Despite suffering a legislative setback in Sacramento, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is pushing ahead with his crusade to ensure all counties and cities do their fair share to solve the homelessness crisis as he explores legal options to prevent the city from becoming a dumping ground for unhoused residents coming in from elsewhere.
Related Articles
Man sentenced in 2020 East Bay murder case, after concerns of political meddling by former DA Pamela Price San Jose opens its first interim housing site on private land Is San Jose making progress on homelessness or are some of its ‘wins’ superficial? Legislators gut bill that sought to force California counties to share city shelter costs Supportive housing project in Oakland pushes ahead with property dealState legislators gutted a Mahan-sponsored bill last week that attempted to force counties to pay half of the operational costs of city-run interim housing and shelter. But the recent sweep of an RV encampment primarily comprised of residents from other cities underscored the need for a solution when jurisdictions push their problems into San Jose.
“The goal here isn’t to point fingers but rather to protect our community, defend the investments our residents have made in shelter and services and ensure that every city steps up to do its fair share,” Mahan said. “If we find evidence of coordinated displacement or dereliction of duty, the next step could include seeking injunctive relief or recovering costs tied to housing and cleanup. This is about fairness and we’re doing the work to end unsheltered homelessness in San Jose and asking others to do the same.”
A drone view of recreational vehicles parked along Alviso Milpitas Road near McCarthy Boulevard and Ranch Drive in Milpitas, Calif., on Monday, April 28, 2025. McCarthy Boulevard and Milpitas are seen above. A sweep of the homeless encampment is being made this week and people will have to move their vehicles. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)This year, San Jose will add nearly 1,000 interim housing placements through opening new tiny home communities and safe parking and safe sleeping sites. The city’s shelter system could expand by more than 1,400 spaces by the end of this year when hotel and motel room conversions are also factored in.
However, as San Jose pursues one of the most ambitious plans in the state to expand its shelter system, city officials have ramped up a broader campaign to encourage other cities and counties to follow suit, including championing legislation that could compel their participation.
Mahan, for example, sponsored SB 16 — the bill introduced by state Sen. Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas) that aimed to require counties to cover half the operating costs of city-run interim housing and shelters. But a Senate committee stripped the cost-sharing provision due to concerns over how the bill would work in 58 different counties and be paid for.
He also sponsored a bill from Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park) that sought to require local jurisdictions applying for state homelessness funding to submit an assessment of how they can achieve “functional zero” — a model that ensures more people are leaving their homeless situation than the number of residents becoming unhoused.
“The reality is that only the state can create a comprehensive framework for ensuring that every city and every county does its fair share on homelessness, playing to their respective strengths,” Mahan said.
Though San Jose has hit a roadblock in its statewide efforts, Mahan has also asked the city attorney’s office to assess its legal options in cases where neighboring cities encourage the relocation of their homeless population through abatements or laws.
Mahan said this latest proposal stems from his observations around the region and conversations with unhoused residents.
Lynn Shipman cleans off her vehicle as she prepares to move her trailer from Alviso Milpitas Road in San Jose, Calif., on Monday, April 28, 2025. A sweep of the homeless encampment is being made this week and people will have to move their vehicles. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)For example, last week, the city began clearing a 40-plus vehicle encampment on Alviso-Milpitas Road, near the site of Microsoft’s future data center in North San Jose. That encampment grew substantially three years ago when Milpitas imposed stricter rules on camping on public property. More recently, many vehicles joined the encampment in response to Fremont’s crackdown on camping.
However, San Jose lacks reliable data to track the number of unhoused residents who have come to the city and their impact on taxpayer-funded services.
Jeff Scott, a housing department spokesperson, told the Bay Area News Group that San Jose does not have any city-specific data and the 2023 point-in-time count found that “approximately 14% of unhoused residents in Santa Clara County had been living outside of Santa Clara County when they became homeless.”
The city also confirmed that when it conducted outreach at the Alviso-Milpitas Road encampment before the abatement, it did not inquire about the locations from which people had relocated.
Mahan acknowledged the city’s data shortcomings and the need for improvement, but also noted that other parts of the region face the same factors contributing to homelessness, yet do not appear to experience the same level of issues.
“When I drive around the county and I look along the streets and creeks and see very few tents, I know for a fact that San Jose is not the only city to have individuals experiencing job loss, serious health issues, addiction and mental illness,” Mahan said. “I think it’s very clear that a number of cities are banning camping and pushing homeless people out of their jurisdictions. Many come to San Jose, so we will need to do a better job of qualifying that.”
A Milpitas police officer talks to people in recreation vehicles along Alviso Milpitas Road in Milpitas, Calif., on Monday, April 28, 2025. A sweep of the homeless encampment is being made this week and people will have to move their vehicles. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)Although San Jose has not targeted Fremont despite its contributions to the Alviso-Milpitas encampment, Fremont Mayor Raj Salwan shared Mahan’s frustrations and the need for more accountability while noting that his city has taken in residents from San Jose, Hayward, Oakland and San Francisco.
Salwan said that because homelessness is a regional issue, it would need a collaborative solution and resources from all branches of government to provide housing and supportive services, “so we’re not just shuffling people around.”
“I think we should form a regional task force and get all the different officials in the same room and kind of hammer this out,” Salwan said. “We do need the county and the state to step up. Cities were never meant to handle all of this.”
While the California State Association of Counties opposed the cost-sharing bill Mahan sponsored, county officials from around the state shared similar sentiments about the need for a joint effort during a discussion on the gaps in responsibility under state law that occurred at the organization’s legislative conference last week.
“This is a shared burden and opportunity,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell said. “We can’t do this as individual levels of government.”
However, there are still some disagreements between cities and counties over the roles they all play.
Meanwhile, Mahan remained confident it was not a matter of if, but when the state would adopt the fair share policies he has pushed.
He reiterated that the Supreme Court’s decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson, which allowed cities to ban encampments without offering an alternative, could not become a green light to criminalize homelessness and push unhoused residents into neighboring communities.
“We’re one of the few cities in the Bay Area dramatically expanding our shelter and interim housing system to meet the scale of this crisis, but we cannot solve it for the entire region,” Mahan said. “We are compassionate and committed to ending this crisis, but we will not be taken advantage of.”
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Mahan: San Jose will not be dumping ground for other cities’ unhoused residents )
Also on site :