What's going well 

San José is expanding shelter and safe parking quickly. Nine new or expanded sites are expected by the end of 2025, bringing total capacity to about 1,840 beds and spaces. These investments give more options for people living outside and create clearer pathways to housing and support.

Challenges     

We estimate that 5,477 people in San José are unsheltered. New and expanded sites will bring total capacity to about 1,840 units and spaces, but this still leaves a gap of around 3,000+ units needed to meet current demand. Managing 24 sites is also complex because operations and reporting differ, which raises costs and slows progress. Outreach and referral tracking also need improvement to understand who needs help and whether people are moving toward housing. 

What the City is doing

• Expand shelter and safe parking capacity: Bring all planned units online by 2025. Open new Emergency Interim Housing and expand existing sites.
• Standardize shelter system operations: Align operations, budgets, and performance across all sites. Reduce costs and improve long-term system stability.
• Improve outreach and engagement tracking: Strengthen coordination with City and regional partners; use shared protocols to track engagements and placements; increase successful moves into services, shelter, and housing. 

A broader mix of stable funding will strengthen operations and reduce financial risk. California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) billing, combined with grants and subsidies, will increase capacity for services and support long-term operations of the shelter system. 

What’s going well

San José has made major investments to expand shelter and safe parking. These efforts have created new capacity for people living outdoors and helped support public space cleanliness and no-encampment zones. 

Challenges

Most funding for the shelter system is one-time or unstable. Without reliable, long-term revenue, the City may struggle to maintain, operate, and even grow shelter and interim housing at scale.

What the City is doing

• Stabilize and diversify funding. Identify reliable state, federal, grant, and partner funding. Reduce reliance on the General Fund.
• Implement CalAIM billing. Use CalAIM billing for eligible services to support ongoing operations. Coordinate with partners to maximize reimbursement opportunities. 

What’s going well

San José has created No-Encampment Zones (NEZs) along 26 miles of priority waterways and corridors. These zones help protect public health, reduce pollution, improve water quality, and keep neighborhoods cleaner.

Challenges

Because shelter capacity is limited, clearing encampments along waterways often pushes people into new areas. Keeping NEZs effective requires enough shelter and housing options, plus strong coordination with the County and other regional partners. Without these supports, displacement pressures continue across neighborhoods. 

What the City is doing

• Maintain environmental compliance along waterways. Keep 26 miles of waterways and corridors clean and safe. Reduce pollution and protect public access.
• Maintain No Encampment Zones (NEZs) in waterways and around Emergency Interim Housing (EIH) sites. Limit re-encampments near waterway and EIH locations. Support safety and cleanliness around sites.
• Strengthen cross-agency coordination. Align outreach, shelter, and environmental enforcement efforts. Connect people to services and shelter whenever possible.

What’s going well

The City is building new tools that provide more frequent updates than the biennial Point-in-Time (PIT) count. Work is underway to improve data sharing with the County’s Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) and combine multiple City datasets into one shared data environment.

Challenges

Current data is limited and scattered across departments. Without better inflow–outflow tracking and shared forecasting tools, it is hard to predict demand for shelter and housing, understand how encampments form, or plan investments in shelter, housing and prevention. 

What the City is doing

• Improve forecasting and reporting tools. Deploy a dynamic forecasting tool with more timely data. Reduce reliance on infrequent Point-in-Time (PIT) counts.
• Strengthen HMIS data sharing with the County. Improve coordination and data exchange with County partners. Support consistent tracking across agencies.