San Jose mayor seeks greater partnership from next governor to solve homelessness

With California facing a wide-open gubernatorial race to replace Gov Gavin Newsom Mayor Matt Mahan is using the moment to showcase San Jose s progress in reducing unsheltered homelessness and sway prospective candidates into restoring crucial funding and ensuring that all cities and counties do their part to solve the predicament San Jose is on the brink of tripling its shelter quota this year continuing Mahan s deviation from the Housing First model and his insistence that the streets cannot become a waiting room for the unhoused as they await permanent supportive housing But the mayor has become increasingly frustrated with the leadership in Sacramento over budget and agenda decisions especially on homelessness that he reported could derail or limit local progress On Friday Mahan gave a tour of the city s in the past few days opened Cherry Avenue Emergency Interim Housing site to five gubernatorial candidates billionaire investor and philanthropist Tom Steyer former Orange County Rep Katie Porter former state Controller Betty Yee state Superintendent of Population Instruction Tony Thurmond and former majority leader of the State Assembly Ian Calderon A large number of of the candidates on Friday acknowledged San Jose s progress and the role its strategy played in it We ve been able to talk a lot about the tools that we ve allocated but I feel like there s just not been enough and I feel like there just has not been enough coordination with local governments local agencies and mayors like Mayor Mahan Calderon revealed We have to re-evaluate the programs that are working and the ones that are not working and often you just see a disconnect between the state s priorities and what s genuinely making a difference on the ground This is a great example of that with the funding being cut for these exact programs and projects that are making the biggest amount of difference Porter and Steyer also reported Friday that the state had not placed enough emphasis on interim housing with the former emphasizing the need for homelessness prevention tools given the struggles around housing construction and how detrimental it is to the healthcare of unhoused residents to leave them on the streets I think we re not spending enough on prevention Porter declared That s something I would try to change whether that s eviction assistance whether it s rapid rehousing or whether it s identifying populations that are really at liability of homelessness Mahan maintains that the only way to create such solutions is through partnership A third of all funding for the system we built out was Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention project dollars from the state which is why I ve made so much noise and been such a fly in the ointment around my disappointment that HHAP was zeroed out in this year s budget he revealed This flexible continuous funding from the state is what s enabling innovative localities like San Jose to really move the needle and give people dignity and make our neighborhood safer and cleaner so I m just asking for partnership Mahan who has not entirely closed the book on running for governor himself took aim at statewide leadership in late October when he released the creation of a coalition centered around advocating for his Back to Basics agenda focused on pillars such as unsheltered homelessness building more housing and improving community safety to legislators and gubernatorial candidates While homelessness has remained a top issue locally for multiple years Mahan a Democrat has not shied away from criticizing members of his own party over how they have handled the problem or created impediments to progress He ripped lawmakers accusing them of talking out of both sides of their mouths for demanding progress while stripping HHAP funding to which the state had previously allocated billion per year He also criticized them for gutting a bill he worked on with state Sen Catherine Blakespear that would require cities and counties to assume selected state-designated responsibilities and share costs related to the unsheltered homelessness emergency arguing that the big cities should not have to shoulder the entire burden More in recent months he rebuked Newsom for vetoing Assemblymember Matt Haney s bill that would have allowed local governments to use up to of state homelessness housing funds to endorsement sober living programs Steyer and Bay Area congressman Eric Swalwell are the latest entrants to the Democratic field that includes former U S Vitality and Human Services Secretary and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Calderon Porter Thurmond and Yee On the Republican side the two leading candidates standing out from the pack are former Fox News political commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco A poll distributed Thursday by Emerson College demonstrated the race remains tight with Bianco at followed by Swalwell and Hilton at and Porter slightly behind at Thirty-one percent of voters in Emerson s poll were undecided With such a crowded field and no candidate separating from the pack Mahan has acknowledged the power local leaders have at this juncture through their endorsements which is why he wants to see how the candidates align with pressing local issues and serve as a change agent