SAN JOSE -- After being hammered by a storm of public pressure including threats of a civil grand jury complaint, Councilman Tam Nguyen has reversed his support of a homeless housing project on Senter Road.
Nguyen, who in January supported rezoning the land for a transitional housing community, said Friday the project doesn't have enough safeguards and neighbors weren't engaged. Now, he wants the city to treat homeless housing like medical marijuana dispensaries -- keep them away from schools, churches and liquor stores. San Jose's pot ordinance limits collectives to 1 percent of the city, mostly industrial sites.
Coincidentally, Nguyen's district has the most medical cannabis shops.
The proposed development, called the Renascent Place, is a 162-unit complex for chronically homeless individuals. It would be built on county-owned land at 2500 Senter Road that's inside city limits. Santa Clara County teamed up with Charities Housing, a nonprofit housing developer, to propose the project.
A team of eight to 12 employees would provide supportive services on site and the facility would have 24-hour security, according to planning documents. The lease would be for 85 years. The city's Planning Commission in April unanimously approved the project permit, but a group of neighbors appealed. The City Council on Tuesday will consider whether to deny the appeal.
Nguyen thinks the city should uphold the appeal. But Mayor Sam Liccardo, Councilmen Charles "Chappie" Jones and Johnny Khamis support the project, while calling for a plan to increase community engagement. Nguyen criticized the project managers for a lack of outreach and not having a "safety plan" to protect residents. Though Nguyen's January memo supporting the land-use change cited on-site managers and 24/7 security as important safety tools, he now says that's not enough.
"The way they are doing it does not provide a safe environment for the homeless or the neighborhood," Nguyen said. "They did not consider other criteria like crime activity and dumping." City housing officials counter by saying having "more eyes on the street" will actually deter crime and improve safety in the neighborhood.
"We know that activation of sites and providing more eyes can make the neighborhood safer," said Ray Bramson, San Jose's homeless response manager. "The potential of the project is not only benefitting the residents that are living there but improving the entire area."
Nguyen said public pressure didn't factor into his decision to oppose the project, but emails show a group of residents threatening to file a civil grand jury complaint against the councilman unless he met with them.
The threat came from Delbert Ng, a retired electrical engineer who lives on Albany Circle, not far from the project's property line.
"The main concern is the size of the project and high concentration of the most problematic chronic homeless," Ng said. "These are severely mentally ill and drug and alcohol addicted individuals. And it's not a lockdown facility, so they can come out into the community."
Patricia Ramos-Anderson, who doesn't live near the site but said her parents own property there, said the community wasn't informed about the new development. But city records show there were at least five community meetings with more than 100 attendees.
Homeless advocate Jennifer Loving, who directs the nonprofit Destination: Home, says building more homeless housing is the only solution to end homelessness.
"People are speaking out against things that haven't even happened yet," Loving said. "We need to do projects if we want to end homelessness. The council asks for solutions and we deliver responses to end homelessness and people don't like them. But the projects that are being proposed are good, solid projects."
Nguyen, who just returned from a trip to Portland where he slept in an outdoor tent city, says that experience taught him the importance of keeping homeless housing projects away from neighbors.
"The neighbors want to protect the value of their property -- that's natural," Nguyen said.
But Bramson said the focus should be to transition people back into the community. Affordable housing needs to be near transit and services to be successful, he added.
"Residents are less likely to have vehicles and need to be in places to access what they need for everyday life -- things like shopping for groceries or getting to a pharmacy," he said.
If the housing project is approved Tuesday, city leaders will also ask to apply for a $14 million grant under the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program to improve transit, trails and other infrastructure.
Source: Mercury News, Ramona Giwargis
http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_30007401/san-jose-councilman-opposes-homeless-housing-project-ahead
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