How’s San Jose’s mayor performing? New data show figures on public safety, homelessness

As San Jose nears one year into Mayor Matt Mahan’s tenure — are his major campaign promises going anywhere?

A new trove of data focused specifically on public safety, blight, homelessness and economic development shows improvements in some areas and setbacks in others as Mahan prepares to run for re-election in 2024 with no opposition thus far.

The figures show the city making incremental progress on keeping homeless residents off the streets, the speed of housing permit reviews and the city’s downtown activity rate according to cell phone data. But the city is also facing problems with its enormous backlog of code enforcement cases and housing production.

“I would like us to at least once a quarter have a very focused and structured conversation that is rooted in performance data,” said Mahan to reporters on Tuesday. “Where we are actually objectively looking at how the things we’ve funded are doing. Right now we do that every 12 months. But it is overwhelming, it is in the context of a budget.”

Here are some key takeaways from the data.

The city’s interim shelter strategy — along with permanent housing — appears to be keeping people off the streets

According to the city’s latest figures, San Jose is keeping a large majority of its homeless residents off the streets one year after they are offered shelter. Ninety-one percent of individuals who have received interim housing and 93 percent of individuals with a permanent option stay housed after one year, the data shows.

The mayor has been a major champion of interim housing options — which include quick-build shelters, safe parking sites and converted hotels. In October, Mahan secured 200 tiny homes provided by Gov. Gavin Newsom when the Valley Transportation Authority approved the housing after questions about whether the deal was going to go through.

However, the specter of homelessness remains a vexing issue.

For every household who gets off the street, two more become homeless, data shows.

Housing production city-wide is also trending downward. The city is experiencing a year-over-year 87 percent decrease in the number of housing units added to the city. That figure tracks closely with a larger slowdown in residential development because of economic pressures related to inflation. This year, the cost to produce a single unit of affordable housing rose 24 percent.

Going after blight remains a problem

In June, as part of his promise to keep San Jose’s streets clean and target neglectful property owners who let trash and weeds multiply on their front yards, the mayor said the city would be tackling a major backup of thousands of code enforcement cases. The goal was a 10 percent change in the number of cases by the end of the year — but roughly three months into that announcement a mere -0.7 percent of cases have been wiped away.

The data comes as the city’s new pilot program aimed at proactively tackling blight has faced delays, with code enforcement officials saying active patrols against property owners won’t start until November. However, the issue of blight doesn’t appear to be impacting San Jose’s post pandemic recovery. According to cell phone data usage from the University of Toronto, the city is now experiencing 96 percent of the visits to the downtown center that occurred in 2019.

Why is this data coming out now?

The figures are part of the mayor’s promise at the beginning of his tenure to bring a business-oriented mindset to the job — and said this release of data is the first batch which will be continuously updated every 90 days. Mahan said he hopes the close tracking of his key campaign issues accompanied by a “back to basics” strategy will produce more accountability in local government.

From an electoral point of view, San Jose State University political science professor emeritus Larry Gerston described the mayor’s efforts as a “smart thing” for a policymaker to do.

“There is a symbolic effort here and a symbolic impact here,” said Gerston. “‘I’ve shown you all the things we’re doing.’ Which translates to, ‘I’m worthy of being in office. I think the symbolicness is more important than the substance.”