Santa Clara Knuckles Under to Opponents of Homeless Housing

The Santa Clara City Council this week knuckled under to angry local opponents of a proposed 60-unit project to provide transitional housing for the homeless. It was yet another sad example of why the Bay Area and California suffer the worst housing and unsheltered homelessness crisis in the nation. Bay Area Council Senior Vice President Adrian Covert joined other housing and homeless advocates in testifying in support of the project, which was part of Gov. Newsom’s Project Homekey initiative.

But it wasn’t enough to overcome the invective of opponents who groundlessly claimed the project would generate everything from murders and assaults to rapes, and that a residential neighborhood was not the right place to house residents. The Bay Area Council is unbowed by this misguided decision and will continue to advocate to create the housing that is so badly needed to shelter our homeless and strengthen state laws to ensure housing and shelter projects move forward.