SEVERAL SAN JOSE CITY COUNCILMEMBERS pushed back against Mayor Matt Mahan’s proposal to arrest unhoused people who refuse shelter during a budget study session meeting on Monday.
Prior to approving the 2025-2026 fiscal year budget next month, the city council is holding several meetings filled with presentations and discussions.
At Monday’s meeting, councilmembers heard proposals for public safety investments, including Mahan’s plan to establish a special police force that would hand out citations, hospitalize or arrest unhoused people who resist offers of shelter from the city.
Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a ruling saying it was unconstitutional to punish someone for sleeping in a public place if there was nowhere else for them to go.
Governor Gavin Newsom then issued an executive order encouraging state and local governments to clear encampments.
On Monday, Newsom introduced guidelines suggested for cities to follow in addressing homelessness, including urging them to immediately ban encampments.
“We’re giving them a model they can put to work immediately, with urgency and with humanity, to resolve encampments and connect people to shelter, housing, and care,” Newsom said in a press release. “The time for inaction is over. There are no more excuses.”
Mahan’s “Responsibility to Shelter” initiative would allow officers to take punitive action against unhoused people who refuse shelter offers three times within 18 months.
The “Neighborhood Quality of Life Unit,” comprised of one police sergeant and six officers, would enforce criminal violations such as trespassing and loitering as a way to remove encampments and unhoused people from public spaces.
Mahan and San Jose Police Chief Paul Joseph said the plan’s intention is not to criminalize homelessness but rather serve as a diversion tool to behavioral health court.
“It’s not a life sentence,” said Joseph at the meeting . “They’re going to be most likely released from custody immediately after.”
The main point, Joseph said, is to “connect somebody to some sort of services that can make a difference in their life in a positive way.”
Instead of taking unhoused people who refuse shelter to jail, Mahan is hoping that Santa Clara County will partner with the city and allow the Neighborhood Quality of Life Unit to take arrestees to the Mission Street Recovery Station. The center serves as an alternative to jailing, primarily for misdemeanor offenses such as public intoxication, driving under the influence, or possession of a small amount of drugs.
‘Many pieces’ still missing
But some councilmembers raised concerns about the proposal, arguing that the plan is premature with not enough available beds to shelter the unhoused population.
Mahan said that 1,400 new shelter beds are set to open by the end of this year. But it is not enough to house the roughly 5,500 unsheltered, unhoused people that were recorded in the 2023 point-in-time count.
“I think that it’s important that we take into consideration how fast we’re moving on a policy that still has so many pieces yet to be addressed and solved for,” said District 2 Councilmember Pamela Campos. “We haven’t even allowed for the emergency interim housing that is in our pipeline to be open, accessible and available to the people living on our streets. I just caution us to proceed.”
Some councilmembers also want to ensure that county officials are fully on board with the plan since the county provides a significant chunk of homeless outreach and mental health resources to San Jose.
“Meeting with the county, I believe, has to happen first, because of the reliance on the services they’ll provide to make what we do effective,” said District 4 Councilmember David Cohen. “We want to make sure that we’re doing this in partnership and not in opposition to their vision for how we’re handling this issue.”
The city has held some meetings with the county but has not received confirmation of a full commitment from the county to be on board with the plan.
“We’ll know more come June, and we’re going to continue our discussions,” said City Attorney Nora Frimann. “But right now, we’re not at a commitment level from the county.”
Some questioned the long-term effectiveness of imposing legal consequences on those who refuse to accept shelter.
“It seems to me that at the end of some process, more likely than not, they’ll be back on the street at the end,” Cohen said.
Mahan argued that the intention is not to criminally punish unhoused people who refuse shelter. It is, rather, intended to serve as an intervention tool where the city can use accountability to help push unhoused people to accept treatment for mental health issues or substance use disorders.
“The idea is to have an excuse to intervene in a cycle of addiction,” Mahan said.
Mahan argued that repeatedly refusing shelter may be a symptom of a behavioral health problem or addiction that requires outside intervention.
“Let’s not turn a blind eye to those who are refusing shelter, because that’s maybe the best signal we have that somebody needs that intervention,” Mahan said.
He said the plan is a compassionate approach that offers wraparound services for unhoused people but holds accountable those who refuse to accept shelter or treatment.
“We’re trying to take a very pragmatic, practical, holistic, compassionate middle ground of dramatically scaling up safe places where people can be with sanitation, security, three meals a day, case management, shelter and services,” Mahan said. “But certainly not sustainable for folks to choose to camp.”
He thinks the plan is a necessary response to the needs of residents and businesses who have been negatively impacted by homeless encampments. He referred to recent events in which unhoused people allegedly committed violent criminal acts in San Jose.
“I acknowledge this is an imperfect approach, as all of ours have been. But I think this starts to get realistic about the reality of addiction on our streets,” Mahan said. “I shouldn’t need to remind folks of the events of the last week that help demonstrate just how serious those gaps are in the system.”
Last week, an unhoused person allegedly stabbed an SJPD officer during an attempted arrest. Several days ago, an unhoused person apparently attacked and hurled anti-LGBTQ+ slurs at a teenager walking to school.
“I acknowledge this is an imperfect approach, as all of ours have been. But I think this starts to get realistic about the reality of addiction on our streets.”
Mayor Matt Mahan
During public comment, dozens of residents in favor of the plan urged the council to embrace it, saying that previous approaches have not worked sufficiently.
Tina Morrill, who lives in San Jose’s Vendome neighborhood, described the public safety risks she’s faced with unhoused people near her residence.
“If people are turning away housing, they are on the streets. Not everyone has good behavior, as you have heard, indeed some are combative and destructive,” Morrill said. “I’ve had multiple personal experiences in and around my home that make me frightened.”
‘Cruel’ and ‘short-sighted’
Members of Sacred Heart Community Service, a nonprofit that aims to end poverty and homelessness through providing outreach services, argued that the plan criminalizes homelessness and does not address its root causes. Speakers from SHCS said that preventative measures and building more affordable housing is a long-lasting solution.
“Arresting unhoused people who refuse shelter is cruel, short sighted, and does not solve the problem of homelessness in our community,” said SHCS Director of Homelessness Prevention Systems Erin Stanton during public comment. “I’ve seen first-hand the success of investing in prevention and permanent housing. Permanent affordable housing combined with supportive services works to end homelessness.”
Mahan will try and get the county on board with the plan before the budget proposal heads to a vote next month, a partnership that some see as critical to make it happen.
Despite some concerns from councilmembers, Mahan thinks that new approaches like Responsibility to Shelter need to be tested without delay.
“Years of conversations and meetings don’t always lead to the outcomes we want. Sometimes it requires action, requires us to lean in, try new things and push,” he said. “If we find that we have a lot more people who need intervention than the county has capacity for, that will be a great signal for them to pivot to provide more resources.”