Vacant lot will be considered for shelter

Milpitas city manager, mayor oppose county’s plan to house homeless

Despite opposition from some Milpitas officials and residents, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors has agreed to explore placing a temporary homeless shelter on a vacant piece of land in the city.

Supervisor Dave Cortese, who represents the city on the board, directed staffers to make “a determination as to whether or not (the land) would be useful in the context of an unhoused shelter, RV site, shelter-on-wheels site or a modular site or some combination of the above,” he said at Tuesday’s meeting.

Cortese also asked that staffers look into any other spots that might work for temporary shelter programs, such as school district surplus sites, remnant land and “anything that the city of Milpitas elected officials or administration themselves are interested in offering.”

The nearly 6.5-acre countyowned site is located off Thompson Court, just east of Interstate 880, just west of a town house subdivision that has some walls and

fencing around it, north of car dealerships, south of a business park and diagonal to the Elmwood jail.

It’s unclear how many people the county would aim to shelter at the site since the proposal offered staffwide latitude on looking into multiple options that could be considered for such a temporary program.

The site previously has been considered for a temporary sanctioned homeless encampment relocation, and supervisors also looked into building a 30home tiny-home community there for homeless people last year.

The need to slow the spread of COVID-19 disease caused by the coronavirus has brought the land into the spotlight again.

Cortese, in his written recommendation to

the board, said that homeless people are “among the most vulnerable to the widespread outbreak of COVID-19 in Santa Clara County” and that the county must do “everything in our power” to shelter them for their own health and the broader health of the region.

However, some top Milpitas officials opposed both the previous encampment idea and Tuesday’s recommendation from Cortese, marking the second time in less than two years Milpitas officials have tried to quash county plans for temporary shelters on the site.

In a letter to the county board Monday, Milpitas interim City Manager Steve McHarris said supervisors should “not take any action” on the proposal from Cortese.

McHarris said that Milpitas Mayor Rich Tran asked that the board hold off on any vote about the land’s use until “robust community

outreach and engagement can be conducted.”

McHarris said the plot of land is a “key economic development site” and is “not compatible with the development of a temporary shelter facility for the unhoused community” because it is near homes and a linear park with a children’s playground.

His letter echoed concerns in a February 2019 letter by former City Manager Julie Edmonds-Mares, who wrote to the county in opposition to the supervisors’ consideration of relocating Hope Village, a sanctioned homeless encampment, from a plot in San Jose to the Milpitas site.

During the teleconference Zoom meeting Tuesday, 17 people called in to say they are opposed to the idea of a homeless shelter on that site, and about 10 people said they supported the idea.

Several people who opposed it said they are residents

of the nearby town home subdivision and that such a shelter would cause more anxiety for them because of its close proximity to their homes.

Some also said the construction of any shelter could negatively impact people who walk in the area to get fresh air during shelter-in-place orders. Others said the county spent on a temporary shelter would be better used to place homeless people in hotels and motels.

Nitin Gupta, who said he lives across the street, said the board needs to look more carefully at the “impact on the nearby community” of the proposal.

“Consider them as a stakeholder, and not only the homeless community as the stakeholders,” Gupta

said.

Others supported the idea of the temporary shelter, saying that homeless people need a safe shelter and a place with hygiene facilities in general, but especially so because of the pandemic.

“We are living in the wealthiest county in the nation and yet we have less than Third-World standards for our homeless. The cost of inaction will far outweigh the cost of sheltering these citizens,” Todd Langton, an advocate who volunteers with Sleeping Bags for the Homeless of Silicon Valley, said.

Another person who spoke declined to give his name but told the supervisors the shelter is needed now.

“We can’t keep saying

this isn’t right, and that’s not right, I don’t want it in my area. People are dying … waiting for housing, waiting for something to be built, or some sort of shelter,” the person said. “We can’t just keep pushing them along while they die.”

Cortese’s proposal originally only asked staffers to look into the Thompson Court property, but he said he broadened the scope after speaking with Milpitas council members.

“It’s clear to me that they have some additional sites that they would like us to look at, either in lieu or in addition to this site, as part of any study that might come out of this referral,” Cortese said.