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.
Duong said she understands the need because she lives downtown and has found people sleeping on her porch. She grew up riding her bike through downtown where she still lives with her family.
“This is deeply personal to me,” she said.
She said the San Jose Downtown Association and the group’s social impact team have identified the individuals with the greatest need.
“Things do need to be different. Let’s try wrapping everything we’ve got, all our resources around these 30 to 40 individuals in St. James Park in downtown and see where we can go with that, ” Duong said. “I know it’s not the whole problem, but can we start there, take the lessons learned, lift out a framework of service that maybe can be replicated and extended throughout the whole county? Let’s make that reset happen.”
Mahan said neither the city nor the county have all the tools to effectively solve these problems alone.
“We’re here because people are at their wits end over public safety issues downtown. We are as frustrated as the neighbors are with the revolving door we see at the county jail and the county hospital,” Mahan told San José Spotlight. “We have got to have a commitment from our partners at the county that we’re not going to continue to release people with untreated mental illness and addiction, especially when there is repeat criminal activity right back onto our downtown streets.”
Duong said she’s eager to collaborate with the city.
“We’re all in for the safety of downtown, for our community here to be able to not just survive, but to thrive,” she said.
Mahan said he’s ready to partner with the county to create new outcomes and a safer city.
“I hope this is the beginning of a bit of a reset between the way the city and county are approaching this crisis of unsheltered homelessness and repeat street level crime that has made folks feel very unsafe,” Mahan said.
Homelessness in county still climbing
Homelessness in Santa Clara County continues to rise. According to this year’s point-in-time count, homelessness has skyrocketed to more than 10,700 people, of which 7,472 are unsheltered. San Jose’s homeless population experienced an increase of 237 homeless people from two years ago, up to 6,503 residents. About 60% are unsheltered, or 3,959 people.
Duong also touched on the county’s loss of federal health care funding, which she said is devastating.
“If we don’t find a way to cover this billion-dollar shortfall, clinics will close, hospitals will have to limit services. We’re going to have to lay off nurses and doctors, clinicians and counselors, health care providers,” she said. “Three of our four county hospitals are in the city of San Jose. (People will be) denied access and care when the full impacts of H.R.1 go into effect the 1st of 2027.”
“Once we fall off this financial cliff in 2027, where do those beds go? That is my waking nightmare. We have until 2027 to figure our way out of this.” Supervisor Betty Duong
Santa Clara County faces losing more than $1 billion in federal cuts to Medi-Cal. With four hospitals and 15 health clinics, Medi-Cal is the largest federal revenue source for the county, with one in four residents relying on it for health care coverage, according to county officials. San Jose faces a budget deficit of $52.9 million in 2026-27. The city diverted Measure E affordable house funding into interim funding in an effort to get people off the streets.
Duong pulled no punches as she described what lay ahead.
“Once we fall off this financial cliff in 2027, where do those beds go?” she said. “That is my waking nightmare. We have until 2027 to figure our way out of this.”
Getting out of the comfort zone
Mahan said the only way to solve issues of public safety, homelessness, addiction and mental illness is to be willing to do some uncomfortable things.
“The sustainability of many of our current systems are really in question,” he said. “Collaboration has absolutely got to be a guiding light. We also are going to have to push ourselves out of our comfort zone. We still have 4,000 people in tents across the city of San Jose.”
Consuelo Hernandez, deputy county executive, said the county has felt compelled to step into lanes it didn’t belong in. In 2014, it funded every shelter in the county so they could continue to operate, she said, adding the county now funds 1,726 shelter beds and 200 safe parking spots to the cost of $50 million.
She added when cities weren’t building enough housing, the county stepped in with Measure A, a $950 million affordable housing bond approved by voters in 2016, and has built 6,600 homes. It also piloted a system to catch people before they become homeless, which today helps more than 2,500 individuals and families.
“I really appreciate supervisor, you and the mayor coming here today and saying let’s reset, let’s get down to business, let’s put the politics aside for a second and problem solve,” Hernandez said. “Let’s get it done.”
Contact Lorraine Gabbert at lorrainegabbertsjspotlight@gmail.com.
This story originally appeared in San Jose Spotlight.