Community divided over homeless housing project in Santa Clara

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (KGO) -- Getting homeless families off the streets and into temporary housing is dividing residents in Santa Clara.

A new housing project off the corner of Benton Street and Lawrence Expressway is expected come to a vote Tuesday evening after months of planning adjustments and community input.

Elysa Gurman founded the grassroots group of neighbors called Santa Clara Housing Advocates because of this project.

"There's been a lot of fear but to me this issue is bigger than that. To me this is about helping people, getting people off the streets and into housing," Gurman said.

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Santa Clara City Council could move forward with the project that organizations say would help the homeless while they look for longer-term housing.

Members of the group are primarily neighbors and a few people have been formally homeless.

"As a teenager I experienced some housing insecurity and I realize now the only thing that kept me off the streets was community support that I was very lucky to have."

Fellow member Shalini Venkatesh says this is a small part of a system wide approach that needs to happen.

"This part is something that we can actually be a part of and help happen now. Just because it's not going to fix everything doesn't mean it's not the very necessary thing for us to do," Venkatesh said.

Santa Clara County and the non-profit LifeMoves are proposing to build a three-story building that will have 30 family units. It would have on-site case management services, and be staffed 24/7.

Marie Bernard, Executive Director for Sunnyvale Community Services, said giving families a stable place to stay with services can change lives for the good. Bernard made part of the following statement to Santa Clara City Council last week.

"There are 31 children in the County's shelter in Sunnyvale - the shelter is no place to raise a child, but there are many more children who are living in cars, couch surfing, in doorways. Children who are attending local schools while they struggle each night to have a safe place to sleep. The negative impact on children of being unhoused lasts decades - these children are our future - future workers and taxpayers," Bernard said.

VIDEO: San Jose opens 6th quick-build emergency interim housing community since 2020

San Jose has opened The Guadalupe Community, its sixth emergency interim housing site for the city's unhoused since 2020.

"A lot of schools, elementary schools nearby. We have churches and there's really no bus or transportation line that goes through there," Cadorna said.

The project is considered Emergency Interim Housing, which means limited screening criteria is required.

Cadorna feels not enough research about the type of people this could house has been done.

"It's not a monolithic group. So you have a group of people and we don't even know the percentage those that require mental health, those that are a drug related issue and those that really do need a shelter so they can get a job and get back on the horse," Cadorna said.

Erji Wang said the city of Santa Clara should learn from other cities like Palo Alto and Mountain View.

"They all build a shelter or interim housing in industrial area. So for example for Palo Alto they build the other side of San Antonio and in Mountain View they build right behind the Costco," Wang said.

He said this plan will impact the city for years to come and hopes the council carefully examines the project and votes no.

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