8 Downtown Neighborhoods Offer Guardrails for Affordable Housing & Sanctioned Encampments

3 min readMay 19, 2024

Downtown SJ has the most varied types of affordable housing

The following advice is from eight neighborhoods in downtown SJ. These 12 points are designed to get cooperation from neighborhoods when the city correctly manages Affordable Housing (AH). Their direct experience with every form of affordable housing is invaluable for the rest of San Jose. Affordable Housing can be embraced by neighborhoods without nonprofit blunders, tenant complaints, screaming matches, petitions, or demands from developers and residents to ‘Back Off’

Billions have been spent on homelessness and given to nonprofits and nonprofit developers for affordable housing. Some of that money should go to the surrounding neighborhoods to ensure a strong quality of life for tenants and neighbors using the 12 point ground rules below.

With compassion and perseverance we can provide Shelter First with safety and services for our unhoused. First comes shelter. But whether the City offers shelter or housing — well managed affordable housing (AH) results in success for both tenants and neighbors.

12 Points for tenant and neighborhood success

1. The first priority is to accurately define AH, locate all AH, and measure their success. To acknowledge our housing diversity and celebrate the true depth of affordable housing success, San Jose must re-define Affordable Housing (AH) to be inclusive of all types of affordable housing: permanent supportive housing (PSH), HomeKey hotels, Section 8, rehabilitation housing, group homes, women’s’ shelters, taxpayer funded and self-sustaining nonprofit housing, emergency interim transitional housing, rent controlled housing, tiny homes, Housing Authority funded housing, low income, moderate income, extremely low income, shared low cost housing such as sororities/fraternities, rooms for rent, ADUs, modular shelters, sanctioned supportive encampments (SSE), sanctioned supportive RV and car parking (SSP), etc. Count all types of affordable housing. Without the correct AH count we have no idea how successful we are at implementing a wide variety of AH nor can we measure their success. We cannot improve what we cannot measure.

2. San Jose must acknowledge the added challenges to a community from PSH, SSE, and SSP. San Jose, the county, and state must add more money to bolster a neighborhood accordingly, not just fund developers and nonprofits.

3. Each neighborhood should have one-stop-shopping portal access to view all the surrounding AH by type. San Jose affordable housing map is NOT inclusive of all AH types.

4. The AH portal should include: monthly updates on 911 calls, tenant rules for continued housing, code enforcement status, blight control status, neighborhood complaint status, monthly updates on success metrics (crime, blight, next rung of the housing ladder — Incremental Ladder of Housing Success.

5. For AH with high volume 911-calls: increase police patrol of neighborhoods and schedule safety patrols inside AH buildings.

6. Sufficient parking spaces for staff and tenants so that surrounding neighborhoods are not overwhelmed with parking enforcement.

7. Mandatory daily mental health and drug/alcohol rehab sessions for every tenant at PSH and SSE.

8. All taxpayer funded AH must have the same consistent rules enforced.

9. Coordinate data with other AH to maximize services and prevent bad actors from repeat behaviors at other AH.

10. Stop spillovers or sprawl from AH into surrounding neighborhoods.

11. Open, transparent nonprofit financial accountability of taxpayer funded AH.

12. SSE and SSP Encampments cannot be a forever answer. They are one rung, and the city needs to have a deadline to end encampments and move residents to the next rung of housing success. (ILHS) Incremental Ladder of Housing Success.

Implementing these 12 point recommendations before AH is integrated into neighborhoods will avoid these examples of AH and alleviate the fears of both neighbors and tenants, in turn allowing for more AH.