San José Mayor Endorses New State Bill in Bid to End Unsheltered Homelessness
SB 634 would make housing homeless and low-income residents on vacant land easier
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 3, 2023
Media Contact:
Tasha Dean, Chief Communications Officer, Office of Mayor Matt Mahan, [email protected]
SAN JOSÉ, CA - Today, San José Mayor Matt Mahan announced his endorsement of a new state bill, SB 634, that if passed, would make it easier to deploy temporary, movable housing on vacant land—that can be used to house tens of thousands of homeless Californians. The bill is authored by State Senator Josh Becker (D-San Mateo) and co-sponsored by the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) and Bay Area Council, and supported by DignityMoves.
“SB 634 will accelerate our ability to build basic, safe shelter and move people indoors so that we can end the era of encampments,” said San José Mayor Matt Mahan. “We can no longer afford to take incremental action to address our homelessness crisis.”
Building permanent affordable housing can cost upwards of $1 million a door and take five years to construct in San José – utilizing quick build alternatives, which are more cost-effective and take a fraction of the time to build, has been a cornerstone of Mayor Mahan’s efforts to reduce unsheltered homelessness. Mayor Mahan believes we need an “all of the above approach,” and has tasked San José to create new capacity to move 1,000 people off the streets and into safe, dignified alternatives via quick-builds, safe parking, hotel vouchers and other means by the end of this calendar year.
“Opportunity housing is the most hopeful development I’ve seen to address our homelessness crisis at scale and with speed. My goal with this legislation is to get tens of thousands of people off the street in the next few years and I’m confident we will do that. The opportunity housing model is breaking ground throughout the state and SB 634 will allow the model to efficiently ramp up production to house our unsheltered neighbors,” said State Senator Josh Becker.
San José is not alone in the struggle to tackle the homelessness crisis – many local governments are working hard but face massive challenges to building sufficient amounts of housing. Meanwhile, public and private entities have thousands of parcels of excess land not currently being used.
“While permanent housing is the ultimate long-term goal, we cannot let our streets be the waiting room in the meantime. We are thrilled to see cities like San José and leaders like Senator Becker embracing innovative solutions that have the potential to finally bring people indoors quickly and at scale,” said Elizabeth Funk, Founder and CEO of DignityMoves.
“Opportunity” housing is an innovative solution that takes advantage of public and private vacant land to build relocatable housing units. In addition to San José’s quick-build interim housing, this model is already working in cities like Santa Barbara and San Francisco. SB 634 makes this type of housing easier and faster to scale statewide, and will pave the way for large amounts of new housing by asking public entities to make unused land available and convert these otherwise underutilized assets into what California desperately needs—more housing.
Some of the biggest barriers to solving homelessness and our housing shortage in California are addressed by SB 634:
Land costs: There are very few productive uses for land that is only available for a few years. Because it’s relocatable, interim housing can be built on public or private land that has future intended use and thus is not suitable for permanent development.
Building costs: Using innovative prefabricated and modular construction, relocatable housing can be built quickly and inexpensively while meeting the state building standards for temporary housing that ensure high-quality and safety. Philanthropic and private financing not normally available for permanent housing can fund these significantly less expensive projects.
Permitting: Because units are in place temporarily, quick-build housing does not have a permanent impact on zoning or environmental standards and can thus benefit from a wide range of process exemptions and massively streamlined approvals. A DignityMoves project in San Francisco received final permit approvals in less than 3 weeks—a remarkably short amount of time for a housing project of any kind.
“We need a comprehensive and compassionate response to homelessness in California that delivers results. Opportunity housing is a key part of that response that gets people living outdoors and in makeshift and dangerous encampments into safe and secure conditions expeditiously,” said Michael Lane, State Policy Director of SPUR. “SB 634 will allow attractive and cost-effective interim housing communities to be built in a matter of months and rapidly provide decent homes for people experiencing homelessness.”
“Housing is a basic human need, as basic as food, water, or clothing. Yet today, 115,000 Californians are without any form of housing and are forced to survive in unsafe encampments,” said Adrian Covert, Senior Vice President, Public Policy, Bay Area Council. “Opportunity housing provides a high-quality, fast, and affordable housing option for cities to bring people indoors. By cutting red tape and defining opportunity housing in statute, SB 634 empowers cities to bring more people off the streets and save lives.”
SB 634 has cleared its first major obstacle—passing the California Senate Housing Committee hearing by a vote of 8-1 on April 19, 2023. The bill has been referred to the Senate Governance and Finance Committee for an additional hearing on April 26.
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About the City of San José
With more than one million residents, San José comprises the 10th largest city in the United States, and one of its most diverse cities. San José’s transformation into a global innovation center in the heart of Silicon Valley has resulted in the world's greatest concentration of technology talent and development.
About SPUR
SPUR is a nonprofit public policy organization in the San Francisco Bay Area. It brings people together from across the political spectrum to develop solutions to the big problems cities face. Through research, education and advocacy, SPUR works to create an equitable, sustainable and prosperous region and state.
About the Bay Area Council
The Bay Area Council is a business-sponsored, public-policy advocacy organization for the nine-county Bay Area. The Council proactively advocates for a strong economy, a vital business environment, and a better quality of life for everyone who lives here. Founded in 1945, the Bay Area Council is widely respected by elected officials, policy makers and other civic leaders as the voice of Bay Area business. Today, approximately 275 of the largest employers in the region support the Bay Area Council and offer their CEO or top executive as a member. Our members employ more than 4.43 million workers and have revenues of $1.94 trillion, worldwide. Learn more at www.bayareacouncil.org.