A Message from Mayor Matt
- Support increased interim housing and supportive services
- Advocate for statewide legislation funding shelter services
- Demand mandated in-patient treatment for repeat offenders
- Oppose neglect of unsheltered homeless and inadequate criminal justice follow-through
- 2025 Point-in-Time homeless count
- state bills requiring county funding for shelter services
- expansion of interim housing beds
- mandated in-patient treatment for repeat offenders
- upcoming opportunities to advocate with County officials
- community calls to action for state and county representatives
Long Story Short... Here’s what you need to know this week — in 30 seconds or less: - Fewer tents, more beds — San José has reduced unsheltered homelessness by nearly 23% in recent years, defying state & county trends. - Community members are outraged, as am I — we’ve lost a beloved small business owner to arson and the suspect is all-too-well known by our criminal justice system. - New leadership coming to our animal shelter — stronger oversight, better care ahead. - Business is booming: three ribbon cuttings in two days! Keep scrolling for all the data and details. Dear Neighbor, Our latest point-in-time (PIT) homeless count makes clear that San Jose’s approach to ending the era of encampments is working. This year’s count shows that the number of unsheltered residents in San José has dropped by nearly 23% , from over 5,100 people living outdoors in 2019 to fewer than 4,000 in 2025. This stands in contrast with statewide and countywide trends, where unsheltered homelessness has continued to rise or remain flat. I’ve argued that we need to focus our dollars on the most inhumane and socially destructive form of homelessness – unsheltered homelessness. Prioritizing those who are living in dangerous and inhumane conditions on our streets provides stability and services earlier, saves lives, and reduces impacts on the broader community. I think about it like this: When a ship is sinking, you don’t start building a brand new ship — first you get the passengers into lifeboats. People are drowning outside everyday – in addiction, in hopelessness, in unsafe conditions. Shelter is the lifeboat that will save them today. When people are living in our interim housing communities, they technically are still considered homeless in our official statistics. But living indoors with three meals a day, on-site security, a private bathroom, and case management that connects you to other social services, including job training and counseling, is a far cry from living in a tent down by the river. We make your life better and we improve the quality of life for everyone in our community. So while the number of individuals “experiencing homelessness” in San Jose is roughly flat in recent years (around 6,500 people), the proportion who are living indoors has grown 160% from just 980 people in 2019 to 2,544 today. In percentage terms, San Jose’s sheltered rate has climbed from just 16% of the total homeless population in 2019 to nearly 40% in 2025, meaning almost four in ten homeless residents now live indoors, connected to services . This marks the highest sheltered rate San José has achieved in well over a decade, exceeding Santa Clara County’s sheltered rate of 30% (or 16.5% excluding the city of San Jose) and California’s statewide average of 34%. These numbers do not include most of the additional 1,000-plus beds that we will bring online by the end of this year, which will bring us to over 50% of our homeless neighbors living indoors, not on our streets and in our creeks. These results demonstrate that when a city focuses investments on safe alternatives to the streets — from quick-build interim housing to safe parking sites — it works. Moving someone indoors is not the end of our effort to help them turn around their lives. We continue to invest in services to help every person in our interim housing and shelter system progress to greater levels of self-sufficiency. But it’s also worth noting that sheltered homelessness is not unique to San Jose – cities around the country experience similar rates of homelessness per capita. What has been unique to San Jose and other primarily West Coast cities is our high rate of unsheltered homelessness . While cities like New York and Boston have historically achieved greater than 90% sheltered rates for roughly the same number of homeless individuals per capita as we have in San Jose, we’ve been below 30% sheltered for years. This is a solvable problem and we’re proving it in San Jose. At the same time, we can’t solve it alone. It’s not enough for big cities to lean in – it must be the responsibility of every community if we are going to end the era of encampments, which is why I’ve been working with Senator Catherine Blakespear and Senator Josh Becker on new statewide legislation that would require California counties to fund supportive services at city-run interim housing and shelters, and help other jurisdictions develop concrete plans to reach functional zero unsheltered homelessness, modeled after San José’s approach. These bills have faced pushback at every turn, with some of our state leaders unwilling to acknowledge the critical role of interim solutions. The PIT Count may not be a perfectly precise tool, but the trendlines are clear: investing in interim solutions works and we need everyone to do their fair share by embracing these solutions and moving people indoors faster. Leaving people to suffer in unsafe, unsheltered conditions isn’t compassionate or progressive; it’s neglect. The right thing to do — morally, fiscally, and environmentally — is to bring people indoors immediately, connect them to services, and end the era of encampments once and for all. If you want to help, please tell your state and county representatives that you want to see an end to unsheltered homelessness today, not decades from now! Sincerely, Mayor Matt Far too often, members of our community are harassed and even assaulted by individuals who should be in treatment, not on our streets or in city shelters. This week, the unthinkable happened. Chris Tran, owner of a small branding and apparel business in San Jose, was killed by an act of arson that should never have happened. This suspect is well known to our police officers. To our District Attorneys. To our judges. We’re enforcing our laws in San Jose, but when it comes to drugs and mental illness, our criminal justice partners in the rest of the system far too often simply return people to the streets without adequate intervention and treatment. Our community is outraged. I’m outraged. This is what is at stake when we don’t build enough interim housing early enough, enough treatment beds for mental illness and addiction, and when our criminal justice system fails to follow through by mandating in-patient treatment for repeat offenders who’ve seen the inside of a courtroom multiple times due to mental illness. My heart breaks for Chris and his family. They deserved better. We all do. And what keeps me up at night is that until our County and State get serious about funding interim solutions to get people off the streets faster and mandated in-patient treatment for repeat criminal offenders, we will undoubtedly witness more tragedies like the one that took Chris’ life. In the hope that this tragedy will be a catalyst for the change we need, I want to share some upcoming opportunities to make your voice heard by demanding that our County prioritize addressing repeat offenders and, in particular, expand in-patient treatment beds for those suffering from serious addiction and mental illness. No one should be returned to the streets with mental illness after multiple arrests, and only the County–between the Supervisors, the DA, and Judges–has the legal authority and tools to properly intervene in these cases. Over the next couple of weeks Santa Clara County’s Behavioral Health Services Department will host a series of virtual and in-person town halls to help inform how they spend millions of dollars in Behavioral Health Services Act (BHSA) funds. You can help make sure those dollars go where they’re needed most: in-patient and residential treatment, including secure treatment facilities, for repeat offenders and others suffering from serious addiction and mental illness, and behavioral health services for our interim housing communities, which help prevent chronic homelessness and mental illness. The BHSA requires counties to dedicate at least 30% of funds to solutions that help house people with serious behavioral health needs. But counties can seek State approval to reduce the housing component to as low as 16%. Conversely, they can also increase it up to 44%. It’s up to us to demand these funds are invested in bold, effective solutions that bring people indoors and get them the care they need. What to advocate for: - At a minimum, protect the 30% set aside for housing solutions, and consider increasing the 30% set aside up to 44%. - Use BHSA dollars to provide robust behavioral health services at interim and transitional housing communities that are keeping people off the streets. - Prioritize in-patient treatment, including secure treatment options, for people who are repeat criminal offenders, homeless individuals who are service resistant, and individuals who pose the greatest risk to the community due to mental illness. You can register for these town halls at the Eventbrite links below: Virtual Town Halls : - Monday, July 21st, 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. - Wednesday, July 23rd, 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. - Wednesday, July 30th, 9:30-11:30 a.m. - Saturday, August 2nd, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. In-Person Town Halls : - Saturday, July 26th, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. in North county (Location TBD) - Saturday, July 26th, 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. in South County at Community Solutions, 9015 Murray Ave, Suite 100, Gilroy, CA 95020 It’s time to take a stand for Chris’ family, and the countless other families affected by untreated mental health conditions and addiction on our streets. I know I will. I don’t always get the opportunity to celebrate with our incredible local entrepreneurs, but with Council out of session in July and a little more time in the schedule it’s been a blast to attend three impressive business openings over the past two days. From the latest AI company relocating to San Jose to my favorite coffee shop reopening, there’s a lot of energy and growth to celebrate in our local economy! Astera Labs On Friday, we welcomed Astera Labs to their new global headquarters here in San Jose. Equipped with state-of-the-art R&D labs, this will be home for up to 900 new employees who represent the best of Silicon Valley: bold innovators who are improving data center infrastructure and performance, and a firm belief in the power of technology to improve lives. There’s no better place to hire technical talent, test new ideas, and lead the AI revolution than San Jose, and we’re incredibly proud to be the Astera Labs’ homebase! Voyager Craft Coffee My go-to coffee shop has a new location in the San Pedro Square neighborhood! Lauren’s and Sam’s journey founding Voyager has taken them from a humble coffee trailer to one of San Jose’s most celebrated local companies. But Voyager is a lot more than a coffee shop – it is a local business that connects people and builds community. MiGi Cera Candles Just a year ago, we joined Marcelina on the Paseo de San Antonio when she launched her small business concept in a shared space with two other entrepreneurs. Her experiment was powered by Moment, a small business pop-up accelerator, that has partnered with the City and the Downtown Association. This small, short-term pop-up locations give small business owners a chance to grow in a brick-and-mortar space with lower startup costs and risks. And, for Marcelina, the experiment has gone well. On Friday, we celebrated MiGi Cera Candles graduating into its very own space, also at San Pedro Square. It’s a dream come true for many of our business owners to have their own shop, and I can tell you, it’s a dream come true for me and all of us at City Hall when small business owners achieve that milestone, which means more jobs for residents and more vibrancy for everyone. Loving our city — and the work we do — means not being afraid to acknowledge when something isn’t working and try new approaches. That’s why in my time as Mayor my team and I have led budget processes that have nearly doubled our annual investment in San Jose Animal Care and Services (SJACS), called for an audit of operations last year when we weren’t seeing enough progress, and continued to regularly check in with our City Manager on the implementation of the recommendations. My most recent budget message once again highlighted the need for improvement and directed city staff to expand free and low-cost spay and neuter services, return Trap/Neuter/Release (TNR) services to five days per week for our hard-working volunteers, and continue to invest in implementing all of the audit recommendations. And while we’ve made progress, I’m not satisfied with where we are today – and I know you aren’t either. Now, we have a unique opportunity for fresh leadership: I’m excited to share that we’re hiring for a new Deputy Public Works Director to oversee SJACS. This person will plan, organize, and oversee the management, administration, operations, and maintenance of SJACS — including staff, facilities, equipment, budget, policies, and procedures. They’ll manage day-to-day operations, and my hope is they’ll bring new energy and strong oversight to a shelter already filled with dedicated staff and volunteers who work every day to care for our furry friends. If you’re interested in applying, or know someone who might be, please click here to learn more. Applications close on August 1. Santa Clara County Fair 2025 Wednesday, July 30th to Sunday, August 3rd Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, 344 Tully Road, San Jose, CA 95111 Mark your calendars — the Santa Clara County Fair is back! Bring your friends and family and enjoy exciting carnival rides, games for all ages, dozens of food vendors, and more. Learn more and buy your tickets here . Starlight Sundays: A Minecraft Movie Sunday, July 27th at 5:30 PM St. James Park, N 2nd St &, E St James St, San Jose, CA 95112 Stop by St. James Park for Starlight Sunday, an evening of live entertainment, outdoor movie, and family fun! Bring your lawn chairs, enjoy live music, savor the beer garden, grab a bite, and stay for the movie. Buy your tickets here. Discovery Meadow Park Beautification Saturday, August 2nd at 9:00 AM 180 Woz Way, San Jose, CA 95110 We’re beautifying every corner of San Jose — but we need your help to do it! Join neighbors from across the city to beautifying Discovery Meadow park, and shining a light on our Children's Discovery Museum. Learn more and RSVP here . Head Over Heels Thursday, July 17th to Sunday, August 24th City Lights Theater, 529 S. Second Street, San Jose, CA 95112 This laugh-out-loud love story is set to the infectious music of the iconic ’80s all-female rock band The Go-Go’s, featuring hit songs including “Vacation” and “Our Lips Are Sealed.” Grab your tickets here. 35th Annual San Jose Jazz Summer Fest Friday, August 8th - Sunday, August 10th Downtown San Jose Tickets are going fast for one of San Jose’s most unique and enjoyable weekends of the year. Jazzfest brings world-class musicians from around the world and an unbeatable summer experience to our downtown. Check out this year’s lineup , make plans with your friends, and buy your tickets today. I’ll see you there! Nice job SJPD! Our brave officers are tackling the tough cases, going straight to the source of criminal activity, and, in this case, taking ghost guns out of our community even before they hit the streets. Hint hint — it’s San Jose! We’re on the rise and our Downtown is starting to show it. But our goal isn’t to get back to pre-pandemic levels, it’s to get even better. Kicking off the weekend the right way — clearing weeds with Councilmember Mulcahy, the Glenside Riviera Neighborhood and neighbors from across the city. Thanks to everyone who came out, pitched in, and made our community cleaner. Join us next time: bit.ly/cleansj Visit our Website! Copyright © 2025 Office Of San José Mayor Matt Mahan, All rights reserved. | 200 E Santa Clara St # 18 | San José, CA 95113-1903 US | Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice