San Jose: San José Mayor Joins HUD Secretary Fudge to Launch House America Initiative to Address Homelessness Crisis
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September 20, 2021

Media Contact:
Rachel Davis, Office of Mayor Sam Liccardo, 408.712.9149, rachel.davis@sanjoseca.gov

SAN JOSE, CA— Today, San José Mayor Sam Liccardo joined U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia L. Fudge, who serves as chair of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), at a virtual event to launch House America: An All-Hands-On-Deck Effort to Address the Nation's Homelessness Crisis.

House America is a national partnership in which HUD and USICH invite mayors, county leaders, Tribal nation leaders, and governors to use the historic investments provided through the American Rescue Plan to address the crisis of homelessness through a Housing First approach by immediately re-housing and building additional housing for people experiencing homelessness.

"San José is meeting the pressing urgency of the homelessness crisis by leveraging federal grants and local ballot measure funding into rapidly built, livable homes for the previously unhoused," said Mayor Sam Liccardo. "We must act swiftly and aggressively to create safe spaces for our most vulnerable residents. We're ahead of the curve in delivering more housing solutions in the coming year thanks to extraordinary coordination between local, state, and federal partners— but we have more to do. "

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House America is the federal government's direct response to the crisis of homelessness, which was rising even before the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March, HUD released its 2020 Annual Homeless Assessment Report Part 1 to Congress, which found that more than 580,000 people experienced homelessness in the United States on a single night in January 2020, before the pandemic. COVID-19 has created greater urgency to address homelessness, given the heightened risks faced by people experiencing homelessness. At the same time, COVID-19 has slowed re-housing activities due to capacity issues and impacts on rental market vacancies.

Through the American Rescue Plan, San José received 369 emergency housing vouchers and $3,221,675 in HOME Investment Partnerships grants to help more residents obtain the safety of a stable home. In 2020 alone, 4,886 individuals were moved into permanent supportive housing in Santa Clara County. With the distressing statistic that for every one person permanently housed in Santa Clara County, two more fall into homelessness or need housing assistance, the City of San José is leveraging federal, state, and local public funding and private dollars to rapidly develop emergency interim housing communities and permanent supportive housing. To that end, the City of San José will leverage federal emergency housing vouchers, HOME funding, and County Measure A funds to deliver 1,134 re-housing units, 683 bridge transitional units, and 861 newly-built permanent homes over the next year.

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As a member of House America, Mayor Liccardo and San José will partner with HUD and USICH to use these American Rescue Plan resources to re-house households experiencing homelessness through a Housing First approach, and to add new units of affordable housing into the development pipeline by December 31, 2022.
To learn more about House America, visit www.hud.gov/house_america.
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About the City of San José
With more than one million residents, San José comprises the 10th largest city in the United States, and one of its most diverse cities.  San José's transformation into a global innovation center in the heart of Silicon Valley has resulted in the world's greatest concentration of technology talent and development.

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