Local non profit (NPO) mismanagement of housing fails tenants and neighbors alike
Image by Will Buckner
Independent Leadership Group and United Housing Alliance chief Irene Smith continues her call for a local Non Profit Registry by highlighting how local NPO mismanagement of affordable and Permanent Supportive Housing negatively impacts both tenants and neighborhoods with increased crime, fires, and blight. From Medium.
NPO-run Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), mixed use (affordable & PSH), and HomeKey Hotels (PSH) are causing screaming matches from neighborhoods resisting a wide variety of affordable housing. Without enforcement of rules and active supervision of services, the striking ratio — excessive 911 calls per low number of tenants — will continue at these sites.
Here are just some examples as reported by the Mercury News and Spotlight:
Second Street Studios (PSH) in downtown after one year had more than 500 police and medical calls, four preventable deaths, and more than ten fires. Encampment tents continue to live across the street creating a blighted area and a suspicious death made tenants and neighbors uneasy. An explosion “triggered by the improper use” of a portable cooking appliance and at least 180 emergency calls in the first four months of 2024 mark substantial security issues. Staff may have tried to enforce rules of conduct in their lease agreements by issuing 433 lease violations over 10 months but tenants quickly fought back against the rules with free attorneys. The County Supervisors investigation uncovered: substance use & sale, human trafficking & sexually inappropriate behavior, fighting, yelling, leering at youth & staff, and weapons. Despite the results of this investigation San Jose gave Second Street Studios a $26 million ‘bailout’. Where is the Nonprofit Accountability Registry?
Address: 1144 South Second Street, SJ. 135 studios
Donner Lofts mixed use housing in downtown, this 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.
And a Donner Loft tenant complains:
“A Housing First tenant, who was sensitive to noise, pulled a knife on the building’s janitor for making too much noise mopping.”
“He was doing meth with a friend when he set his apartment on fire.”
“His apartment was full of garbage he had taken home from dumpsters.”
“Instead of helping Housing First tenants get detox services, Abode Services protects them from eviction for selling drugs in the building to support their habits, or from eviction for meth-related aggression.”
And most importantly — “This mismanaged building is fueling NIMBY arguments about affordable housing.”
Address: 158 East Saint John Street, SJ. 101 units
Renascent Place (PSH) is described as ‘nasty as hell’: affordable housing “in a raucous, almost lawless environment where residents self-medicate”. Address: 2450 Senter Road, SJ. 160 units
HomeKey Hotels San Jose has received roughly $74M from the state to acquire four local motels and convert them into at least 281 PSH or transitional housing. Audits have uncovered:
· Dirty water pouring out of faucets at the SureStay on 1488 North First Street was purchased with $12M of HomeKey funds.
· Pacific Motor Inn on South Second Street (PSH) where both developers and residents demand that the HomeKey Project — ‘Back Off’.
· Pavilion Inn on North Fourth Street is under construction.
· Violent attack at The Arena HomeKey Hotel on The Alameda.
Summary
Despite the fiscal irresponsibility and the blackhole of oversight, San Jose has numerous HomeKey hotels, PSH, and tiny homes on the horizon. The spread and consequences of lawlessness is inevitable without rule enforcement. San Jose has a consistently non-responsive track record and no process to make it better. Conflict will continue to rise between the city and neighborhoods. Placement of affordable housing will likely be thwarted by neighbors concerned for their safety.
The cycle of unaccountable NPOs, resistant neighbors, and more ineffective billions (multibillion-dollar housing bond) stops only when San Jose puts in effective success metrics for homelessness solutions. Hope begins with a NPO Financial Registry for all housing nonprofits and a monthly dashboard of 911 calls within 4 blocks of affordable housing.
Read the whole thing here.
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