Problem or hope?
I have seen the Donner Lofts affordable housing project unfold from the beginning. It’s a block away from my office at San Jose City Hall, and I walk past it three or four times a week. Because I’m interested in construction, I often stopped and watched as it was built.
I also have a particular fascination with local history — and the Donner-Reed Party meant much to San Jose. San Jose city officials have put a plaque on the wall of the building to honor the pioneers’ harrowing trek over the Sierras in the winter of 1846-47.
Now the 102-unit apartment building at Fourth and St. John streets is at the center of news for less than lofty reasons. It was the site of a fatal shooting by a police officer in late May. That incident alone has made it harder for county officials to brand the year-old project a success.
Donner Lofts was also the centerpiece of a lengthy community meeting three weeks ago at City Hall, a session marked by the revelation that the cops were called to Donner Lofts 153 times in one year. In an understatement, Police Chief Eddie Garcia has called that “unusual.”
Things have gotten so tense that police now routinely send three one-officer cars to Donner Lofts when they are summoned. Garcia says that’s because the situation often involves an issue of officer safety. The chief has called for “wraparound’’ 24×7 social services at the site.
You can understand the chief’s position, particularly since six police shootings this year have involved mentally ill people. While some of his officers have received specialized training in dealing with
the mentally ill, their first command is to protect public safety.
“The optics is that the onus falls on law enforcement to be the therapists,’’ he told me. “That can’t be.’’
So is Donner Lofts, advertised as one of the first big ventures of a “housing first’’ approach for the homeless and needy, a big failure? Does it suggest that the county’s $950 million affordable housing bond might falter in dealing with substance abusers or the mentally ill?
I don’t think so, or at least, not necessarily. I spent about a half-hour the other day talking with Matt Franklin, the president of MidPen Housing, which developed and operates Donner Lofts. And while I don’t want to sound like a Pollyanna, I believe there is hope for the project.
Like any good executive, Franklin concedes the problems. He says he’d like to know more about the nature of the 153 police calls — he believes many were “welfare checks,’’ or non-violent situations — but he says, “I think the incident with the fatal police shooting was a failure across the board. It’s not the outcome we’re after. It is an aberration.’’
(In that May 28 incident, police were responding to reports of a disturbance and then a fire inside a Donner Lofts unit. Inside, they were confronted by a man wielding an ax. When a taser failed to subdue him, an officer shot the man. Franklin said the man was a visitor, not a resident).
Donner Lofts has 20 units reserved for the chronically homeless, who often congregate at nearby St. James Park. But many of its other units are occupied by the mentally afflicted or by substance abusers who use the array of social services offered to residents.
It’s a combustible mix. If I’ve learned anything about projects of this sort, it’s that they depend heavily on the resident managers — how they enforce the rules, how they seek help for residents, how they deal with crisis. Not all managers or social workers are equal.
There’s an important neighborhood component to this, too: The area around Fourth and St. James — or Fifth and St. James — has become rougher over the last few years. It can be an uncomfortable place to walk alone in the evening, particularly if you’re a woman.
Nonetheless, Donner Lofts represents the idea of hope — that by putting vulnerable folks in decent housing, we can help them develop the skills to live independently. For better or worse, It’s very deliberately not an institution with the 24-by-7 services the police chief suggests.
“This model of housing the chronically homeless with support services is one we’ve been working on for quite a while,’’ says Franklin, whose organization has developed or rehabilitated more than 8,000 affordable homes. “We know how to do it and it works.’’
A lot more attention needs to be given to the police department’s critique. Garcia makes excellent points. But MidPen’s approach deserves a chance, particularly at a place named for a family that surmounted devastating obstacles and a trail of loss to reach California.
The house of Eliza Poor Donner, who survived that trek over the Sierras, stood at the site of Donner Lofts before it was damaged in a 2007 fire. Her hopes would be with the homeless. For one terrible winter, she was one of them.