It has been more than one year since the first tenants moved into the county’s first permanent supportive housing project, Second Street Studios in downtown San Jose. What has changed? I can answer that in three words: Not a thing.
Let me start at the beginning. On May 7, 2019, the tenants got keys to their new homes — a 400 square foot studio apartment. They were 150 of the most vulnerable homeless people in the county, so they say. They had just spent the last eight months playing musical hotels, having to move from one to another every two weeks. Now finally, some stability, we thought.
That first day was so nerve-wracking.
Being told what they could and could not bring into their new home—not being able to touch anything that belonged to them—watching strangers rummage through their belongings for contaminating agents. It was very degrading to stay in the apartment and wait for their things to be brought to them. They waited for hours to find more than half of their belongings had been taken by the same people there to help them move in. The living conditions here were not suitable for everyone. They were not good for anyone.
For this place to be built, the community wanted certain things to be done: a community garden, a full clinic, including mental health services, to name a few.
To convince the tenants to move here, the developer and the county promised certain amenities. Even the brochure had included amenities that would justify charging market value — for example, dishwashers, kitchen garbage disposals, a workout room and others. One year later, not a single one has come to be.
There is no clinic, no dishwashers, no garbage disposal system, no gym and a “community” garden is closed to the community. There are more rules, more cameras and now even surveillance with audio for management to watch their every move. The biggest letdown and lie to date, however, is the services.
The tenants have been set up for failure, it seems, and one year later they have racked up more than 500 police and medical calls at Second Street Studios. There has been four preventable deaths, more than ten fires and four people who have lost their housing altogether.
All of this could have been prevented or significantly reduced. It is a no-brainer that services are the deciding factor between success or failure. I’m here to tell you, services failed the tenants from the beginning.
The company supplying services at Second Street Studios has an excellent reputation. Some of the services that were promised were mental health services, one-on-one case management, job skill training and basic life skills training for those who need it.
If the service provider fulfilled these essential needs, four good people would still be housed here. You might have seen a much lower number in the tragedies I mentioned before. A majority of the tenants at Second Street Studios believed that all they needed was a little help from those services to become respectable and productive people in society. The tenants strongly agree with all the points I’ve mentioned here.
Second Street Studios has been neglected by all involved, and so have the human beings inside it.
Is there enough time to rectify and right the wrong done here at Second Street Studios? Some people say there is. I can name four who would disagree.
Frank Ponciano is a former San Jose City Council staffer, community liaison at nonprofit Abode Services and an advocate for formerly homeless residents living in the Second Street Studios in downtown San Jose.
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November 20, 2020 at 12:06AM
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Ponciano: Second Street Studios one year later: What has changed? - San José Spotlight
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