The City of San José just opened its fourth interim housing community in the past 13 months! The newest site is the Felipe Avenue Bridge Housing Community.

Interim housing is a key component of the City’s strategy for addressing homelessness. The purpose of these communities is to lower the barriers to moving people off the streets and into healthy, affordable housing.

The Felipe Avenue community will house 40 formerly unhoused individuals. As the City fills up the site initially, preference is being given to individuals who had been living in a nearby encampment.

This is another milestone in the City’s effort to provide housing for the thousands of people who are unhoused in San José. This project aligns with the countywide Community Plan to End homelessness, and the City’s goals of improving the quality of life for unsheltered individuals and creating healthy neighborhoods for all.
The City refers to communities like the new Felipe Avenue site as interim housing because most residents will live there for a few months until they find permanent housing.

When unhoused individuals are placed in interim housing, they have an opportunity to stabilize their lives and make progress toward self-sufficiency. They have access to mental health services, job placement assistance, medical care, and additional services that will help them remain housed.

After the Felipe Avenue site is full, and residents at the nearby encampment have been offered appropriate housing or shelter opportunities, the BeautifySJ team will remove the encampment. It is blocking the public right of way along the street and sidewalk. During the pandemic, the BeautifySJ team has worked to improve conditions for encampment residents by providing litter removal and sanitation stations. But encampments that block streets and sidewalks create safety hazards and need to be moved.

The BeautifySJ team removes approximately 400 tons of debris from streets, parks and waterways each month as part of its mission to clean up and restore San José. Litter and illegal dumping threaten the health and safety of housed and unhoused residents, and harm the environment and wildlife.

Congratulations to the joint team from the City’s Public Works Department and Housing Department, as well as Habitat for Humanity and HomeFirst, for bringing the City’s newest interim housing community to fruition!

Most importantly, the City is happy for the residents at the Felipe Avenue Bridge Housing Community who now have an opportunity to get back on their feet and live in safe, dignified housing!