South Bay leaders eye collaborative effort to improve public safety in downtown San Jose

TWO SILICON VALLEY OFFICIALS are teaming up in an effort to help homeless and drug addicted residents who they said are scaring and attacking people living in downtown San Jose.

At a town hall meeting this past Friday, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and Santa Clara County District 2 Supervisor Betty Duong, who’s district encompasses the downtown, agreed to collaborate on providing wraparound services for 30 to 40 specific people. They described the people as “frequent flyers” in and out of hospitals and the jail system due to struggles with mental illness and substance use addiction in the downtown core.