Expert: How to make Watson Park sanctioned homeless encampment work
Irene Smith, one of the first local leaders to advocate for sanctioned encampments and congregate housing to address SJ's homelessness crisis, provides City staff some helpful guidelines re: how to make our first sanctioned encampment effective for both neighboring and homeless communities. From Medium.
Three cheers for Mayor Mahan and CM Torres (D3) for doing the heavy lifting to get our unhoused neighbors into safer, cleaner, and incrementally better shelter at Watson Park. The next steps will be critical.
Whatever we do, we must ensure that Watson works. Do it right the first time because all eyes are on the City. The risk is huge. If we fail, there will be such a NIMBY backlash and outcry, that no community would ever accept future sites or believe that San Jose could keep them safe with promises. And if we fail, the local Housing Industrial Complex will call for a complete shut down of transitional shelter so that they can go back to a lack of accountability and building $1.1M studio apartments per homeless person — a decade from now.
It is my belief that the city — to date — has not managed encampments (nor its affordable housing programs) aggressively enough. And neighboring communities in D3 and around the city have paid dearly with a dramatic decrease in quality of life. This time the stakes couldn’t be higher to get it right.
This is how we start:
Decide on Success Metrics. Such as: number of people moved to next rung of Incremental Ladder of Housing Success, number of people using mental health services per day, number of people using drug rehab per day, number of people finding working per month, number of people contributing to the Sanctioned Supportive Encampment (SSE) site by cleaning or other tasks.
Community guarantees. There must be a set of community guarantees that start with safety first and end with a deadline to move tenants to the next rung of the Incremental Ladder of Housing Success. The first day this project starts should have an end-date to work towards that will be the last day of the project — because tents are not the final solution. The Watson community should be asked, in depth, for a complete set of written guarantees they expect from the City.
Community reparations. Downtown D3 already has the most homeless, the most affordable housing, and the most variety of affordable housing in San Jose and in Santa Clara County. Now we will have the first sanctioned supportive encampment (SSE). The City should be asking ‘how can we bolster this Watson community since it is doing something no other district and no other city has dared to do’? Examples of this can be: new park, new play structures, re-paved road priority, speed bumps, city funded fences for front yards and security cameras, community center. Even monthly face to face meetings with Matt would be a way to bolster and signify that this community matters and should be re-paid for their service at large.
Nonprofit Accountability Registry. Problems for neighbors near affordable housing have many examples. One is Donner Lofts mixed use housing in downtown, in one month had two vacant homes destroyed by fire and a murder within a block. Police were called 153 times in one year. And an axe-wielding man inside Donner Lofts set his apartment on fire. The Watson SSE Portal must include monthly updates: 911 calls, money spent & where, financial analysis, register nonprofits as lobbyists, tenant rules of conduct for continued shelter, code enforcement status, blight control status, neighborhood complaint status, parking citations, updates on success metrics and failure metrics.
Weather protection. Tenants will need protection from the weather (rain, freezing, mud) and require security lighting. Sprung Structures on top of individual tents and personal space are recommended for better management and to protect persons and belongings from the elements.
Limit personal space and storage. Each tent should be the same size for one person. Each person plus tent should have a designated number and lot size such as 11x12 for personal storage.
Enforce our laws. The enforcement of laws have been unequally applied to those who are housed. At the SSE all community members should expect that all laws will be enforced equally against housed and unhoused. If there is a law on the books that is not being enforced against the SSE unhoused, then the laws should be removed from the books as part of the Community Guarantees.
Decide on Failure Metrics. At what point would the SSE at Watson need to be removed? Monthly failure metrics such as: five 991 calls per month, .05% increase in crime in community, .05% increase in street parking violations, 2 rules of conduct violations per week, and zero tolerance for the toxins of fires; would determine when Watson must close.
The bigger the risk, the bigger the reward. All eyes are on us and we can make Watson Work.
Read the whole thing here.
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