A symbol of success in S.J. — from streets to home
If you drive by this newly built five-story apartment building just off of a downtown San Jose park, you would think it is one of this area’s new homes for a growing population of tech workers. Its sleek lines and modern facade help the neighborhood enter a new generation of downtown architecture.
Inside these new homes, however, are not tech transplants from other cities; they are people who once lived on the streets of the city of San Jose or Santa Clara County, including some who slept in the park a block away.
In one of the apartments resides Jesse, a 51-year-old who became homeless in 1986, when he was merely 17 years old. Spending most of his life on the streets was difficult, including surviving several heart attacks.
For safety, Jesse would spend his days in the local public library, until they referred him to PATH, People Assisting the Homeless, and his new home at Villas on the Park, the new residential building in downtown.
The idea of building “supportive housing” — apartments with supportive services on-site — was the brainchild of leaders in the city of San Jose. They hired Affirmed Housing Group and PATH Ventures to create and build Villas on the Park. It is one of the first 100% supportive housing developments in Santa Clara County.
But building a home for Jesse and the other 91 residents was not easy.
This was a neighborhood that possessed a deep fear that creating homes for people who were once homeless would disrupt the serene area. There was a perceived fear of increased crime and even more homeless people on the surrounding streets.
With stereotypical images of the Tenderloin in San Francisco and Skid Row in Los Angeles, and no real models of successful supportive housing in the region, why wouldn’t these future neighbors be worried about their own quality of life?
So community leaders like San Jose City Councilman Raul Peralez and supportive housing leaders like Destination: Home spent hours and hours at neighborhood meetings easing people’s fears by sharing why Villas would not be an old run-down, out of control homeless shelter, and why Villas would not be a magnet for homelessness.
Finding the partners and resources to provide clinical social services for the new residents was also a monumental task. A physical home by itself does not end people’s homelessness. There must be sufficient support in order for people to overcome the barriers that caused their homelessness in the first place.
Santa Clara County’s Office of Supportive Housing and the County Housing Authority did not hesitate to join this growing group of innovators who were behind the development of Villas, the city and county’s model for supportive housing. They provided enough resources to staff and operate Villas appropriately.
When people who used to live on our streets started moving into their new apartments late last year, the region’s tech companies — Cisco, Apple, Google, PayPal — pitched in to help with their move.
This building has become one of the examples of why Measure A, the county’s affordable housing bond, will successfully house more and more of our county’s homeless population.
Today, Villas on the Park has become a symbol of how a community is able to rally around a real solution to ending homelessness. The picture of the city and the county, businesses and local advocates, and even neighbors who once were hesitant to support such a building working hand in hand to help 92 people get off the streets is remarkable.
A week after Jesse moved into his own apartment, one of our social workers asked him what he first did when he moved into his new home. Jesse said, “I cooked my favorite meal, chicken liver and onions. And I took a long, hot bath.”
Now, that is truly a symbol of success.