This is a great idea. Wonder how many homeless will take advantage of this process to end their being on the streets?
“San Jose is launching a program to relocate and reunify homeless people with their families as the city strives to end unsheltered homelessness.
Homeward Bound, a pilot program proposed by Mayor Matt Mahan, will send outreach workers to make contact with homeless individuals and pay for transportation costs to bus them out of the city. City officials have committed $200,000 from the 2024-25 general fund and will invest up to $1,000 per individual to help reunite them with families in the county or outside the area.”
This is a project we should watch/
San Jose wants to send homeless people back to families
by Joyce Chu, San Jose Spotlight, 2/26/25 https://sanjosespotlight.com/san-jose-want-to-send-homeless-people-back-to-families/
San Jose is launching a program to relocate and reunify homeless people with their families as the city strives to end unsheltered homelessness.
Homeward Bound, a pilot program proposed by Mayor Matt Mahan, will send outreach workers to make contact with homeless individuals and pay for transportation costs to bus them out of the city. City officials have committed $200,000 from the 2024-25 general fund and will invest up to $1,000 per individual to help reunite them with families in the county or outside the area.
“It’s going to take many different strategies, many different tools, and we have to acknowledge that folks who are out there did not all become homeless for the same reason and may not all need the exact same thing to get off of our streets,” Mahan said at a news conference Tuesday.
Mahan wants to achieve “functional zero” — when the number of people exiting homelessness is greater than those becoming homeless — through short-term, temporary solutions such as tiny homes, safe parking and sleeping sites and shelters. Reuniting individuals with their families is another option for getting thousands of homeless people off the streets.
Roughly 15% of Santa Clara County’s homeless population lived outside of the county or state before they became homeless, according to a 2023 census. There are roughly 10,000 homeless people in the county, with 6,340 in San Jose. Of the city’s total homeless population, roughly 5,500 are unsheltered.
Other cities such as San Francisco have a relocation program that buses homeless people out of the city. Last year, former Mayor London Breed mandated city agencies offer relocation before giving shelter or other services.
San Jose Housing Director Erik Soliván said the city will apply a similar approach, but with some key differences. Relocation is voluntary and will be given as an option alongside housing and supportive services. Outreach workers will make contact with family members before reuniting them.
“Part of the lessons learned from San Francisco was we need to do (family) verification upfront. They tried to do it on the back end,” Soliván told San José Spotlight. “Beyond that … we’re not putting any expectations on our outreach workers that they’re going to continue management post landing (of people) at their destinations.”
Homeless advocates such as Robert Aguirre question if the program is realistic. He said some unhoused people may be estranged from their families, who may not be capable of caring for them. He said the program shifts away from what he’d like to see more of: permanent supportive housing.
“It also is turning away from the real issue and the responsibility to house people,” he previously told San José Spotlight.
Brenda Womack, who was formerly homeless and now lives with her daughter in Oregon, said reuniting with family members only works if you have a good relationship with them.
“That’s the most important part,” Womack told San José Spotlight. “I am with my family and I’d rather be with them.”
Since it is a pilot program, Mahan said he doesn’t yet know how much interest there will be in relocation.
“Our goal is to offer them options,” Mahan said. “But as you know, far too often, we can’t offer someone housing or even shelter, because we just don’t have it.”
Kama Fletcher, director of development at nonprofit Neighborhood Hands, said this program is important to some of the homeless people they serve. A couple weeks ago, she spoke with a homeless person who slept outside during the heavy storms. He told Fletcher he needed to get to Novato where his partner’s brother lives, but couldn’t afford the bus ticket.
“While the humanitarian crisis playing out on our streets is overwhelmingly due to a severe lack of affordable housing in San Jose — which is an issue we cannot ignore or downplay — it is also true that our unhoused neighbors face many barriers in their extremely unique journeys out of homelessness,” Fletcher said.
