San Jose, California – The San Jose City Council voted 9-2 on Tuesday to adopt a new ordinance allowing the arrest of unhoused individuals for trespassing after they reject three offers of shelter. The move adds a “responsibility to shelter” clause to the city’s existing encampment code of conduct and signals a shift in how the city may handle unsheltered homelessness in the coming years.
The ordinance does not mandate arrest but grants discretion to law enforcement and outreach workers to escalate intervention in cases of repeated refusal. It arrives amid mounting pressure on local governments across California to address visible encampments and public health concerns in a state where an estimated 187,000 people are unhoused—nearly a quarter of the nation’s total.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who proposed the measure, framed the ordinance as a pragmatic and necessary step, not a punitive one. “I don’t want to use the criminal justice system to make vulnerable people’s lives harder,” Mahan said ahead of the vote. “I want to use it as a last resort.”…