Nonprofit affordable housing blunders with tenants & neighborhoods
This is a continuation of my series on nonprofit organization (NPO) accountability calling for a Nonprofit Registry as a result of the SJ audit of reckless homeless spending and the County Housing Authority audit fail. This article gives examples of how nonprofits have shown that services mismanagement negatively impacts both tenants and neighborhoods with increased crime, fires, and blight.
NPO run Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), mixed use (affordable & PSH), and HomeKey Hotels (PSH) are causing screaming matches from neighborhoods resisting a wide variety of affordable housing. Without enforcement of rules and active supervision of services, the striking ratio — excessive 911 calls per low number of tenants — will continue at these sites.
Here are just some examples as reported by the Mercury News and Spotlight:
Second Street Studios (PSH) in downtown after one year had more than 500 police and medical calls, four preventable deaths, and more than ten fires. Encampment tents continue to live across the street creating a blighted area and a suspicious death made tenants and neighbors uneasy. An explosion “triggered by the improper use” of a portable cooking appliance and at least 180 emergency calls in the first four months of 2024 mark substantial security issues. Staff may have tried to enforce rules of conduct in their lease agreements by issuing 433 lease violations over 10 months but tenants quickly fought back against the rules with free attorneys. The County Supervisors investigation uncovered: substance use & sale, human trafficking & sexually inappropriate behavior, fighting, yelling, leering at youth & staff, and weapons. Despite the results of this investigation San Jose gave Second Street Studios a $26 million ‘bailout’. Where is the Nonprofit Accountability Registry?
Address: 1144 South Second Street, SJ. 135 studios
Donner Lofts mixed use housing in downtown, this month had two vacant homes destroyed by fire and a murder within a block. Police were called 153 times in one year. And an axe-wielding man inside Donner Lofts set his apartment on fire.
And a Donner Loft tenant complains:
- “A Housing First tenant, who was sensitive to noise, pulled a knife on the building’s janitor for making too much noise mopping.”
- “He was doing meth with a friend when he set his apartment on fire.”
- “His apartment was full of garbage he had taken home from dumpsters.”
- “Instead of helping Housing First tenants get detox services, Abode Services protects them from eviction for selling drugs in the building to support their habits, or from eviction for meth-related aggression.”
- And most importantly — “This mismanaged building is fueling NIMBY arguments about affordable housing.”
Address: 158 East Saint John Street, SJ. 101 units
Renascent Place (PSH) is described as ‘nasty as hell’: affordable housing “in a raucous, almost lawless environment where residents self-medicate”. Address: 2450 Senter Road, SJ. 160 units
HomeKey Hotels San Jose has received roughly $74M from the state to acquire four local motels and convert them into at least 281 PSH or transitional housing. Audits have uncovered:
· Dirty water pouring out of faucets at the SureStay on 1488 North First Street was purchased with $12M of HomeKey funds.
· Pacific Motor Inn on South Second Street (PSH) where both developers and residents demand that the HomeKey Project — ‘Back Off’.
· Pavilion Inn on North Fourth Street is under construction.
· Violent attack at The Arena HomeKey Hotel on The Alameda.
Non profits in Milpitas
Summary
Despite the fiscal irresponsibility and the blackhole of oversight, San Jose has numerous HomeKey hotels, PSH, and tiny homes on the horizon. The spread and consequences of lawlessness is inevitable without rule enforcement. San Jose has a consistently non-responsive track record and no process to make it better. Conflict will continue to rise between the city and neighborhoods. Placement of affordable housing will likely be thwarted by neighbors concerned for their safety.
The cycle of unaccountable NPOs, resistant neighbors, and more ineffective billions (multibillion-dollar housing bond) stops only when San Jose puts in effective success metrics for homelessness solutions. Hope begins with a NPO Financial Registry for all housing nonprofits and a monthly dashboard of 911 calls within 4 blocks of affordable housing.
Most of these troubled housing sites are in downtown San Jose. Up next — D3 has advice for those willing to embrace affordable housing in their neighborhoods.
PUBLIC RECORD — Read the tenant letter from Donner Lofts to City of San Jose
From:
Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2023 10:45 PM
To: The Office of Mayor Ma Mahan <mayor@sanjoseca.gov>; District3 <district3@sanjoseca.gov>; District1 <district1@sanjoseca.gov>; District2 <District2@sanjoseca.gov>; District4 <District4@sanjoseca.gov>; District5 <District5@sanjoseca.gov>; District 6 <district6@sanjoseca.gov>; District7 <District7@sanjoseca.gov>; District8 <district8@sanjoseca.gov>; District9 <district9@sanjoseca.gov>; District 10 <District10@sanjoseca.gov>; mayorinbox@sanjoseca.gov; City Clerk <city.clerk@sanjoseca.gov>
Subject: 23–257 — Homelessness Commiee Report
[External Email]
Dear Mayor and Council Members:
Today I am speaking on my own behalf and not that of any community organizaons.
I agree with the goal in the report that we should be concerned about keeping unhoused people who receive housing from returning to the streets. However, the current “housing retenon” stascs are inflated because Abode Services has chosen to strong-arm the management (MidPen Housing and MidPen Services) into retaining tenants who either need more supports (that Abode won’t provide) or need to live in a different environment.
I live in District 3 at Donner Los. I’m not “in a program” and my rent is indexed to the Area Median Income, so I believe that means I’m in “workforce housing.” When I put my name in their housing loery in 2015, and when I was picked in 2016, I thought it was a great idea to create a community with a diversity of tenants instead of segregang by class or income. People in “essenal jobs” who can’t afford market rate housing, rered/disabled people, and people who had been unhoused could live together. Great idea, unsasfactory implementaon.
Tenants who are unable to care for themselves independently should receive In Home Support services but they don’t always receive those services. We have had fires in the building when Housing First tenants who can’t safely use a stove try to cook.
One Housing First tenant’s cataract surgery was delayed over a year because his case managers kept canceling his appointments at Stanford Eye Center because they were quing their jobs without noce. He was nearly evicted for issues from his vision impairment during that year; luckily, Abode got him help from the Law Foundaon.
A Housing First tenant, who was sensive to noise, pulled a knife on the building’s janitor for making too much noise mopping. He yelled abuse and threats at me every me he could hear me in the hallway, which made me afraid to leave my apartment. I don’t know if he needs supervision, treatment, or a different environment — but now he lives on the street again.
The Housing First tenant whose guest was shot by police on Memorial Day in 2017 had a history of explosive behavior towards others while using methamphetamine. I saw him flip furniture at community events twice. He was doing meth with a friend when he set his apartment on fire aer arguing with Security about a noise complaint. His apartment was full of garbage he had taken home from dumpsters. His friend with the axe had already assaulted someone in the elevator. When SJPD held a meeng to jusfy the shoong, they were surprised to hear that tenants were so afraid of the man that they were relieved to hear he’d been shot to death. Anyway, I don’t know if the Housing First arsonist is sll in jail or has been released to homelessness again.
According to the tenant grapevine, we have had 20–25 deaths in or next to the building since 2016. (A tenant was killed in the crossfire of a drug deal gone bad outside the building a few years ago.) We have visits nearly every day from SJPD, SJFD, and County EMS. Most of these are for Housing First tenants or their guests. A Housing First tenant ended his life aer MidPen raised his rent shortly aer he lost his job, his girlfriend dumped him, and his dog died. Another one of their tenants (he might have been a former foster youth) OD’d and died at a party here aer some other tenants talked him into trying a drug he wasn’t accustomed to using. When he passed out, his “friends” all abandoned him without calling 911.
Instead of helping Housing First tenants get detox services, Abode Services protects them from evicon for selling drugs in the building to support their habits, or from evicon for meth-related aggression. We have a constant parade of people looking to buy drugs. Besides harassing residents trying to go home in peace, they also vandalize the building, urinate in the stairwells, create disturbances, smoke in the stairwells, steal laundry, and break into apartments. When I return home on foot, I have to block unwanted visitors from tailgang behind me or grabbing the door — and I will get a lease violaon if they succeed. Yet the tenants who sell drugs to them, or invite them over to “party,” are protected from consequences. Abode demands that MidPen retain their tenants to keep up their KPI of “retenon in housing.”
Donner Los lives up to all the negave stereotypes of affordable housing in a neighborhood and Abode Services is a big part of that. This mismanaged building is fueling NIMBY arguments about affordable housing. We have 10–20 Housing First tenants out of 100 tenant units, but their drug sales and errac behavior completely change the character of the building. (Five of them live on my floor and used to have floang trap house acvity at their apartments.) The rest of the tenants reject them for this behavior, so we don’t have a unified community. There are always people hanging around outside and causing problems.
The Federal rules for Housing First state clearly that tenants in the program not only benefit from the same rights as other tenants, they have the same responsibilies so that the community will funcon harmoniously. Because Abode focuses on opmizing their housing retenon stats, their tenants in MidPen Housing properes are not held to the same standards as tenants who aren’t “in a program.” Other tenants are red of pung up with the constant nuisances and geng lease violaons for trivia. Most of the “workforce housing” tenants who leave Donner Los aer their lease is up are displaced from San Jose because they find comparable rent in Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Portland, etc. This would seem to violate the spirit of the City’s An-Displacement campaign.
Also, I hope Abode Services is paying for the restoraon and reconstrucon from the fires and floods their tenants have been causing. I don’t need to pay higher rent because someone broke a fire sprinkler while they were high and flooded mulple apartments. I also suspect they are the ones who keep tampering with the smoke detectors and causing false alarms. I’m red of having to evacuate for a false fire alarm at least once a week, somemes in the middle of the night.
I have heard on social media that Abode failed to pay their share of rent on behalf of some of their tenants at other buildings. The tenants couldn’t cover the whole rent payment and were evicted. It seems like paying their share of the rent is the very minimum bar for supports.
hps://nextdoor.com/p/4C7H7C79RKsf?utm source=share&extras=MTY4NjIyMzg%3D
Please invesgate the details of Abode Services’ actual performance, not just the KPIs. I know our Housing Department is busy with a lot of very good work, but perhaps a County Civil Grand Jury could look into their performance.
Kind regards, San Jose, CA 95112
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READ Tenant response to this article (anonymous) 5/11/24
my first thought is how shamefully this reflects on the city and county.
my second thought is about all of the money that is being wasted because its flushed down the toilet or thrown in the trash and/or nearest fireplace.
third: there will be (and probably has been) an additional burden to taxpayers and neighbors in terms of medical care. there are decent tenants who are the unfortunate victims of this terrible situation. they could be permanently scarred and traumatized by the violence and chaos where they live.
its one thing to experience the degenerate atmosphere fostered by decrepit tenants and irresponsible property management from afar. quite another to live with that daily and hourly stress and fear, and feel that there is no way out of it. and so these vulnerable people will be permanently scarred, as i am.
this is scandalous. I’m so glad I’m nowhere near the Bay Area anymore. my guardian angels helped me get to a better environment.
the housing situation in Santa Clara County is a travesty. I can’t speak to other areas in California, but I think that I can comfortably opine that whatever is happening with affordable housing for the most vulnerable among us is not what was intended. by anyone.
I’m lucky to still be alive after my experience.
Scroll link below to get to Tenant letter.
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