San Jose homeless meeting turns NASTY: residents shout down woke mayor over plans for ‘safe sleeping’ camp beside their $3 million homes
A gathering of California residents turned nasty this week, with residents shouting about their Democratic Mayor Matt Mahan, who wants to build a semi-permanent homeless camp near their multi-million dollar homes.
Mahan, a former tech entrepreneur, grinned awkwardly at the San Jose community forum Wednesday night as homeowners shouted a chorus of “No” as he suggested pitching tents on a paved area donated by a utility company.
Homes near the proposed site on Willow Street and Lelong Street are worth millions. A newly constructed five-bedroom with porcelain kitchen countertops and hardwood floors is on the market for $3.6 million.
The tensions in San Jose are the epitome of California’s housing crisis, with some 180,000 homeless people posing a growing problem for liberal-leaning residents concerned about their prized possessions depreciating.
Democratic San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan struggled to convince residents of his plan for a secure homeless camp in their neighborhood
Dozens of locals showed up at the meeting and argued with Mahan when he bragged about his camp plan
During the meeting, Mahan pleaded with residents to let him make the makeshift homeless encampment more permanent and safer, by setting up tents on a paved area, with security patrols to prevent drugs and crime.
“We can take the paved area across the street, Valley Water land, as a safe place to sleep,” Mahan said.
The mayor assured the angry crowd that there would be “some rules, with tents in a row with garbage collection, with some level of security and case management.”
Moving the unhoused people to a “managed” location would address the “noise, drugs, crime” and other blights they complained about, he pointed out.
“You have to give us the choice of where people go.”
But the residents didn’t buy it.
Mahan continued to smile uneasily as they shouted out his plan and insisted that any camp must be built elsewhere.
“I don’t see how moving that same group to the other side and suddenly directing them is suddenly going to change that entire people or the environment,” said one public speaker.
San Jose resident Kathleen Almoslino stood up for the residents of her Willow Glen neighborhood.
“I think our city should sue the county,” Almoslino told ABC.
Resident Kathleen Almoslinos said she wanted the homeless moved “somewhere else.”
The mayor wants to turn this improvised homeless camp into a safer and more permanent camp
The planned location would have “tents lined up with trash collection, with some level of security and case management,” the mayor said.
“I think the county needs to do its job and … find an unincorporated property somewhere else, not in the middle of the neighborhood.”
The mayor has even faced pushback from local groups supporting the homeless, who say forcing unhoused people to occupy the same space is problematic because many have grievances with others that could lead to violence.
The row in San Jose comes as California faces a crisis of homelessness and vagrancy.
Homelessness rose 6 percent last year to more than 180,000 people in California, federal data show.
Since 2013, the numbers have exploded by 53 percent.
Nearly 28 percent of the nation’s entire unhoused population is in the Golden State.
Auditors this month panned California’s failed attempts to address the problem
The state spent $24 billion tackling homelessness over the past five years but failed to track whether the money was helping the growing number of unhoused people, their damning report said.
Properties in San Jose near the planned homeless camp regularly change hands for more than $3 million
It criticized the state’s homelessness czars for spending billions on 30 programs between 2018 and 2023, but no data was collected on why the money failed to address the crisis.
It confirmed what is clear to many residents: the homelessness crisis is out of control, and that tent encampments and troublesome vagrancy in big cities are bad and getting worse.
More than two-thirds of American adults say homelessness has gotten out of control and officials should move those sleeping rough to tent camps outside cities, according to a recent DailyMail.com/TIPP poll.
Our survey found that 67 percent of Americans are fed up with the country’s rapidly rising number of homeless people and want mayors to take drastic action to address the scourge.
More than 650,000 people were recorded as homeless by the federal government in its annual 2023 snapshot, released in January – a 12 per cent increase from the previous year.
Officials in Portland, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and other cities have responded to public anger over homelessness in recent months by dismantling makeshift shelters and relocating people.
More than two-thirds of Americans say homelessness, which rose 12 percent last year, is out of control
Scenes of homeless drug addicts stumbling on sidewalks and fears of violence and petty crime have become a national political issue, with former President Donald Trump making it part of his campaign platform.
In a video op homelessness released by his campaignTrump said “hard-working, law-abiding citizens” were sidelined and had to “suffer at the whims of some deeply sick people.”
He promised to “ban urban camping” and create “tent cities” on “cheap land” for the homeless, which will be staffed with doctors and social workers to help people address systemic problems.
Yet homeless people and their advocates say the cleanup and relocation policy is cruel and a waste of taxpayer dollars. The answer, they say, is more affordable housing, not a crackdown.
However, our survey of 1,401 adults found that tough policies resonated with a large share of US voters – with more than two-thirds saying they were in favor of resettlement camps.
Respondents who were democratically oriented were eager to resettle unhoused people. More than 74 percent of them wanted the homeless to move, compared to 64 percent of Republicans and 62 percent of independents.