City of San José
Consolidated Annual
Homelessness Report
Many Partners, One Team:
An Enterprise-wide Approach
Fiscal Year 2023-2024
The City of San José (the City) has long been committed to leading and collaborating to address homelessness in the region. As part of this work, the City focuses its efforts in multiple areas: 1) preventing people from being unhoused in the first place; 2) managing the impacts of homelessness on infrastructure, the environment, the business community, housed residents, and visitors; and 3) helping unhoused residents permanently exit homelessness by connecting them to resources.
This Consolidated Annual Homelessness Report (CAHR) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023-2024 is a companion to the City of San José Implementation Plan for the Community Plan to End Homelessness 2020-2025 (the Implementation Plan). The Implementation Plan lays out the City’s vision adopted by the City Council – A San José For Everyone – and provides a framework to prevent and end homelessness while managing its impacts on the City. The Implementation Plan focuses on four pillars:
These pillars shape an inclusive approach to homelessness response in San José that involves all City departments and offices. It also includes many regional partners such as the County of Santa Clara and the Santa Clara County Housing Authority, community members who have experienced homelessness, non-profit service providers, and other members of the community.
Introduction
Pillar 1 Pillar 2 Pillar 3 Pillar 4
End Suffering on
the Street
Share and Protect
Public Spaces
Expect Cleanliness
of Each Other
Create Opportunity
2 | City of San José Consolidated Annual Homelessness Report This CAHR presents the City’s accomplishments during FY 2023-2024 as well as next steps for FY 2024-2025. This report is organized into seven key areas of work- or sections- that demonstrate how the City’s vision is being implemented across multiple City departments:
Section I Housing and Support: Preventing and Ending Homelessness Section II Encampment Management and Action: Addressing impacts in the community Section III Lived-In and Oversized Vehicles: A new direction for our response Section IV Environmental Leadership: Stormwater and environmental change Section V Economic Impacts and Opportunities: Recognizing challenges and accelerating progress Section VI Data and Technology: Leveraging information to drive quality service Section VII Other Significant Department Roles
This report is accompanied by an Implementation Plan update. The Implementation Plan update outlines progress on implementation goals from FY 2023-2024, presents lessons learned when relevant, and sets forth goals for the FY 2024-2025 Implementation Plan, including implementation actions related to City Council-directed work from the City’s adopted FY 2024-2025 budget.
A Novel Approach – Innovation in Silicon Valley
to Address Stormwater Mandates
In 2024, the San José City Council recognized an unprecedented challenge resulting from the directive issued by the San Francisco Bay Area Water Quality Control Board to ensure the cleanliness of San José’s waterways. San José, like many other metropolitan cities, found that unhoused people living next to waterways often often have an adverse impact on these environments, as waste and other materials from encampments enter the water. The City Council made a major investment of $27 million to provide supportive options for unhoused people living along the waterways as part of a coordinated effort to move them away from the waterways while providing meaningful alternatives. This work is detailed in Section IX: Environmental Leadership.
To accomplish this challenging task, San Jose’s Administration drew on Agile methodologies and principles from the Incident Command System to re-envision, elevate, and coordinate the City’s response to homelessness. The Agile methodology is a project management framework that emphasizes iterative and incremental steps, collaboration, and flexibility.
Fiscal Year 2023-2024 | 3
Housing and Support:
Preventing and Ending Homelessness
The Housing Department includes the City’s team who is most directly engaged in connecting unhoused residents to resources, working with partners to prevent homelessness, and increasing opportunities for permanent housing.
The Housing Department’s work is critical to Pillar #1: Ending Suffering on the Street.
Housing Department Accomplishments for
FY 2023-2024
As outlined below, the Housing Department, despite an extended period of leadership transition, achieved several successes which included expanding the interim housing portfolio to provide more shelter spaces, increasing investments in the homelessness prevention system to deter individuals and families from experiencing homelessness, and improving data collection and analysis of the needs of the City’s unhoused population.
Housing Implementation Strategy
Moving forward with new leadership, the Housing
Department’s implementation strategy is focused on meeting the demands of the City’s unhoused population through
providing temporary shelter, as well as interim and permanent housing options to meet the demands of the City’s unhoused population and housing instability. The Housing Department now implements its work through the lens of the Housing Continuum, a model that combines shelter and housing
services and systems to achieve functional zero—where, on a night-to-night basis, the sheltering options meet the needs of the community so no one goes unsheltered—and by making
strategic investments at critical points in the continuum (Figure 1).
As visualized in the graphic (Figure 1) on the following page, the Housing Department is working to expand publicprivate-partnerships. The City is strengthening coordination with Santa Clara County, the Continuum of Care, and
is focusing on reorienting contractual partnerships with supportive service providers towards outcome-based
services. Growing the list of housing developers and enticing the philanthropic community to make strategic investments along the continuum will help eliminate supply gaps and fund additional supportive services that are focused on shared outcomes. The aim is for public and private sectors to share the goal of ending suffering on the streets and mitigating community impacts while continuing to provide more supply to meet the demand for shelter and housing options.
4 | City of San José Consolidated Annual Homelessness Report Housing Implementation Strategy
As the supply of shelter and interim and permanent housing options increase (particularly in response to the immediate need to clear encampments near the waterways), so do
capital and operations costs for the City. To mitigate and accurately project these costs for the City over a multiyear period, the Housing Department has developed a three-part financing model that:
1. States a clear target for the supply of shelter and
housing that synchronizes to current and reasonably
projected demand for shelter and housing with a
focus on achieving functional zero in unsheltered
homelessness;
2. Details the current cost of operations for all shelter and housing options today and for a three-year outlook
to place-set the areas of investments that may have the most impact on the Housing Continuum; and
3. Identifies gaps in the financing of shelter and housing supply to target the buildout of public-private
partnerships.
As the Housing Department reviews the current listing
of prior City Council directives, the Housing Director will return to the Mayor and City Council with an analysis of the directives and recommendation for continuation, integration into the current implementation strategy, or recommend
termination. By integrating the prior directives into the implementation strategy, the Housing Department will move toward a cohesive execution under the coordination of
the City Manager’s Office and in concert with the desired outcomes of the Mayor and City Council to end suffering on the street.
In addition, the Housing Department will begin to catalyze the development of permanent housing by shifting toward a portfolio analysis model. Over the last decade, the Housing Department has amassed a $700 million loan portfolio
that includes thousands of units and nearly 100 housing developers. To make impact investments in the preservation and expansion of permanent supportive housing units, and in collaboration with the County of Santa Clara and the Santa Clara Housing Authority, the Housing Department
will engage housing developers to consider current portfolio performance and identify financing strategies that will maximize leveraging public funds from the City and the
County (given that the County provides the majority of
supportive services funding during permanent operations). 1) Prevention
2) Unit Preservation
3) Unhoused Outreach
4) Encampment Resolution
5) Lived-In Cars and RVs
Interim Housing Units:
7) Temporary
8) Permanent
6a) Board and Care Beds
6b) Congregate Shelter (County) Beds
6c) Safe Sleeping/Parking/Congratate
9) Permanent
Supportive
Housing Units
10) Rent Subsidized and
Restricted Units
11) Rent Stabilized Units
12) Market-Rate Units
13) Subsidized Home Ownership
14) Home Ownership
1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
6a
6b
6c
14 Figure 1: Housing Continuum
Fiscal Year 2023-2024 | 5
Moving Forward in Key Areas
In addition to fundamentally reshaping the City’s approach to its loan portfolio of solutions as described above, the Housing Department has begun to implement several areas as identified from City Council direction and/or other City priority initiatives.
This section provides a brief update on these efforts:
1. Explore adding congregate shelter capacity options
2. Expand the interim housing portfolio
3. Launch a Safe Outdoor Sleeping site
4. Explore the implementation of a “Homeward Bound” service model
5. Continue to invest in the Homelessness Prevention Support System
6. Restructure the San José Bridge workforce program
7. Develop the Targeted Outreach and Engagement Program (SOAR Program Replacement) While the above efforts are not an exhaustive list of the many efforts underway within the Housing Department, they represent alignment with the policy direction from the Mayor and City Council and are important initiatives toward improving the delivery of services and efficiently decreasing homelessness in San José. As noted above, the Housing Department will provide further updares to City Council after a comprehensive analysis of other City Council directions with further recommendations.
Housing Support
Permanent Housing Sites
Mesa Terrace
Emergency Interim Housing Sites
Guadalupe
Vela
Evans Lane
6 | City of San José Consolidated Annual Homelessness Report The City has developed a substantial, coordinated effort related to many of the impacts associated with the homelessness crisis. Specifically concerning individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness—including those who live outside, in vehicles, or other places not meant for human habitation—this work starts with the compassionate and thoughtful approach of the Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services’ (PRNS) BeautifySJ (BSJ) Team, who provide critical services to people who live in unsheltered locations while helping to set expectations for cleanliness in encampments and wherever individuals are living unsheltered. Much of the departments’ work detailed below aligns with the Implementation Plan’s Pillar #2: Share and Protect Public Spaces and Pillar #3: Expect Cleanliness of Each Other.
The City’s Encampment Management Program addresses:
• Encampment Trash/Biowaste Pickup: Proactive, weekly trash service to approximately 185-200 active encampments and encampment service locations, a Recreational Vehicle Pollution Prevention Program (RVP3) that collects bio-waste (grey and black water from lived-in vehicles), a Cash for Trash (C4T) program, and therapeutic specialists to help connect unhoused residents to County of Santa Clara mental and behavioral health services when available. • Inter-Agency Coordination: Collaboration with different inter-jurisdictional agencies who own land in San José and coordination of trash/blight removal activities on their property. • Encampment Escalated Clean Ups (ECU): Removal of trash/debris to scale down the size of an encampment, enrollment of unhoused residents in trash programs, and enforcement of Good Neighbor Rules (allowing residents to stay at encampment locations if they abide by the City’s Good Neighbor Rules). • Encampment Abatement: Removal of individuals who are unhoused residing in setback areas such as within 150 feet of schools, blocked streets, sidewalks, trails, or if an encampment presents serious health and/or safety conditions based on a risk assessment.
Encampment Management
and Action:
Addressing Impacts in the Community
Fiscal Year 2023-2024 | 7
Encampment Management Program
Accomplishments for FY 2023-2024
BSJ has enhanced trash service through expanded and renewed partnerships with Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful, South Bay Clean Creeks Coalition, Trash Punx, the San José Conservation Corps, and various neighborhood associations.
BSJ has also led efforts to mitigate the impacts of homelessness.
In FY 2023-2024, BSJ:
• Collected and removed 4,542 tons (9,084,000 pounds) of debris from encampments • Conducted 298 encampment abatements throughout the City • Provided weekly trash service encampment areas across the City, including waterways • Established and managed the pilot No Return Zone area along the Guadalupe River Trail between Julian Street and Woz Way
• Established a Waterways team that serviced 32 sites along waterways, removing 346.7 tons of debris, including 339 tires
• Enrolled and actively worked with over 800 participants in the Cash4Trash program • Removed 104,468 pounds of biowaste from recreational vehicles and surrounding locations BSJ Trash Removal Enhancements
Coyote Creek
Before
Los Lagos Creek
Before
After
After
8 | City of San José Consolidated Annual Homelessness Report BSJ Program Comparisons between FY 2022-2023 and FY 2023-2024 FY 2022-2023 FY 2023-2024 % Change
Total Trash Removed
(Trash removed by all BSJ programs) 17,128,320 lbs. 21,727,548 lbs. 21% % of On Time Service to Encampments/Encampment
Service Areas for Weekly Trash Pickup 83% 90% 7%
Service visits to Recreational Vehicles/Lived-In Vehicles N/A 1,402 N/A Pounds of Biowaste Removed from Lived-In Vehicles N/A 104,468 N/A Total Abatements 287 298 4%
Escalated Cleanups
(Trash reduction strategy at encampment locations) 210 197 -7% Cash for Trash Program Participants 206 814 395%
Fiscal Year 2023-2024 | 9
Highlights from the Parks Division
The Parks Division in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services takes multiple approaches to address the Implementation Plan’s Pillar #2: Share and Protect Public Spaces. One of PRNS guiding principles from the department’s strategic plan, ActivateSJ, is “Nature”. The principle states “We protect, preserve and promote natural areas for all people.” As such, the Parks Division works collaboratively with several partners to address sharing and protecting these public spaces.
Highlights from the Recreation Division
Oftentimes, unhoused residents visit local community centers to take care of their needs related to personal hygiene, use the bathroom, charge their cell phones, participate in senior nutrition programs, use the pools and splash pads, seek shelter during emergencies or extreme weather conditions, and use computer labs. The number of unhoused resident visits to community centers increased during the COVID-19 pandemic as these facilities offered food distribution, wellness resources, COVID-19 testing, vaccination support, and connections to health and social services. In addition, key community centers such as Roosevelt act as seasonal Overnight Warming Locations (OWLs) providing winter shelter beds.
Park Maintenance
Triaged through the “Park Concerns Phone Line”, community members can call and report issues they identify in parks that need to be addressed, including concerns involving people experiencing homelessness. In FY 2023-2024, the Parks
Concerns Phone Line received 27 reports regarding unhoused residents in parks, a 71% decrease since the implementation of the BSJ Encampment Management Program. The Park
Maintenance teams fix irrigation lines and collaborate with the Public Works Department to maintain functioning light fixtures. The Park Maintenance teams also work to address illegal dumping, litter management, and vegetation removal in parks and along the trail system. The trail system, which is adjacent to waterways, is also impacted. Some trail users have reported feeling less safe due to the presence of encampments.
Maintaining clean and safe trails is more challenging for park maintenance staff due to the amount of litter and debris collected on trails, some of which may also be from illegal dumping from the housed community.
Park Maintenance has also contracted out the maintenance of park restrooms to provide increased services to address graffiti, vandalism, and litter in park restrooms. In FY 2023- 2024, 84 park concerns were documented and included
issues related to restrooms, including clogged toilets, running water, litter, vandalism, and graffiti. However, no data is available about who committed these violations. In other words, there is no information about whether the issues were caused by unhoused residents or other members of
the public. Fires have been reported in restrooms at Watson Park, Arena Green, Japanese Friendship Garden, and History Park. Park Maintenance is working closely with the Fire Department to address fire-related issues in restrooms and along waterways.
Placemaking
The Placemaking’s Viva Parks team implements park
activities all year long to create opportunity for community connection, enhance the parks and increase usage by
providing programming and community resources. In line
with the Implementation Plan’s Pillar #3: Expect Cleanliness of Each Other, when a Viva Park event takes place, the
team arrives to clean and set up the park, ensuring it is left in better condition than when they first arrived when the event ends. Parks, such as St. James Park, which sees regular activity from the unhoused population, is a popular site for Viva Parks team activities, especially their Wellness
Wednesday Program and Movie Nights. These events are
free to all and provide opportunities to share public spaces and foster community connection.
A recent survey conducted during the St. James Park
activities organized by Starlight Cinema showed that 67.4% of participants felt safe or very safe attending the park during the event compared to only 24.9% when there was no event taking place. According to the survey, these events also help participants increase their sense of identity and belonging in their community with 77.3% stating that they agree or strongly agree with the statement.
10 | City of San José Consolidated Annual Homelessness Report • Enhance Trash Service: BSJ will be adding
approximately 40 additional sites to the regular weekly trash service routes that were not previously serviced. • Expand Biowaste Service: BSJ will be scaling the
RVP3 program from servicing 150 vehicles in 2023-
2024 to servicing 600 vehicles in 2024-2025 as part
of a regular service route to help reduce the impacts
of biowaste on our community. Despite this critical
expansion, as of this report there are at least 913
vehicles in need of such services across the city.
• Update the Good Neighbor Policy: A revised and
expanded Good Neighbor policy will allow BSJ Teams
to further reduce the footprint of unhoused residents
and further mitigate the impacts of homelessness. This
will allow City staff to better manage and hold those
residing in encampments accountable for keeping their
areas clean.
• Waterway Abatement and No Return Efforts:
BSJ will establish No Return Zones along areas of the
waterways that are cleared of encampments beginning
in 2025 and within two blocks of emergency interim
housing sites.
• Framework for Shared Public Spaces: In summer
2024, the City began a pilot of changes that prioritized developing shared areas for unhoused residents while
creating greater accountability for cleanliness and
following the law. This pilot will shift and evolve based on City Council’s direction and changes in the needs of the community.
Encampment Code of Conduct
The Reducing Unsheltered Homelessness, Managing Impacts Team, an inter-departmental staff team, is developing an Encampment Code of Conduct that aligns with the Good Neighbor policy, that will allow City staff to better enforce rules and policies at encampments. Initial implementation will begin in late fall 2024/winter 2025 to align with budgeted resources.
Possible considerations:
• Abatements if encampments are not maintained in a 12x12 space. • Abatements after two enhanced cleanups have been performed at a site. • Abatements for documented criminal activity.
• Abatements if encampments are considered a nuisance.
Key New Initiatives for FY 2024-2025
Addressing Recreational Vehicle
Biowaste Needs
Serviced in
2023-2024
150
Recreational
Vehicles and
Other Vehicles
Planned Service
in 2024-2025
600
Recreational
Vehicles and
Other Vehicles
Unmet Need: 913 Recreational Vehicles
and Other Vehicles
Fiscal Year 2023-2024 | 11
Lived-In and Oversized Vehicles:
A New Direction for the City of San José
San José is a large city that faces many challenges that impact the public roadway system, including lived-in and oversized vehicles. The departmental work and analysis below is in alignment with the City’s Implementation Plan’s Pillar #2: Share and Protect Public Spaces and Pillar #3: Expect Cleanliness of Each Other.
Understanding the Needs of People
Living in Vehicles
The City Council has taken several steps in recent years to work to understand the needs of all San José residents, including those who live in their vehicles. In Fall 2022, the Rules and Open Government Committee directed the Administration to explore the cost and strategy required to conduct a comprehensive count and inquiry throughout the City of San José to gain a deeper understanding of a range of uses related to lived-in vehicles, including demographic information of residents and whether vehicles are operable versus not.1 The stated goal of this direction was to develop an understanding of these residents that would allow the City to propose policies that meet the needs of individuals living in recreational vehicles. Subsequently, in November 2022, the City Council directed the Administration to conduct a survey and census of lived-in vehicles.2 Citywide Lived-in Vehicle Inventory
In April 2023, the City’s Department of Transportation
(DOT) conducted a citywide inventory in an attempt to
identify all lived-in vehicles parked on city streets. At that time approximately 850 vehicles were identified as livedin vehicles of which approximately 600 were recreational vehicles motorhomes, and trailers, while the remaining
were standard passenger vehicles (cars/trucks/SUV’s). These vehicles were found throughout the City and across all
Council Districts, with the largest concentrations in Council Districts 3, 6, and 7 (Figure 2).
1. Joint Meeting for the Rules and Open Government Committee - ROGC 22-415, September 28, 2022. https://sanjose.legistar.com/LegislationDetail. aspx?ID=5849465&GUID=D2D3AAD2-41C6-4CC8-B8CE-C92529BB6CCC&Options=&Search=
2. City Council, Item 8.2 – City Initiatives Roadmap – Emergency Housing System Expansion: Recreational Vehicle Parking Program Analysis - http://sanjose.legistar.com/gateway. aspx?M=F&ID=9ebd0af0-425d-4fde-8290-813c2a91d832.pdf
12 | City of San José Consolidated Annual Homelessness Report Figure 2: April 2023: Lived-In Vehicle Inventory on City Streets by Council District (approximately 850 vehicles)
Fiscal Year 2023-2024 | 13
Survey of Lived-In Vehicle Residents
In response to the above City Council direction, the City contracted with Destination: Home for the completion
of a survey of lived-in vehicle residents across the city.
This survey was conducted in Fall 2023, with 158 people who inhabited oversized vehicles such as a recreational vehicle, bus, or trailer. Surveys were conducted in five City Council Districts (2, 3, 4, 5, and 7) and at the
Recreational Vehicle Supportive Parking Program. Key
findings from the survey included:
1. The majority of survey participants inhabited their
current vehicles for more than 1 year (mean=2.9
years; median=1.4 years), ranging from 1 night to
over 28 years.
2. The majority of survey participants (80.4%) received an Extremely Low Income (less than 30% of the
area median income), typically from a State subsidy
(mean=$11,297.90; median=$2,200).
• Survey participants reported income
restrictions due to a “subsidy cliff,” in which
any official additional income or assets would
disqualify them from their current subsidies,
insurance, housing assistance and waitlists.
3. Around half of survey participants were:
• Between the ages of 45 and 64 (50.6%)
• Male (55.7%)
• Regularly cohabitated with at least one other
person in their vehicle (54.4%)
• Possessed at least one pet companion or
support animal (56.3%)
• Self-reported a disabling condition (53.2%)
• Met the United States Federal definition of
“chronically homeless” (43.7%)
4. At least 40% of survey participants reported that
they would choose if offered:
• Housing case management and social service aid
• Housing or hotel room vouchers
• Medical or dental care
• Ticket remediation
• Septic waste dumping
• Vehicle repair or registration assistance
• Portable toilets, laundry, and showers
• Job training and employment assistance.
5. Less than 30% of survey respondents reported being
offered the above assistance by outreach providers
• For example, ‘housing case management’ was
the most common form of assistance offered,
as reported by 27.8% of survey participants.
Key recommendations included:
1. Increase the scale and access to Safe and Supportive Parking Programs.
2. Increase street outreach for vehicle residents.
3. Protect and develop permanent spaces for vehicle
residents, such as extremely low income
mobilehome parks.
At the time of this report, efforts to conduct an updated count are currently underway by the City’s Department
of Transportation. This information will provide
important context for understanding the magnitude of
the homelessness issues the City is addressing.
Impacts of Oversized and Lived-In Vehicles
Oversight on City Departments
There is an increased need for interdepartmental coordination and external communications related to the City’s new programs, such as the Oversized Vehicle Regulation Pilot Program, because of the increase in oversized and lived-in vehicles in San José. As these issues and related concerns from the public have grown, City staff has determined that a response to public inquiries and questions may involve the DOT, Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services, San José Police Department, Housing Department, Planning, Building, and Code Enforcement Department, and in some instances, San José Fire Department. DOT will seek the resources to expand efforts to respond to inquiries, gather data related to the inquiries and respond to the reporting party. Due to resource and legal constraints, responses may vary. However, a coordinated approach will help ensure more thorough and complete communication efforts.
14 | City of San José Consolidated Annual Homelessness Report Transportation Department Accomplishments
for FY 2023-2024
Passage of Measures and Policy Options
The City of San José did not have any specific direction or policy guidance for addressing lived-in vehicles before FY 2023-24. In April 2024, the City Council adopted
amendments to the San Jose Municipal Code and ordinances establishing restrictions prohibiting oversized vehicles and/ or no overnight parking restrictions. The ordinance also established towing as an enforcement mechanism at specific areas adjacent to the following three schools which were identified as having the highest concentration of lived-in vehicles within 150 feet of the school:
• Independence High School
• Shirakawa Elementary School
• Challenger School-Berryessa
The City Council also approved a suite of policy options including considering incentives for private property owners to allow lived-in vehicles to remain on their property, exploring no-cost acquisition of federal property under the McKinney Vento Act, and working with religious institutions and others for property opportunities to expand parking options.
Oversized Vehicle Regulation Pilot Program for FY 2024-2025 With the passing of the City’s FY 2024-2025 budget, $1.5 million in funding was allocated to establish and set up a new Oversized Vehicle Regulation Pilot Program to implement a range of temporary and permanent parking restrictions to facilitate the clean-up of impacted areas, encourage vehicle circulation, and begin to help mitigate the potential environmental and safety impacts posed by oversized and lived-in vehicles parked for extended periods of time on city streets.
Implementation of this Oversized Vehicle Registration Pilot Program began between May and July 2024, where City
staff were able to 1) conduct the necessary engineering analysis to identify the applicability of the no oversized and no overnight parking restriction options at the three schools; 2) conduct inventory data collection; 3) conduct outreach to those parking and living in vehicles in the area, and 4) install new parking restriction signage. Vehicles previously parked in the newly restricted zones were relocated to other areas of the city, often just outside the restriction area. Expansion of this approach is not currently being explored due to lack of funding and limited overall improvement to impacts or homelessness.
Below is a summary of the efforts that the pilot program has prioritized:
• Inventory: Two citywide on-street inventory counts
of oversized and lived-in vehicles parked on city
streets. The initial inventory is currently underway and expected to be completed in October 2024. A second
annual inventory will be conducted later in 2025.
• Analysis and Prioritization: Using the inventory data, staff will develop a list of priority sites based on the proximity and impacts to the surrounding area and
priority objectives of the City, including, but not limited to K-12 schools, waterways, and emergency interim
housing sites.
• Engagement, Clean-up, and Enforcement:
Beginning in January 2025, and approximately every
week throughout the remainder of this initial pilot
year (through June 2025), DOT will initiate treatment
at a new site deploying temporary tow-away signage
to encourage vehicle relocation. Staff will attempt to
engage with vehicle occupants, provide education on
posted restrictions, offer connections to services,
and clean the sites of trash, debris, and biowaste. Any vehicles remaining in the temporary parking zones after education and engagement efforts may be towed.
Although the Oversized Vehicle Regulation Pilot Program is predominately focused on the use of temporary parking tow-away zones to encourage vehicle circulation and
relocation to other areas, the program will evaluate up to ten sites for the installation of permanent parking
restrictions, but only after the temporary parking tow-away and clean-up efforts have been unsuccessful in providing a noticeable reduction of impacts.
Fiscal Year 2023-2024 | 15
Environmental Leadership:
Stormwater and Environmental Change
The City has a shared responsibility to its community, stakeholders, and visitors to be stewards of the environment. This section of the Consolidated Annual Homelessness Report focuses on specific roles the City plays related to the environment. In line with the Implementation Plan’s Pillar #2: To Share and Protect Public Spaces the Environmental Services Department (ESD) is currently the strategic lead for the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Stormwater Compliance Oversight and Coordination. ESD will also support the strategic development for the following two areas: (1) Understanding Climate Change Impacts and (2) Urban Waterways Opportunities.
Stormwater Compliance Oversight and Coordination
In accordance with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Clean Water Act, the San Francisco Bay Area Regional Water Quality Control Board, has required the City (since the 1990s) to comply with a Municipal Regional Stormwater Permit. This is attributed to the City owning and operating a storm sewer system that ultimately discharges into Guadalupe River and Coyote Creek, which are federally designated as “Waters of the United States”. The ESD supports City departments collectively to meet, or exceed, the water quality requirements as outlined in the NPDES Stormwater Permit and Clean Water Act, within the legal boundaries of the Department’s available funding sources.
The most recent stormwater permit mandates prioritization of housing for individuals living in waterways to address any discharges (i.e. trash, biowaste) from unhoused residents living in those waterways and lived-in vehicles near storm drains. Failure to comply with the Municipal Regional Stormwater Permit could potentially result in significant fines and penalties. This permit has caused a fundamental shift within the City such that hundreds (and potentially thousands) of individuals experiencing homelessness living within 500 feet of waterways will need to be identified, serviced, and ultimately relocated to housing or other opportunities outside of this area in proximity to waterways.
The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board approved the City’s Direct Discharge Control Program Plan on June 3, 2024. As part of this approved plan, the City is committed to several steps that are required to meet State mandates that ultimately meets Clean Water Act requirements. Under the terms of the plan, the City is required to submit an annual Direct Discharge Trash Control Program Plan progress report along with the Stormwater Permit report to the Regional Water Quality Control Board by September 30th. The Direct Discharge Trash Control Program Plan progress report provides detailed descriptions of the State-mandated actions and the City’s progress towards implementation. In addition, the City will be providing a six-month update (December 2024 and June 2025) to the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board highlighting the City’s progress in addressing unhoused living in waterways, cleaning, and protecting waterways.
For the full report, please visit this LINK.
3 3. City of San José Stormwater Management Annual Report 2023-2024 - https://www.sanjoseca.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/114389/638616720190470000 16 | City of San José Consolidated Annual Homelessness Report Understanding Climate Change Impacts on Residents
ESD’s primary role is to deliver world-class utility services and programs to improve the health, environment, and economy.
ESD was one of the first agencies in the County of Santa Clara to address climate change and continues to provide expertise and coordination around mitigating climate change. Mitigation is the current directive and priority for ESD’s work to implement and facilitate the City’s climate change initiatives. However, preparing how our communities, particularly our most vulnerable communities, can adapt and be more resilient to the impacts of climate change is increasingly challenging.
The City is currently developing a climate adaptation and resiliency plan to complement the City’s existing climate action plan, Climate Smart San José. This climate adaptation and resiliency plan is expected to deepen the City’s shared understanding of the impacts on unhoused residents of global warming and extreme weather events such as the atmospheric rivers of the past couple of years as well as coordinated engagement around adaptation strategies. If resourced in future fiscal year budgets, ESD has the potential to play an important role in implementing the City’s climate adaptation and resiliency plan. ESD has the opportunity to develop a shared, One Team approach to how the City addresses homelessness with an equity lens related to climate change. In the interim, per State law, the Planning, Building, and Code Enforcement Department is leading the efforts to update the City’s General Plan to include environmental justice policies and strategies. The PBCE Department plans to bring the item to City Council for adoption by December 2025.
Opportunities to Protect and Restore
Urban Waterways
The waterways that traverse throughout the City’s urban environment are critical to the physical and mental health of the City’s community members. These urban waterways are a benefit for our communities because they provide a natural respite from the over-paved community while fostering a natural wildlife and biological habitat. In addition, the waterways connect and feed into the San Francisco Bay. It is imperative for the City to continue to invest in improving water quality which is key to the regions’ health.
There are a range of negative impacts that unsheltered homelessness has on the City’s diverse environments that must be addressed. If resourced, the City can partner with Santa Clara Valley Water who are responsible for enhancing, protecting, and restoring streams, riparian corridors, and natural resources to design and implement environmental protection and repair work which can limit negative impacts of the unhoused population on the waterways. It is anticipated that the ongoing work of clearing sensitive areas, in line with stormwater mandates, and then holding those areas clear of re-encampment will further facilitate environmental protection and repair efforts. Part of the City’s ongoing efforts include developing data sufficient to analyze ongoing progress on a citywide basis to protect these natural resources.
Fiscal Year 2023-2024 | 17
Economic Impacts
and Opportunities:
Recognizing Challenges and
Accelerating Progress
The City has a robust role in supporting a thriving community. As part of the Implementation Plan the City’s Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs is involved in or coordinates efforts for the Implementation Plan’s Pillar #1: End Suffering on the Street, Pillar #2: Share and Protect Public Spaces, and Pillar #4:
Create Opportunity.
Office of Economic Development and Cultural
Affairs Accomplishments for FY 2023-2024
Securing Land for Housing
The Real Estate Services Division of the Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs has led efforts to secure land suitable for the development of emergency housing, Safe Outdoor Sleeping (SOS) sites, and Basic Needs Sites (BNS). A ground lease on 7.2 acres of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority Cerone bus yard property will
allow for the construction of approximately 200 tiny homes, and a ground lease for the expansion of the Rue Ferrari emergency interim housing site on State-owned California Department of Transportation land will allow for the
construction of approximately 100 additional units.
Current efforts underway include a lease to allow the
construction of 100 tiny home units on Santa Clara Valley Water-owned property on Cherry Avenue in San José, and
to secure land rights sufficient to develop 500 safe outdoor sleeping spaces or other approaches to temporary housing, including potentially on Valley Water-owned property
located at the intersection of Willow Street and Lelong Street in San José and the acquisition of 1.2 acres adjacent to City-owned property located on E. Taylor Street near Highway 101.
18 | City of San José Consolidated Annual Homelessness Report Dedicated Homelessness Outreach and Support:
To support the efforts in the downtown area, the
Housing Department has focused contractual outreach
efforts with People Assisting the Homeless (PATH) to
support engagement with the unhoused community.
These efforts provide support and resources to redirect unhoused community members to opportunities that
may be available and continued engagement to reduce
the impact on the downtown core.
Implementation of the Pedestrian Facilitation Zone:
The City Council directed the Administration to increase enforcement of a portion of its existing Pedestrian
Facilitation Zone in downtown. This is an effort to
improve pedestrian circulation and encourage the use
of downtown pedestrian areas for intended purposes.
Currently, the focus of enforcement is within the
area generally bounded by Santa Clara Street and San
Fernando Street from 4th to 12th Streets with some
additional frontage on Santa Clara Street East and West of this enforcement area. Three existing signs cover
Santa Clara Street from 1st to 4th Streets. San José Police Department has been able to utilize these signs in
assisting with the implementation of enforcement and
another 20 signs would allow for full coverage of the focus area. The implementation of this effort is ongoing.
Partner Efforts in the Community:
The Social Impact Team (SIT) of the San José
Downtown Association (SJDA), funded through the
San Jose Property Based Improvement District (PBID),
has been in service since June 2023. The SIT continues
its vital work in supporting the vulnerable unsheltered population in the downtown area. Operating daily
from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, the SIT is committed to
building trust and fostering meaningful connections
with individuals experiencing homelessness. The team
works diligently to connect these individuals with
essential service providers, including City, County, and nonprofit resources.
Recently, the team has undergone training in naloxone
administration, a medication designed to rapidly reverse opioid overdoses. Twice a month, the SIT partners with
PATH to provide services within St. James Park, and
twice a week, they conduct joint outreach. The team is
well-versed in and connected to community resources
such as the Downtown Youth Wellness Center and
Santa Clara County Reentry Center, allowing them to
offer informed support to the unhoused population.
In collaboration with the Groundwerx team, the
SIT addresses community requests and concerns,
contributing to the cleanliness and safety of downtown
San José.
Upward Mobility Initiative: Advancing Equity and Long-Term Economic Stability
The Upward Mobility Initiative is dedicated to fostering equitable access to upward mobility for all individuals with a particular focus on people of color and other marginalized groups. The initiative continues to develop stronger
partnerships and collaboration, particularly with several departments within the County of Santa Clara as well as the Santa Clara County Housing Authority and communitybased organizations that support the unhoused population.
The initiative seeks to implement comprehensive strategies that not only provide immediate support but also lay the groundwork for long-term economic stability.
Sharing and Protecting Public Spaces – Key Efforts in Downtown There are several issues that impact the downtown core, which is a critical economic engine for the City and the region. The City has a combination of supportive efforts and enforcement efforts intended to increase vibrancy and help residents in need, both in and around the downtown area.
Fiscal Year 2023-2024 | 19
Creating Workforce Opportunities for Unstably Housed Youth and Adult Residents
In addition to efforts to share and protect public spaces in our downtown, the City is also working to create
more opportunities for people experiencing or at risk
of homelessness throughout the City. These efforts are
in various stages of development and seek to support
vulnerable San José residents at risk of or experiencing homelessness.
During FY 2023-2024, work2future—the City’s Workforce
Development Board—served 2,450 youth and adult clients.
Over 85% of work2future clients secured employment in
high-wage, high-growth occupations related to information technology, advanced manufacturing, health care, business and accounting, and construction and the trades. Notably, over 60% of work2future clients were unstably housed (e.g. very low-income, couch surfing, living in interim housing, etc.), and over 65% had two or more barriers to employment.
As included in the City Council approved Unhoused
Implementation Plan, work2future has launched a targeted series of pilot workforce programs to deepen its reach to support unstably housed clients with the Bill Wilson Center, San José Job Corp, and San José Conservation Corp. The
goal of these pilot programs is to engage in tightly knit partnerships that offer dual case management, leverage funds to provide a more robust package of wrap-around services (e.g. mental health, housing, food assistance), and enhance data sharing to better assess client needs and performance outcomes. In recent months, approximately 50 youth and
adult clients have been enrolled through these developing partnerships and are receiving an intensive package of
services including job readiness workshops, occupational skills training, job development, supportive services, and career counseling.
Opportunities for FY 2024-2025
During FY 2024-2025, work2future will seek to enroll a
total of 100 clients through these newly developed pilot partnerships and over the next 12 months will strive to place the majority of those served in the high-wage, high-growth occupations. Work2future will also seek to develop a pilot program with the County of Santa Clara’s Sherriff’s Office to provide workforce services to in-custody young adults.
Work2future will assess the opportunity to enroll these currently incarcerated individuals following their release to enhance the overall package of skill building and job development services.
85% of work2future
clients secured
employment in high-wage,
high-growth occupations
60% of work2future
clients were unstably
housed
65% of work2future
clients had two or more
barriers to employment
20 | City of San José Consolidated Annual Homelessness Report The information in this section was provided by key stakeholders and data managers from multiple City departments and external partners.
This data-gathering process can be cumbersome, time-consuming, and create additional work to aggregate and provide information for recurring inquiries. Transforming our approach to aggregating, coordinating, and streamlining data will dramatically improve our ability to continuously analyze which efforts are succeeding and ev meaningfully define what constitutes success. Furthermore, improving the efficiency of this data collection will aid in furthering the goals of Pillar #1: End Suffering on the Street, Pillar #2: Share and Protect Public Spaces, Pillar #3: Expect Cleanliness of Each Other, and Pillar #4: Create Opportunity, as part of the City’s Implementation Plan.
Key Initiatives for FY 2024-2025
Data and Technology:
Leveraging Information to Drive
Quality Service
Improving Homelessness-Related Data Analysis and Customer Service The fundamental reason to transform the City’s approach to data related to homelessness is to better inform the City’s decision-making and serve the public more efficiently. This applies both to unhoused residents in need of critical services such as housing and sanitation and to other members of
the public who have requests related to encampments or
other issues. Sharpening the City’s analytical capacity with improved data reliability and coordination can help identify patterns across data that are currently maintained in multiple departments and altough unintentionally, are essentially invisible to other departments.
In addition to improving the City’s analytical capabilities, better-coordinated data will also dramatically improve
the City’s ability to provide timely customer service to members of the public. Enhancements to customer service will expand once the system for coordinating and accessing data is enhanced.
Fiscal Year 2023-2024 | 21
Moving From
Siloed Data
Data Lake
Secure and
Standardized
Housing
Parks Recreation
Neighborhood
Services
PRNS 311 & ERCS
Data Lake House ITD
Permission-Based Access and Analysis
Shared Data
and Reporting
Shared Data
Analysis and
Consolidation
The Homelessness Data Consolidation Project employs a
structured three-part approach, starting with a focus on the most pressing reports needed and used by City leadership or stakeholders (i.e., our data outputs) such as this Consolidated Annual Homelessness Report. Next, we will identify the data required to produce these reports and inventory the sources of this information (i.e., key data questions and their data sources, respectively).
This approach ensures that data consolidation efforts are focused on practical, high-impact outcomes. While the
Homelessness Data Consolidation Project will start with aggregating available automated data, this project will identify difficult-to-access information, important confidentiality requirements, and non-automated reporting to better
improve data practices. The insights and methodologies
developed through this project will be shared across City departments to support citywide data governance initiatives.
Toward a Public Data Dashboard
To ensure that program and services progress and outcomes are visible and more accessible to the public, the City will be developing a simple, secure, and interactive data dashboard.
Providing this data publicly will help community members develop their understanding of the progress of prgrams, services, and special initiatives, as well as the challenges that remain. City staff are currently exploring options to develop an interactive data dashboard to provide the public, City staff, and elected officials with up-to-date information on City efforts to manage and end homelessness.
Homelessness Data Consolidation Project
The Homelessness Coordination Team in the City
Manager’s Office (CMO) and the Information Technology
Department (ITD) are collaborating on a Homelessness
Data Consolidation Project that will provide a single, secure, and standardized “Data Lake” location and a permissionbased accessible “Data Lake House” for future dashboards and reports. The Homelessness Data Consolidation Project aims to aggregate homelessness-related data from multiple City departments and external partners into a centralized platform (i.e., a “Data Lake”), improving the accuracy of reporting, policy development, and resource allocation to better address homelessness in San José. The development of the current Consolidated Annual Homelessness Report was used as an opportunity to identify data questions and data sources, to inform the iteration of developing next year’s City Data Lake House.
Future: Data Consolidation
to
Automated annual, quarterly,
monthly, weekly and ad hoc
reports
Live dashboards for the
public, elected officials, staff
and leadership
Coordinated data to inform
Housing, Public Works,
PRNS, 311, 911, ERCS, etc.
City’s
Informational
Phone Line
Housing
Department
Information Technology
Department
Encampment
Response
Coordination System
22 | City of San José Consolidated Annual Homelessness Report Other Significant
Department Roles
Energy Department
The City’s Energy Department, as administrators of San José Clean Energy (SJCE), seeks to improve energy affordability and reduce customer disconnections of electricity service. SJCE provides the clean electricity that PG&E delivers to homes and businesses over its distribution system. San José’s Energy Department has developed several programs to lower the electricity bills of the most vulnerable residents and increase access to clean energy. Through SJ Cares, San José’s lowest income households—about 21% of SJCE customers—receive a 10% discount on monthly SJCE electricity charges. In 2024, SJCE expanded SJ Cares eligibility to 16,000 affordable housing units; in total, more than 71,190 households now receive the SJ Cares 10% bill discount. More than 800 customers who qualify for this discount and live in a community with high levels of environmental pollution receive an additional 20% bill discount and 100% solar energy through SJCE’s Solar Access Program.
As the electricity distribution provider, PG&E holds responsibility for disconnecting customers for non-payment. The Energy Department tracks customer disconnections and connects
customers with resources to avoid disconnection. As part of this effort, SJCE leveraged data shared by PG&E to send advance notification, by mail and email, to customers at high risk of disconnection to ensure that those customers took advantage of the available options. In 2024, Energy Department staff implemented a pilot program with Sacred Heart Community Service and the County of Santa Clara’s Homelessness Prevention Program to provide utility assistance to households at risk of experiencing disconnection of electricity service. The pilot served 134 households, including pausing PG&E disconnection for 48 of them by paying down overdue balances. Over 80% of participating households were extremely low-income,
making less than 30% of the area median income, and nearly 70% had children. Staff are examining the data and other learnings from the pilot program to develop a larger program.
The above examples provide an expanded view of the roles that city government serve to respond to the homelessness crisis. These examples are not exhaustive, as there are efforts in many other departments. However, these examples help demonstrate the importance of the City’s One Team approach to homelessness response in San José.
Clean Energy & Homelessness
Prevention Partner with Sacred
Heart Community Services
134 households served
(48 paused disconnections)
80%+ Extremely Low
Income Households
70% Households with Children
Fiscal Year 2023-2024 | 23
Planning, Building, and Code Enforcement
Department
In June 2024, the City Council approved ordinance updates related to emergency residential shelters, which included updating the definition of emergency residential shelters to align with the State’s definition. The approved update specifies that interim interventions are considered emergency residential shelters. It also permits shelters with 150 beds or fewer by right in zoning districts that already allow for them on sites outside of the Airport Influence Area. Staff conducted outreach with unhoused shelter providers and held a virtual community meeting throughout the Spring 2024. By permitting shelters by right in these zoning districts, the City was able to meet its capacity needs for its unhoused residents and comply with the requirements of Assembly Bill 2339. Staff is working on additional updates to ensure that specific use regulations for emergency residential shelters are Housing First and low barrier to housing, and allow shelters within the Airport Influence Area to use the City’s ministerial approval process. Staff will coordinate with the Airport Land Use Commission and take the zoning code amendments to the City Council for approval before the end of the calendar year.
Abandoned Shopping Carts
Aiming to address the issue of abandoned shopping carts that contribute to the growth of encampments and increased debris and limitations of the ordinance in holding cart owners accountable, the Mayor’s March Budget Message for FY 2024-2025 directed the City Manager to engage with
large retailers under Municipal Code 9.60 to propose an expanded Abandoned Shopping Cart ordinance and increase enforcement under Municipal Code 9.60.
The City Manager’s Office and Code Enforcement Dividsion of PBCE is assessing the current program, interdepartmental related activities, State and local regulations, and programs and ordinances in other jurisdictions to develop the best policy framework possible to meet the desired objectives.
Following this, staff will seek feedback from impacted
retailers and prepare ordinance updates, develop the
appropriate fee costing approach, create an implementation plan, and engage in procurement activities, as necessary, should a contractor(s) be incorporated into the new
increased fee program.
A revised ordinance and approach to retrieval and
enforcement of abandoned shopping carts should prevent
carts from leaving store premises, improve cart owner
accountability, and reduce the overall number of carts
impacting encampments and our community.
Encampments on Private Property
In recent years, encampments on private property have
increased in number and scale. Violations due to blight, solid waste, and other hazardous conditions associated with encampments generate many challenges to property owners responsible for correcting the violations. Often, they are inexperienced or ill-equipped to provide the resources or take necessary actions to relocate/rehouse inhabitants and remove/dispose of debris especially when encampments have grown in scale and severity. Similarly, providing support and relocation options to the unhoused residents and removal and storage of personal belonging are not part of the Code Enforcement Division’s abatement scope.
In FY 2023-2024, the Code Enforcement Division began
partnering with BSJ and the Housing Department, as well as the Police and Fire Departments, when needed, to perform abatements of encampments on private property that are
posing a significant hazard and have not been addressed by the property owner in a timely manner.
Opportunities in FY 2024-2025
Moving forward into the current fiscal year, the Code
Enforcement Division also plans to develop a resource guide in coordination with partner departments for property
owners to assist them in addressing encampments on
private property when an encampment has not reached the threshold for abatement. The Code Enforcement Division
will also continue the enforcement process which in many instances has resulted in the clean-up of encampments on private property by property owners.
24 | City of San José Consolidated Annual Homelessness Report Conclusion & Next Steps
This Consolidated Annual Homelessness Report is an important step on a continuous journey to improve the City’s efforts to advance for A San José For Everyone. These coordinated efforts demonstrate a San José that is:
• Expanding efforts to increase housing and prevention efforts to help people get and remain off the street. • Protecting the natural environment while sharing the rich geographic diversity of the City’s public spaces. • Working to hold every member of our community to a standard for cleanliness and treatment of one another. • Prioritizing vibrancy and opportunities for everyone -especially the unhoused- so the entire community can thrive.
City staff will continue to work with regional partners, other cities, business and non-profit leaders, and the public to ensure accountability, strive for positive results, and continually improve as we serve the City working as One Team.
Fiscal Year 2023-2024 | 25