FYI, it’s been a big week! Here’s what you need to know this week — in 30 seconds or less:

• San José opened the South Bay’s first-ever Safe Sleeping Site.
• The Sharks are here to stay — locked in for 26 more years.
• And we revealed a bold new look for 2026 as San José gets ready to host the world for Super Bowl, March Madness and World Cup.

Keep scrolling for all the data and details.

Dear Neighbor,

 Almost exactly a year ago, I stood at a site that looked a lot like the one you see below. But I was about 450 miles away, down in San Diego.

Mayor Todd Gloria was showing me around something he was very proud of. Something that had made a difference in the lives of his residents — both housed and unhoused. 

And that was a safe sleeping site. A low-barrier community with tents, bathrooms, case management, security and a path toward self-sufficiency. 

Now, one year later, San Jose is opening our first safe sleeping site. The first safe sleeping site in the South Bay. 

We’re starting small. 56 tents with cots. On-site security. Regular trash pick-up. Three meals delivered a day. Mobile showers. Access to counseling and addiction treatment. 

We know this isn’t the perfect solution. It’s definitely not a permanent solution. But it’s a heck of a lot better than the status quo — for our communities, for our environment and for the people currently living in unmanaged conditions without access to running water. 

On a per unit basis, this site cost less than 1/20th what it costs to build an apartment building, and more importantly, it can be stood up in a few months, which means we can offer a safe, dignified alternative to unmanaged encampments quickly and cost-effectively, and therefore at scale. This matters when we have over 3,000 people living in these conditions and about 200 people per year die on our streets.

Speaking of unsafe and unmanaged encampments, we’ve spent the last two weeks continuing to make steady progress in Columbus Park. Prior to beginning the clean up, our outreach teams offered housing repeatedly to everyone in the park. We are now methodically moving about 10 people per day indoors while clearing tons of trash and debris from the park.

By embracing pragmatic approaches, such as interim housing and safe sleeping, and being willing to require that people accept shelter when it is available (and by extension, making clear that one cannot choose to camp in a public park when an alternative is available), we are making steady progress in reducing encampments and moving people indoors. In fact, by the end of this year, we are on track to reach an important milestone — a 50% sheltered rate across our city (vs. just 16% sheltered in 2020 with roughly the same number of people experiencing homelessness). 

That means that half of the nearly 6,000 homeless residents in our community aren’t sleeping along our creeks or on our streets any longer — they are sleeping in a bed each night. They are accessing the services they need to turn their lives around.

They know where their next meal is coming from and they have a plan that they’ve created with a case manager to exit homelessness once and for all. 

Since taking office, I’ve made it my mission to end the most inhumane crisis of our time — unsheltered homelessness. And by the end of this year, we’ll be halfway there. 

Of course, the second half will be harder. We won’t reach functional zero — a 100% sheltered rate – without getting creative. That’s what this site is about. Trying new approaches and using an all-of-the-above strategy.

We also won’t reach functional zero without getting help. Specifically, we need higher levels of government (Federal/State/County) to embrace the value of interim housing solutions, providing funding for services, and help enable greater housing construction at all levels of affordability. 

We also need them to do their jobs when it comes to providing adequate support to those on our streets who are unwilling or unable to accept the housing and shelter options the City is building. Just over one third of the people at Columbus Park have refused repeated offers of housing. Only our State and County can legally build and operate the mental health and addiction treatment beds we need to help those hardest-to-reach cases. 

I want to thank my Council colleagues and city staff for leaning in and getting creative on this project. As our operational leader, City Manager Jennifer Maguire helps create an environment at City Hall that allows people to try new things without the fear of failure. I promised to bring the spirit of innovation inherent to our Valley into local government and that is only possible when others are open to change. 

I also want to thank our newest Councilmember Anthony Tordillos who inherited this project but has become a champion of it.  Stay tuned in the weeks and months ahead to see how this site is working!

Sincerely,