San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan took a tour of Skid Row on February 13, accompanied by
Estela Lopez, Central City East Association Executive Director and longtime proponent
of gentrification and criminalization of unhoused people. Mahan used this tour as a
photo op for his campaign for governor of California and his own advocacy for
criminalization.
When questioned by Gato, an LA CAN Human and Civil Rights Committee member,
about how he would address police mistreatment of unhoused people, Mahan exposed
his criminalization agenda, saying: “we also have to create accountability for coming
indoors.”
This statement is consistent with the main platforms he outlines on his campaign
website. He wants to build shelters and require people to go in them. He wants for force
people with mental health conditions to undergo treatment. He wants to punish those
who remain on the streets. That’s what he means when he says “accountability.”
There are not enough shelter beds available for unhoused people on Skid Row (or in
Mahan’s own city of San Jose). More importantly, shelter is unacceptable for many, if
not most, people due to concerns about safety, disease, separation from partners, pets
and property, jail-like rules, and many other negative conditions. At best, shelter still
does not resolve a person’s houselessness.
Forced treatment, like Mahan is proposing, is mostly ineffective, violates people’s
human right to autonomy over their own bodies and minds, and causes profound
trauma. Officials in California and throughout the US have a long history of forced
institutionalization of Black people and other people of color. It is another form of
criminalization, disguised as treatment. Without permanent housing, people simply
return to houselessness after treatment.
As mayor of San Jose, Mahan implemented the “Responsibility to Shelter” program to
arrest unhoused people who repeatedly refused to enter shelters. He established a new
police unit to enforce this policy.
Mahan brags about his results in San Jose. He swept over 500 encampments in 2024,
and, based on the “point in time” count reduced “unsheltered homelessness” by about
20 percent. However, actual numbers of unhoused people grew that year by a small
amount. These counts are unreliable, especially when sweeps drive people out of sight.
So, Mahan’s claims to success are highly suspect.
Critics in San Jose explain that his sheltering programs are about “optics.” They say that
he cleared encampments through sweeps, warehousing people in dingy hotel rooms.
After this summer’s World Cup games end, those hotel contracts will expire and people
may be turned back onto the streets.
Mahan’s raided San Jose’s Measure E funding for permanent housing, and diverted 90
percent of it to be used for shelter. Shelter does not reduce houselessness; it
temporarily moves people out of sight. Permanent housing, with supports if needed, is
the only solution to houselessness.
Mahan’s agenda aligns with Governor Newsom and President Trump. All three support
criminalization, shelters, and forced mental health treatment. It is also very popular with
the corporate oligarchs who would turn our cities into profit-making enterprises.
Financial backers for Mahan’s campaign include a roll call of tech and real estate
billionaires, like Google founder Sergey Brin and developer Rick Caruso. Joe Lonsdale,
Palantir co-founder and director of the Cicero Institute which drives much of the
criminalization of homelessness advocacy nationwide, is a strong Mahan supporter.
Mahan is buying media exposure, including a $1.5 million 30 second ad in the Super
Bowl.
Mahan’s visit to Skid Row and his criminalization agenda threaten our community. He
has proven himself an opponent of real solutions like developing affordable housing. He
has proven himself an eager architect of the police state. He has proven himself a
servant of the billionaire class. As the federal government unleashes law enforcement to
hunt down and arrest people they suspect of being immigrants, this leading Democrat
Party candidate for governor campaigns around plans to hunt down and arrest
unhoused people.
So, we say to San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan: Get the fuck out of Skid Row! And take
your criminalization agenda with you.