For almost 17 years, Carol Rogers struggled with homelessness, stretching from her time in New York to now in San Jose.
However final month, that each one modified when she landed a spot on the newly opened 6.3-acre protected parking web site at 1300 Berryessa Highway, marking a brand new starting for the 57-year-old. Finally, she might discover a everlasting house and switch the web page on her previous.
“I just feel so privileged to be here because (it is) one step closer to my goal to get housing,” Rogers stated. “This is the first place that had done anything to help me to get into housing (and) now that I had the encouragement and support from the community, the people who work here, the mayor’s office (and) everybody (else), I’m going to reach that goal. Next time you see me, I’m going to be in my own apartment.”
The Berryessa protected parking location is one among many interim or supportive housing websites San Jose has opened or is constructing over the subsequent yr in its quest to make significant progress in stemming the homelessness disaster.
Whereas officers estimate that San Jose has an unsheltered homeless inhabitants of round 5,500, the town will add greater than 1,000 areas within the type of protected parking and protected sleeping websites, tiny houses and lodge and motel conversions this yr alone.
San Jose’s protected parking web site at 1300 Berryessa Highway is stuffed to capability on April 10, 2025. (Devan Patel/Bay Space Information Group)
Outsized and lived-in autos even have introduced a public security and well being problem, with a listing accomplished by the town estimating a minimum of 2,400 autos clogging San Jose streets.
Though the town initially thought the Berryessa web site would price round $16 million, the location’s prices got here down nearer to $10 million. The town awarded a $2.8 million contract to Palo Alto-based homeless supplier WeHOPE to function the location.
“When we look at homelessness, some people like to try to push it to the side,” stated Pastor Paul Bains, president and founding father of WeHOPE. “Some people don’t like to see it whatsoever, but these are people just like you and me who have gone through some type of traumatic experience in their life, and they want to do better. A lot of times, they like to classify our unhoused brothers and sisters in a category, but that’s not who everyone is, and we have to look at that, we have to solve it (and) we have to do it in a very humane way.”
District 4 Councilmember David Cohen, who represents the encompassing areas, touted the optimistic impacts of constructing protected parking websites.
Cohen recalled organising a short lived protected parking web site when he first got here into workplace after a problem arose with RVs round an Apple-owned property in North San Jose. Though the location confronted resistance from the group, Cohen stated it was clear the town wanted much more as a result of it helped those that used the location discover stability and transfer on to different housing.
He famous that the Berryessa web site has already helped two residents discover higher dwelling conditions within the first month of operations.
“We know that over 60% of the folks who live here now have jobs, and they’re leaving the site, going to their jobs and coming back, so people are stabilizing their lives, getting back on their feet and are getting the services they need to make sure that they have a better life,” Cohen stated.
Homeless advocates additionally have been impressed with the Berryessa web site and lauded WeHOPE for serving to residents get well.
“The first time I went there, I was so blown away with how beautiful and spacious it was,” advocate Gail Osmer stated. “The respect they’ve shown to the unhoused is something I’ve never seen before.”
(From left to proper) Pastor Paul Bains, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, District 4 Metropolis Councilmember David Cohen and Metropolis Supervisor Jennifer Maguire plant seeds locally backyard on the metropolis’s latest protected parking web site at 1300 Berryessa Highway on April 10, 2025. (Devan Patel/Bay Space Information Group)
However whereas metropolis leaders took a celebratory lap across the opening of the Berryessa web site Thursday, they acknowledged extra work have to be completed, saying that whereas the interim options are supposed to assist extra residents into everlasting housing, the town nonetheless must construct extra.
“We know that we will need hundreds of additional placements if we’re going to actually, in a reasonable timeline, start to bring down the number of RVs on our streets, so that it really has a positive impact for all of our neighborhoods,” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan stated. “We are looking at additional sites. There may be opportunities in some of our interim solutions to use the available parking on site, not just to have people in a unit but also potentially do some safe parking on site.”
Mahan, who frolicked in Sacramento earlier this week to champion a invoice requiring counties to cowl half the working prices of city-built shelters, as soon as once more referred to as on Santa Clara County, the state and neighboring cities to undertake the identical stage of urgency to get individuals off the streets.
“In our view, the city is very well equipped to manage property, to maintain it, to provide security, to pay for utilities, to provide food, but when we get into case management, counseling and other supportive services, we really need our partners at the county to meet us halfway and help with the operating costs on site,” Mahan stated. “If we can get the county to take on half of the operating costs on site, we can build twice as many of these because we can afford to operate them.”
