As San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan looks to institute a new policy that would allow police to cite and arrest homeless people who repeatedly refuse shelter, Santa Clara County leaders are pushing back, calling the proposal “ineffective and a distraction” at a time when 1,400 individuals are on the county’s shelter waiting list.
Mahan’s controversial “Responsibility to Shelter” proposal is a part of San Jose’s broader crackdown on homelessness in recent months, as the city has created towaway zones for RVs and extended the hours when homeless residents are banned from sitting or lying on downtown sidewalks.
Since the mayor assumed office in 2023, San Jose has shifted to utilizing more interim solutions in an effort to achieve “functional zero” — when the number of people exiting homelessness is more than those entering — instead of focusing on building permanent supportive housing.
Mahan’s latest proposal, which was included in his March budget message, would levy misdemeanor charges for trespassing on homeless individuals who refuse shelter or housing three times in an 18-month period.
Now, the mayor says the city has done all it can do and that Santa Clara County — the area’s social services provider — needs to step in.
“San Jose is doubling our capacity of shelter units and increasing enforcement — we need Santa Clara County to do the same,” Mahan said in a statement to Bay Area News Group. “Our county is the South Bay’s provider of health and human services and all you need to do is step outside to see the many people who need their help.”
Throughout the mayor’s 35-page budget message, he calls on the county and the state to “step up their efforts” and “appropriately share in the cost of supporting our most vulnerable residents.”
But County Executive James Williams told The Mercury News that the county has already been doing much of that work and called the mayor’s proposal to cite and arrest homeless individuals for refusing shelter “ineffective and a distraction.”
“I would invite the mayor to come sit down and understand just how extraordinarily greater the county’s investment in these services are,” Williams said. “We would welcome the city coming to the table and bringing real resources. This is really critical right now because unlike the city, the county is facing truly extraordinary federal impacts that could have crippling effects on these very populations that are dependent on these safety net social services, health care services like Medi-Cal and behavioral health services.”
Santa Clara County Supervisor Otto Lee, who serves as the board’s president, echoed Williams’ sentiments. In a statement, he said that “it’s inhumane to criminalize people for living outdoors. There is some serious misunderstanding of what rejecting housing means. Failure to return calls to housing service providers does not automatically mean the individuals reject housing.”
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During the 2024-25 fiscal year, Santa Clara County invested $90 million in San Jose to tackle homelessness. Two-thirds of the county’s funding for shelters serve San Jose.
The county has also been working to expand access to behavioral health treatment beds with the goal of adding 530 beds by 2030, and has applied for $114 million in Proposition 1 funding for mental health treatment facilities — two of which would be in San Jose. Proposition 1 is a 2024 state ballot measure approved by voters that aims to help local jurisdictions increase treatment beds and housing for homeless residents.
Santa Clara County Supervisor Susan Ellenberg said in an interview that she’s “proud of what the county is doing.”
“We are investing massively in homelessness prevention, in shelters as well as permanent housing and mental health services and substance use disorder services,” she said. “I think if you actually look at our data, you’d be pretty hard pressed to be too deeply critical. Obviously, there is always space to do more and we will continue to do more, but our investment is significant.”
The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, for its part, said they don’t expect the proposed policy to have any impact on the jails.
“We are not able to hold anyone in our facilities unless they’ve committed a serious criminal offense under the law,” spokesperson Brooks Jarosz said in an email. “Most likely, this would result in a citation and a release from custody.”
When asked whether Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen would press charges against the individuals cited or arrested, spokesperson Sean Webby said that they “look forward to hearing more specifics about the mayor’s proposal, and whether it would involve a municipal code that city attorneys would prosecute or something else.”
Mahan told the Mercury News that Californians have “demanded action again and again” through several recent state initiatives, including Proposition 1, Proposition 36 — which could force repeat drug offenders into treatment — and CARE Court. The latter is a state-mandated mental health court that is currently being rolled out by counties with the goal of getting people with severe psychiatric disorders into treatment and housing.
The state initiatives largely fall under the jurisdiction of the county. Williams said that while the county is “committed to their effective implementation,” it’s important to “actually understand what these things are and what they aren’t.”
In the case of CARE Court, Williams said “it’s not some large vehicle or venue to sweep folks off the street, these are very targeted interventions.”
Mahan’s proposal to cite or arrest homeless residents mimics similar policies recently passed by other Bay Area jurisdictions.
Last January, San Mateo County enacted a law that homeless residents camped in unincorporated areas of the county who refuse shelter twice and have received two written warnings could face misdemeanor charges. County spokesperson Marshall Wilson said that the county has not issued any citations under the law since it went into effect in early 2024.
Jennifer Loving, the CEO of the nonprofit Destination: Home, said that Mahan’s proposal is a “really good example of politics over policy.” She believes it will only lead to more failure in the region’s ability to address homelessness as the South Bay struggles to meet the need for both housing and services. In 2023, for every household that found housing, another 1.7 became homeless, according to Santa Clara County.
“Our continuum of care has not had a problem filling units,” Loving said. “We have a problem with the lack of housing options for people. That is every day the number one, number two, number three, number four, number five biggest problem. And when we make it about other things, it’s not going to solve the actual crisis.”