The City Council voted Tuesday to build 400 more emergency interim housing units, buy Arena Hotel with state funds and finance 561 new affordable housing units.

The first count of unsheltered people in three years showed that the overall number of homeless individuals had increased by 3% in Santa Clara County (to 10,028) and increased by 11% (to 6,739) in the city limits of San José.

A new poll finds that crime and homelessness are key issues for California voters and that Gov. Newsom’s approval rating has dropped.

Thousands of housing units previously approved by the 2016 $950 million Housing Bond are still not built.

In his annual State of the City report, Mayor Sam Liccardo said that in 2021, the city suffered through 'the loss of loved ones to a lingering pandemic, the horrors of mass shootings, the sight of encampments and shuttered storefronts, and the struggles of too many families unable to pay rent.'

At San Jose State University, roughly 13 percent or more than 4,000 students experience homelessness within a year, according to a 2019 California State University report.

Four out of five people responding to the latest San Jose Inside Power Poll who say they have considered leaving Bay Area say housing and homelessness are the issues prompting them to move elsewhere.

San Jose Inside Power Poll Panelists also support mayor’s proposal to combat homelessness and favor stronger regulations to combat Covid-19.

She joins three current San Jose City Councilors in the race: Willow Glen’s Dev Davis, Almaden Valley representative Matt Mahan and Raul Peralez in Downtown.

The interim housing units for unsheltered people would be built out of converted shipping containers that are about 40 square feet in size. Each unit costs between $50,00 to $200,000 per unit and can take less than six months to complete. 

Ray Wang sarcastically compared the suggestion to follow California state housing laws to democratic elections in "the Soviet Union."

The City of San José said it will leverage federal emergency housing vouchers, HOME funding, and County Measure A funds to deliver 1,134 re-housing units, 683 bridge transitional units, and 861 newly-built permanent homes over the next year. 

In April, the coalition of mayors of the state’s 13 largest cities, led by San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, asked for a $20 billion, five-year investment to curb homelessness—half of the state's surplus.

Over the last few years—and especially during the Covid-19 pandemic—Santa Clara County's Coyote Creek watershed has become an inflection point for how the South Bay must address issues surrounding its homelessness crisis and the environmental impact of creekside encampments.

The council's report says the money to end homelessness could come from local, regional, and state sources, including a voter-approved measure that could raise $10 billion.

The mayors want $4 billion per-year for five years in flexible funding as part of the state budget.