San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan faced criticism for proposing a significant shift in the city's budget regarding homelessness funding. The 2025-26 budget suggests an increase in funding for temporary homeless shelters to 90%, up from only 15% allocated by previous city policy for such initiatives. Housing advocates argue that this undermines efforts to create permanent affordable housing, which was originally supported by Measure E. Protests occurred outside City Hall as advocates voiced their concerns about the approach to addressing homelessness, emphasizing the need for more permanent housing solutions instead of temporary measures.
Today was just a public hearing for us to hear from the community. I know some of you were with us last night for our budget study session. We will continue our budget town halls and study sessions along the way, with more opportunities to clarify some of these proposals and continue to hear from the public.
San Jose's largest source of ongoing funding for affordable housing is being used for shelters and homelessness response. The smarter solution is affordable housing.
If approved during the upcoming June budget discussions, Measure E funding for temporary shelter over permanent housing will increase from $7.8 million to $47 million for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
Housing advocates opposed to Mayor Matt Mahan's plan to arrest or hospitalize homeless people for refusing offers of shelter protested outside City Hall on Tuesday.
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