City of San Jose, CA

06/10/2022 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 06/10/2022 11:07

San José Mayor Doubles Down on Innovative Homelessness Solution

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 10, 2022

Media Contact:

Rachel Davis, Chief Communications Officer, Office of Mayor Sam Liccardo, [email protected]

SAN JOSÉ, CA - Mayor Liccardo's recently published Budget Message includes funding to make good on his goal of getting 1,000 pandemic-era prefabricated, modular dorm rooms under development by the end of 2022. On Tuesday, the Council will make its final vote to commit to this direction with $40 million allocated through the Mayor's March Message for this purpose.

San Jose has long suffered from an inadequate inventory of housing accessible to its poorest residents. Traditional apartment building construction in the Bay Area-such as that funded by Measure A and other affordable housing sources-typically costs $800,000 per unit to build and takes five to six years to develop and construct. Simply, the traditional approach alone cannot scale fast enough to meet the urgency of this crisis.

As the pandemic required more rapid rehousing of vulnerable unhoused in encampments in the spring of 2020, Mayor Liccardo proposed a new approach: using prefabricated, modular units on public land-such as underdeveloped Caltrans property-to build faster and cheaper. Impressively, the City's Public Works and Housing teams constructed three "quick-build apartment communities" in a matter of months, rather than years, and at less than $100,000 per unit, rather than $800,000. Each of the units contains a private bathroom and small bedroom, with congregate kitchens, community rooms, and offices for counseling and treatment, and provide emergency and transitional housing on the route to more permanent solutions.

Of the 1,000 unit goal so far, the city has constructed 317 so far, has another 76 under construction, and 204 under development at a site recently funded with state dollars.

Through these quick-build communities, San José has already housed nearly 700 unhoused residents, for the first time halting the increase in unsheltered homeless in San Jose and Countywide, based on the 2022 countywide "point-in-time" census.

"To tackle this homelessness crisis at scale, we must move more nimbly, with more innovative approaches that enable more cost-effective and rapid solutions than provided solely with traditional housing construction," said San José Mayor Sam Liccardo.

Another San Jose-born innovation-the rehabilitation of deteriorating motels for homeless housing--will receive additional funding through the Budget Message for operations and expansion. Mayor Liccardo first proposed motel conversions in 2015, and the city secured two motels for homeless transitional housing in the next two years. With Governor Newsom embracing the idea through Project Homekey in 2021, the State of California has provided new dollars to scale the concept, and the City is providing matching dollars for operations and maintenance of these converted motels.

Mayor Liccardo's March Budget Message prioritized a focus on homelessness and affordable housing. On Tuesday, the Council will cast its final vote on a budget that includes funding to:

  • get 1,000 quick-build apartments under development by the end of 2022, and support operations of those units, and for the conversion of 300 motel rooms to housing;

  • accelerate the rehousing of hundreds of individuals living in Guadalupe River Park;

  • expand San José Bridge, which employs hundreds of unhoused residents hired to clean up trash and blight on city streets and near encampments, in partnership with Goodwill;

  • enable affordable housing development on the parking lots of local churches and other congregations, also known as "YIGBY", "Yes in God's Back Yard";

  • respond to individuals experiencing mental health episodes in Downtown, and boost homelessness response;

  • launch more traditional affordable housing projects, including a mixed-use affordable housing and community cultural facility at a future African American Cultural Center;

  • help stabilize and protect five parcels of land hosting mobile home parks that are the most at-risk for redevelopment;

  • Launch a new South Bay Community Land Trust (SBCLT) to purchase and convert existing buildings into affordable housing in partnership with local neighborhoods;

For more details on the proposed budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year, view the following documents:

The City Council will hold a final public hearing on Monday, June 13, 2022, on the City Manager's proposed budget. The Mayor's June Budget Message recommendations will be voted on by Council on Tuesday, June 14, 2022.

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About the City of San José

With more than one million residents, San José comprises the 10th largest city in the United States, and one of its most diverse cities. San José's transformation into a global innovation center in the heart of Silicon Valley has resulted in the world's greatest concentration of technology talent and development.