After strong public backlash, San Jose is shelving a controversial proposal to sell one in every of its tiny home lots to Santa Clara County for a jail diversion program.
Thousands have signed a petition to stop the sale of the temporary housing site at 6066 Monterey Road. Hundreds of South San Jose residents have sharply criticized city and county officials at two town hall meetings in recent weeks for failing to adequately address their safety concerns and demonstrating an absence of transparency.
After San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan decided to not support the proposal as a result of public opinion, city officials said in a letter to residents on Monday that they’d follow suit.
“Although the Mayor and City Council have not yet taken a formal vote on the sale of the Monterey/Bernal site, the City's Housing Department and the City Manager's Office are not making a recommendation to sell the Monterey/Bernal site and may be exploring alternative options with the County,” wrote Housing Director Erik Solivan.
Santa Clara County had expressed interest in purchasing the Monterey Road site and the properties at 1072-1082 Vermont St. after receiving an $8 million grant from the California Health Facilities Financing Authority. Under the terms of the grant, the county needed to have the facilities operational by the tip of November.
The South San Jose property is currently managed by HomeFirst Services and may accommodate as much as 78 homeless residents.
County officials said the programs they provide wouldn’t bring about significant changes within the clientele currently using the transitional housing because homelessness, mental health issues and “justice involvement” are intertwined.
“About 15 percent of people were in prison within six months of enrolling at the center, and nearly half of the participants reported having mental health issues. So these are the people we're already serving at the Monterey-Bernal site,” program manager Hilary Barroga said at a community meeting last week.
County officials tried to allay safety concerns by stating that the jail-avoidance program includes precautions, including the necessity for courts, prosecutors and public defenders to approve everyone's participation. They also said that California's penal code excludes individuals who pose an unreasonable threat to public safety from jail-avoidance.
“It is important to recognize that many homeless individuals who are not involved in serious crimes are already being discharged without housing because they are not considered a high risk to the community,” the Santa Clara County Department of Behavioral Health Services told The Mercury News. “This program is designed to provide them with the support they need to break the cycle of homelessness and justice involvement. A successful diversion program for homeless individuals who have come into conflict with the justice system will mean safer neighborhoods.”
Mahan said town was initially inquisitive about selling the positioning since the county was higher capable of provide services to the homeless. Combined with the $8 million town would receive, San Jose would have saved nearly $2.5 million that town pays annually in operating costs for the positioning, allowing town to balance this 12 months's budget and potentially provide other services to taxpayers.
But Mahan and tenth District Councilman Arjun Batra, who sought to dam the proposal, said they were kept at the hours of darkness concerning the county's proposed use during this 12 months's budget meetings and got the impression that the county intended to proceed using the temporary housing area as is.
The proposal has turn out to be such a sensitive issue that Batra and George Casey, his opponent within the upcoming election, have tried to make use of it for political purposes.
“The county officials and some politicians at City Hall initially barricaded themselves and tried to push the sale through (or in the case of our appointed incumbent, they did nothing until we put pressure on them), but thanks to your tireless commitment to keeping our neighborhoods safe, we finally got them to do the right thing and take this project off the table,” Casey wrote in an email broadcast Monday evening.
Regardless of what happened before Monday's announcement, community leaders were pleased that town was listening to their concerns.
“The community is very happy that their voices have been heard,” Issa Ajlouny, president of Safety Advocate for Empowering Residents (SAFER San Jose), told The Mercury News.
image credit : www.mercurynews.com