The mayor of San José proposes to imprison the homeless who repeatedly refuse the refuge

The mayor of San José, Matt Mahan, unveiled an initiative on Thursday that would increase pressure on the homeless to accept the refuge or take prison terms.

“Sans-Abrisme cannot be a choice,” said Mahan at a press conference to announce his proposal for a prescription. “I propose that after three shelters, we hold people responsible for changing their lives.”

Mahan’s proposal is the last climbing of a state -of -scale repression against the homeless camps since a pivotal decision of June 28 which gave local officials the power to ban camping on sidewalks, streets and other public goods even if there is no available shelters. During the months that followed, California civic leaders launched a variety of punitive tactics aimed at eliminating homeless camps and inaugurating people in the shelter and treatment.

The bay region was particularly sensitive to the decision of the Supreme Court, the communities through the Liberal basin sending the message that the rooted camps which, in many cases, took root in the middle of the Pandemic Covid-19 service cuts will no longer be tolerated. Cities such as Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco have adopted more aggressive application strategies in the past year with the aim of dismantling cities of tentacular tents which are often accompanied by public consumption of drugs, criminal activity and health risks.

Fremont, a diversified suburb of 40 miles south-east of San Francisco, became the last city in the Baie region last month to continue the meeting of the meeting, adopting a prescription that prohibits homeless camping on public and private property. A provision that would also have made homeless camps “help and encourage” a violation of offense was canceled this week, in the midst of non-profit groups that provide services to homeless.

Governor Gavin Newsom, a democrat who, in recent years, has given the right to homelessness, applauded the decision of the Supreme Court and issued an executive decree in July forcing that Californian agencies adopt a more urgent approach to clean up home -free camps on state goods and the pressure of cities to follow.

Mahan, a moderate democrat, separated from the State Democratic Directorate last year, joining several other mayors of major cities to approve the proposal 36, a successful November voting measure which imposed more strict sanctions on the recognized people guilty of theft and crimes involving fentanyl. On the question of roaming, he resisted this evolution towards aggressive swings of the homeless camps and total prohibitions on the homeless campsite, arguing that without more shelter, such restrictions simply move the problem to neighboring cities.

Instead, since his election in 2022, Mahan has focused on the increase in the number of short -term shelters in his city considerably as a means of treating the crisis, rather than waiting for more permanent and expensive – affordable housing options. This effort is a deviation from the “Housing First” strategy defended by progressive democrats, which approves the creation of permanent affordable housing with supported support services as the most effective means of ending roaming.

Under the direction of Mahan, San José has invested massively in provisional housing and shelters, with more than 2,000 units now available or developing. Now that the city has a shelter to offer, said Mahan, it is time to hold those who live in the street responsible for the coming. About a third of people who have been offered temporary housing refuse these offers, according to the mayor’s office.

According to Mahan’s proposal, who will need the approval of the municipal council, people who reject shelters would be confronted with a penalty of sanction with each refusal, starting with a written warning and ending with a possible arrest.

More than 6,250 people are homeless in San José, according to 2023 estimates, including nearly 4,400 who live in the street, in cars or in abandoned buildings that are not suitable for housing. Mahan said that mental health and drug addiction problems are often what keeps people on the street and unable to “make a rational decision concerning their own well-being”.

“This does not mean that we have to launch our hands and abandon them. This means that we must help them break a destructive cycle that is harmful and the wider community, “said Mahan.

The proposal is sure to make the opposition of some of the same factions that were opposed to the Mahan’s embrace of the interim housing, as well as defenders of the homeless who reject the use of imprisonment as a tool to resolve the homeless.

Jamie Chang, professor of social protection school at UC Berkeley, said that her research has shown that short -term shelter options such as those in San José have prioritized can be an effective element of a multiple approach to resolve roaming.

“What we need is a range of responses that will meet the need for level of preparation, will and ability to be inside the various people,” said Chang, adding a warning that these short -term solutions are only effective if they are accompanied by services and part of a path to permanent housing.

Although the permanent support accommodation is considered the Order Stonal, Chang said: “Unbreded homelessness is at crisis levels in the bay region and in our state. And we certainly also need short -term solutions to rectify and alleviate the pain and suffering that occur in our streets. »»