San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan announced the initiative on Thursday to curb pressure on homeless people and to accept shelters or face prison time.
“Homelessness cannot be an option,” Mahan said at a press conference to announce his proposed ordinance. “After three offers from shelter, we propose to put people accountable for turning their lives around.”
Mahan’s proposal, following a June 28 Supreme Court decision, is the latest escalation in statewide crackdowns on homeless camps, giving local officials the power to ban camping on sidewalks, streets and other public property even when shelter is unavailable. Since then, civic leaders across California have launched a variety of punitive tactics aimed at clearing homeless camps and leading people to shelter and treatment.
The Bay Area has responded specifically to the Supreme Court decision, sending a message that liberal basin communities often send out the message that the established camps that have taken root amid the closures and service cuts of the COVID-19 pandemic are no longer tolerant. Cities including Berkeley, Auckland San Francisco has adopted a more aggressive enforcement strategy last year to demolish vast tent cities, which often involve public drug use, criminal activity and public health risks.
Fremont, a diverse Bay Area suburb 40 miles southeast of San Francisco, has been the latest Bay Area City to pursue a gathering approach last month, adopting an ordinance banning homeless camps on public and private property. It also reiterated the clause this week that made the Homeless Camp a misdemeanor offence of “assistance and beg” in protests from nonprofits that serve homeless people.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has been directly addressing homelessness in recent years, and is a Democrat who praised the Supreme Court’s decision and issued it in July. Presidential Order California agencies are mandating that they take a more urgent approach to clearing homeless encampments on state property and pressure the city to follow.
A moderate Democrat, Mahan split from the state’s Democratic leader last year, joining several other metropolitan mayors, supporting Proposition 36. This successfully voting law in November, which imposed severe penalties on people convicted of repeated thefts and crimes, including fentanyl. He has on the issue of homelessness I resisted the movement In an aggressive wipe-out of a full ban on homeless camps and homeless camps, they argue that without more shelter beds, such restrictions will only move the issue to nearby cities.
Instead, since his election in 2022, Mahan has focused on a dramatic increase. Short-term shelter bed In his city, as a way to deal with the crisis rather than wait until more permanent and costly and affordable housing options become available. The effort is a departure from the “housing first” strategy defended by progressive Democrats, supporting the creation of permanent, affordable housing, attached as the most effective way to end homelessness.
Under Mahan’s leadership, San Jose has invested heavily in interim housing and shelters, with over 2,000 units currently available or developed. With the city being provided with shelter, Mahan said it was time for people living on the street to be held accountable for coming inside. According to the mayor’s office, about a third of those who were provided with temporary housing rejected those offers.
Under Mahan’s proposal, which requires approval from the city council, those who reject the shelter offer will face punishment for their respective refusals, starting with a written warning and ending with the possibility of arrest.
More 6,250 people are homeless San Jose includes about 4,400 people living in abandoned buildings that are not suitable for streets, cars or residence, according to 2023. Mahan said that mental health and addiction issues often keep people on the streets and “cannot make reasonable decisions about their happiness.”
“That doesn’t mean we should throw our hands and give up on them. It means we need to help them break the destructive cycle of hurting themselves and the larger community,” Mahan said.
The proposal is a supporter of the homeless, drawing opposition from some of the same factions who opposed the Mahan interim housing embrace, and refusing to jail as a tool to resolve the homelessness.
Jamie Chan, a social welfare professor at Berkeley Society, California, said her research shows that short-term shelter options, like San Jose’s priorities, could be an effective part of a multifaceted approach to solving homelessness.
“What we need is a variety of responses that fit the needs of different people’s preparation, motivation and ability to stay indoors,” Chan said, adding a warning that those short-term solutions are only effective when they involve part of the path to service and permanent housing.
While permanent support housing is considered the gold standard, Chan said: And we certainly need a short-term solution right now to correct and alleviate the pain and suffering that is happening on our streets. ”
