Tamiko Rast and her household know all too effectively the hazards of leaving homeless residents combating dependancy or psychological well being points on the streets with out therapy. She’s skilled the horrors firsthand.
Greater than a decade in the past, the Japantown Enterprise Affiliation president and her husband stopped the tried rape of a jogger by an unhoused man with schizophrenia. Six years in the past, one other homeless man with schizophrenia struck her father within the face with a metallic curtain rod after being requested to not urinate in entrance of youngsters. Her brother additionally was bitten and had his glasses shattered when he tried to cease a person on medicine from breaking home windows of their neighborhood.
Rast typically encounters an unhoused girl who has assaulted her, overtly does medicine and is accountable for at the very least three fires within the space.
For her and numerous different enterprise house owners and neighborhood leaders, these incidents are the implications of the established order, which is why they’re rallying help for Mayor Matt Mahan’s controversial proposal to quote or arrest homeless residents who repeatedly flip down accessible shelter.
“These near-weekly experiences have deeply affected us emotionally and financially (and) we are exhausted and we are afraid for our safety,” Rast stated. “As someone who is fifth-generation Japantown, and whose grandparents returned to San Jose after World War II incarceration camps, I struggle with the decision to stay here. Let me be clear: we do not believe that all unhoused people are dangerous on drugs or mentally ill. But we do believe the people who need help the most are often the least likely to accept it.”
Subsequent week, the Metropolis Council will vote on the Accountability to Shelter proposal, which seeks to include the expectation of accepting shelter into the town’s code of conduct for encampments.
Months in the past, when Mahan first unveiled the controversial coverage, the concept was to amend the municipal code to permit the town to arrest or cite unhoused residents for trespassing in the event that they refused accessible shelter three or extra occasions over 18 months.
Mahan’s coverage proposal has been met with backlash from Santa Clara County leaders, who stated it might end in “unnecessary and ineffective bookings” and divert already stretched public security assets.
Noting that trespassing doesn’t result in incarceration, Mahan scoffed at detractors of the coverage, and stated the general aim was to petition behavioral well being courts to behave when residents affected by psychological well being or dependancy points flip down companies.
“We have a chance to use a brief, targeted interaction with our justice system to intervene before people fall into chronic homelessness, and give them the opportunity to find appropriate services and turn their lives around,” Mahan stated. “We have a chance to stop giving up on people.”
Whereas the spirit of the coverage stays intact, Mahan acknowledged the necessity for discretion when figuring out whether or not a case must be escalated for additional intervention, together with when the one accessible shelter is probably not applicable for the scenario.
To higher implement the coverage, the town additionally plans to carry outreach companies in-house to achieve a greater understanding of what’s being provided and the way unhoused residents are responding. It additionally plans to divert current police assets to create a small, new Neighborhood High quality of Life Unit, which can be charged with imposing the shelter coverage when outreach efforts have utterly failed.
“We cannot expect to adequately treat mental illness, addiction or unemployment effectively if someone is living outdoors,” Vice Mayor Pam Foley stated. “Stable shelter, whether through interim housing, safe parking, or safe sleeping sites, not only connects people with critical services and job training, but ultimately paves the way toward permanent housing. And let’s be clear, when we invest in ending unsheltered homelessness, we are also reducing emergency responses, fire calls, police incidents, and emergency room visits, which cost far more than proactive investment in shelter and services.”
Whereas county leaders warned that the proposal might stretch public security assets, the town’s police and hearth unions have come out in help.
“It’s gut-wrenching to see a family that’s living outdoors,” stated Jerry Might, president of San Jose Firefighters Native 230. “It’s gut-wrenching to deal with chronic issues, with people dealing with mental health issues that they’re not getting help with, or that they’re not getting the proper support that they need. When we deal with thousands of fires a year outdoors because people are not living in proper conditions, it impacts us and it impacts our community because we’re not able to meet all of our response times.”
Final month, the town unveiled a brand new dashboard to trace the variety of police requires unhoused residents.
Between January 2023 and April 2025, the police obtained 44,593 calls, accounting for six.93% of the citywide complete. Nevertheless, in 2024 and 2025, unhoused calls now account for a barely better portion of service requests.
“This is not about criminalizing homelessness,” stated Steve Slack, president of the San Jose Police Officers’ Affiliation. “This is about using the behavioral health court system with a special team trained in dealing with these individuals and to get them the help that they need.”
Close to her residence, Rast stated she usually encounters a senior man named Craig, who camps on the sidewalks surrounded by rotting meals, trash, feces and urine, attracting roaches and rats. Regardless of makes an attempt to attach him with the VA and Catholic Charities, Craig refused and his situation deteriorated to the purpose the place he had bloody sores on his legs, and lice.
With out a requirement to simply accept assist, Rast stated she fears extra individuals like Craig will languish on the streets.
Whereas residents and enterprise house owners acknowledged the hardships confronted by individuals experiencing homelessness, they stated the established order was not serving anybody.
Alum Rock resident Michelle Martinez pointed to a latest incident the place her 15-year-old son was assaulted by an unhoused man who was again of their group inside 24 hours of his arrest.
“The system is failing us all,” Martinez stated. “I know that it failed my son, and it’s going to keep failing us if we don’t demand better.”
