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By Joseph Geha. San Jose Spotlight. Bay City News.
A new bill is introduced to help house the homeless, it would give the Santa Clara Valley Water District expanded authority to help thousands of people who live along creeks, creeks and other district land to find housing and services.
District officials say Assembly Bill 1469 would add language to the district’s governing law specifying that it can assist unsheltered people, allowing it to play a more active role in addressing the deepening homelessness crisis in Santa Clara County.
The bill, authored by local Assemblyman Ash Kalra and sponsored by Valley Water, passed the Assembly unanimously on Monday and will next head to the state Senate, though it is unclear when it will be brought to a vote.
Jim Beall, a Valley Water board member since December and a longtime South Bay leader, said that under current law, the district can’t do much more than clean up trash and debris along creeks where homeless people live, which costs about $2.4 million a year.
“We can’t just ask (other government agencies) to do all the work on this, we have to be more proactive and involved,” Beall told San José Spotlight.
Despite efforts by city, county and state governments, the county’s homeless crisis has grown, with roughly 10,000 people without permanent housing in 2022. About 77 percent of those people are unsheltered, meaning they are living outdoors, on the streets or in vehicles, according to Destination: Home.
Valley Water owns and manages 294 miles of streams and habitat. Officials said 2,300 people currently live on district property, often in camps near waterways, which can be dangerous due to flash flooding, among other factors. Human waste and other debris from camps can degrade water quality and animal habitats.
"We want to help people in a more humane way to find housing, places to live and solutions instead of having them live in the creeks where they have a negative impact on the environment," Beall said.
The bill would allow the district to use part of its revenue from an existing 1 percent assessed property value tax to fund outreach, counseling, transitional housing or other services for unsheltered people.
Bart Broome, assistant state government relations officer for Valley Water, said some financial flexibility for the district could go a long way. He said the district would only use a “small portion” of existing tax funds on these efforts, but said it’s too early to determine a number.
“If we can access just a small portion of that, we can do the things that are urgently needed to improve the situation. Not only for the homeless people living along the creek, but also for the neighbors who live around it,” Broome told San Jose Focus.
The bill could also allow the district to use some of its surplus land for housing projects, Beall said, but the timeline for those potential projects is still unclear.
Homeless advocate Richard Scott said Valley Water, San Jose and other government agencies have been “ruthless” in their raids on various encampments in recent years, but he said he is confident in the intent of the bill if Beall leads the effort.
“Jim Beall has always been involved in community mental health,” Scott told San José Spotlight.
Scott said that in addition to creating more permanent affordable and supportive housing, the district should work with the county or cities to quickly invest in temporary solutions.
“What we need right now is to have sanctioned, regulated encampments where people are stable, where advocates and providers can find them, and where they feel safe,” Scott said, similar to Hope Village, which was dismantled in 2019. “You can’t treat a person when they’re under the kind of pressure you have when you’re homeless.”
Good intentions
While pursuing this bill, the water district is also monitoring its nearly $5 million contract with San Jose to clean up people living along about nine miles of Coyote Creek and working to find them services or housing, so the district can begin a major flood prevention project.
Homeless advocate Scott Largent said people living near Coyote Creek and other water district lands were forced into those areas after being pushed out of other parts of the city, such as the Spring Street encampment, sidewalks and underpasses.
"They've been harassed, swept, their RVs towed, everything. People are trying to get further into the creek and trying to be creative and build bunkers or find camouflage," Largent told San José Spotlight.
Broome said Valley Water's intentions are good and the bill would not simply be used to order more mass sweeps of homeless encampments.
“It’s in everyone’s backyard, these public lands are owned by people, it’s everyone’s problem,” Broome said. “We want to do it in a way that actually finds solutions for people, not just moving them from one public land to another.”
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