May 16, 2022
Mayor & City CouncilCity of San Jose200 East Santa Clara Street, 18th FloorSan Jose, CA 95113 Re: Spending Plan for Measure Property Tax (Item 8.1 on the May 17th agenda) Honorable Mayor & City Councilmembers,
Thank you for your ongoing commitment to ending homelessness in San Jose. We verymuch appreciated the Council’s unanimous support of the proposed revisions to theMeasure E spending categories last month and are proud to write in support of thedetailed spending plan that the Administration has brought forward for yourconsideration.
We are particularly grateful to see the City investing an additional $8 million into thecountywide Homelessness Prevention System, which will bring the City’s totalinvestment over this 3-year period to just under $15 million.
While we’ve made significant progress in recent years, we know that we continue to seemore families falling into homelessness than we’re able to house in a given year. And so,in order to truly solve our homelessness crisis, we must double down on our efforts toattack the problem upstream and reduce the ‘inflow’ of people becoming homeless.
The countrywide Homelessness Prevention System plays a key role in this effort. Since itsinception in 2017, the Homelessness Prevention System, and its network of 20 non-profitpartners, have provided rental assistance, legal support and other critical services tomore than 9,000 at-risk Santa Clara County residents - 92% of whom have remainedstably housed. And this funding will go a long way to sustaining the successful programand assisting several hundred more families in the year ahead.
Thank you for your continued support.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Loving, CEO, Destination: HomePoncho Guevara, Executive Director, Sacred Heart Community Service