South Bay advocates for the unhoused are up in arms over the governor's proposal to address homeless and encampments.
The group on Friday gathered at "The Jungle" encampment in San Jose for a news conference aimed at pushing back on Gov. Gavin Newsom's threat this week to cut funding to cities and counties that do not show significant improvement on reducing homelessness.
"Moving people around is not the solution to homelessness," said Sandy Perry, an outreach coordinator with CHAMS Ministry. "In fact, it's going to make encampments increase because what it does is separates people from services."
Perry said in 2014 there was a massive sweep that cleared everyone out of The Jungle, which is now full of people again.
"Criminalizing people with incarceration and fines they cannot pay is prove to disrupt lives and keep people involved in the criminal justice system, only to release them back into homelessness over and over again," said Debra Townley with Survivors of the Streets.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said he welcomes scrutiny, but disputed part of the proposal.
"We clear about 300 encampments per year in San Jose," Mahan said. "So the accountability that the governor is championing is exactly the right starting place. It's what I've been arguing for as well. At the same time, cities and counties have to expand places for people to go."
The mayor and local advocates are getting behind a local measure that they said will help fund more housing and hopefully create more solutions before the governor follows through on the the threat to slash funds in 2025.
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