193 beds available for the unhoused community, according to a memorandum provided by the city. However, 10,028 people in Santa Clara County were reported to be unhoused, according to the same annual report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Unfortunately, people in San Jose are falling into homelessness faster than we can house them. Kelly Hemphill San Jose’s Homeless Response Team division manager Hemphill said the city has the vast majority were connected now managed to decrease to San Jose,” Hemphill said. She said there are many houselessness by increasing the number of housing pathways to permanent housing. “Some moved into housing placements yearly. with the assistance of a rapid Solving Houselessness rehousing program. Some received assistance in an interim Santa Clara Country has a shelter program and then five-year community plan to moved to permanent housing, end houselessness from 2020 to some reunited and moved 2025, according to its written back in with family,” Hemphill community plan. said. “All of them received Hemphill said the city’s assistance from supportive response aims to ensure housing system.” houselessness is prevented She also said the city is when possible or to make it using funding from the rare and brief instead of a state to buy underused hotels to reoccurring experience. eventually repurpose them into
“Positive temporary housing outcomes are strongly linked connections to permanent housing programs,” Hemphill said. Hemphill said interim housing programs are designed to support people waiting for their housing unit to be built or are searching for a unit that have the highest rates of people moving into permanent housing. “We must continue to increase the capacity of permanent housing programs if we want to increase positive outcomes for shelter participants,” Hemphill said.
Angela Smith, sociology junior and a houseless advocate for Students Against Sweeps (SAS), said during an interview over the phone that she and other advocates from SAS are not seeing the same success out in the community. Smith said Students Against Sweeps is a studentled campaign that aims to end houseless encampment sweeps in San Jose. “I mean, that number looks really great and everything, but that’s just kind of not just not really what we’re seeing,” Smith said. She said it appears a very small percentage of unhoused people are successfully making the move to permanent housing. “[The] city run outreach is misleading because people are constantly lying on those surveys,” Smith said. She said some lie during surveys because many in the unhoused community are aware that lying about certain issues they are experiencing may increase their chances to receive housing. “They know that lying about the amount of trauma they’ve experienced or lying about the lifestyle that they live will make them more likely to qualify for housing,” Smith said. She said some unhoused individuals who currently have a job and can save money are close to being able to afford their own housing, but are considered less qualified to receive permanent housing because of government CITY COUNCIL | Page 2