City Council declares homeless emergency
In a move aimed at quickly expanding interim shelters in San Jose, the City Council on Tuesday unanimously passed an emergency declaration that will allow tiny homes to be built more rapidly by removing bureaucratic red tape.
In passing the declaration, the city will now eliminate barriers that have slowed down development, including land use provisions, building codes and procurement decisions — potentially cutting down the construction of interim sites in half from up to two years to a year.
“What this allows us to do is it sort of opens up the top of the funnel,” Deputy City Manager Omar Passons said during Tuesday night's meeting. “Instead of looking at this many sites, all of a sudden we get to stretch that out and look at a bunch more.”
Under the changes, the city will be able to consider sites that don't have running water. The sites, however, will be supplemented by portable toilets and mobile showers. In addition, safe parking sites for RV dwellers will no longer require vehicles with functioning heating systems. The city maintains minimum public health and building safety standards will be adhered to.
The push for more interim shelter options — a strategy to get homeless residents out of encampments and into a safe place before entering permanent housing — comes as Mayor Matt Mahan has compared the situation on San Jose's streets to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Mahan said the city must get shelter running similar to how thousands of earthquake shelters were rapidly built to house those displaced by the centuryold disaster.
“The goal of this is to have us act with greater urgency,” Mahan said Tuesday. “To respond to the horrific humanitarian crisis we see on our streets right now.”
The passage of the declaration also is a win for Mahan, who has staked his legacy on clearing out the city's encampments amid concerns about public safety and building up an infrastructure of interim options.
The interim housing options, which span from quick-build shelters to hotel rooms to safe parking sites, was a strategy started under former Mayor Sam Liccardo and expanded by the current council. While the interim shelters have faced nearly unanimous support from the entire City Council, some have questioned how much money the city should spend on the shelters compared to permanent affordable housing, whose advocates say tackles the deeper-rooted issues surrounding homelessness.
There are currently 6,266 homeless residents in San Jose, with a little more than 4,000 remaining homeless, according to the city's latest count.