San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan's budget plan aims to tackle homelessness by reallocating Measure E funding toward temporary shelters and encampment services, but critics argue it overlooks the need for affordable housing and criminalizes those without homes. The plan requires individuals to move into temporary housing or face arrest, raising concerns among advocates about the effectiveness of criminalization. With the city housing 6,340 unhoused individuals but needing more beds, protesters claimed the budget plan lacks substance, prioritizing public perception over addressing systemic issues in homelessness.
"Jail is a pathway to the streets," Tristia Bauman, directing attorney of housing for the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, said at the protest. "The criminal legal system has never solved homelessness. The data shows that ... it's proven to be failed system."
"The mayor's budget plan is long on public relations and short on substance," Sandy Perry, board vice president of South Bay Community Land Trust, told San José Spotlight. "It distracts people from the fact that, even after the current units in production are completed, the city will still have no shelter beds available for 3,064 of its unhoused residents."
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