Despite San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan’s claim his policy to arrest homeless people for refusing shelter is meant to connect them to treatment, there isn’t a plan for how it’s supposed to work.
Since Mahan rolled out his “Responsibility to Shelter” policy in March, Santa Clara County officials and a former judge have pushed back on the plan that citing homeless people for trespassing will get them connected to the county’s Behavioral Health Court and into treatment. Mahan wants people who refuse offers of shelter three times within 18 months to be arrested on trespassing charges, but state law prohibits holding those who commit nonviolent misdemeanor charges in custody. Homeless people will be released within hours or days, thus preventing them from connecting to treatment. Couple this with the county’s massive shortage of mental health treatment beds — and a lengthy waitlist for not just unhoused people — and the mayor’s plan is on thin ice.
“This proposal is misguided. It will not achieve its stated objective,” retired Judge Richard Loftus, who used to sit on the Behavioral Health Court, wrote in a letter to the San Jose City Council. “The justice system does not work the way this proposal contemplates.”…