San Jose homeless meeting turns NASTY: residents shout down woke mayor over plans for 'safe sleeping' camp beside their $3 million homes

A California residents' meeting got nasty this week, with residents shouting over their Democratic Mayor Matt Mahan, who wants to build a semi-permanent homeless camp near their multi-million dollar homes.

Mahan, a former tech entrepreneur, grinned uncomfortably at the San Jose community forum on Wednesday evening, as homeowners in chorus shouted 'No' when he suggested erecting tents on a paved lot donated by a utility company.

Homes near the proposed site at Willow Street and Lelong Street are worth millions. A newly-built five-bedroom with porcelain kitchen countertops and hardwood floors is on the market for $3.6 million.

Tensions in San Jose epitomize the housing crisis in California, with some 180,000 homeless people posing a worsening problem for liberal-leaning residents who worry about their prized assets tumbling in value.

San Jose's Democratic Mayor Matt Mahan struggled to convince residents of his plan for a secure homeless camp in their neighborhood 

Dozens of locals turned up for the meeting and heckled Mahan when he vaunted his camp plan 

At the meeting, Mahan pleaded with residents to let him turn the makeshift encampment of homeless people more permanent and safer, erecting tents on a paved area, with security patrols to prevent drugs and crime.

'We can take the area across the street that's Valley Water land that is paved we can do a safe sleeping site,' Mahan said.

The mayor assured the angry crowd it would have 'some rules, with tents in a row with trash pickup, with some amount of security and case management.'

Relocating the unhoused to a 'managed' site would tackle the 'noise, drugs, crime' and other scourges they were complaining about, he insisted.

'You've got to give us an option of where people go.'

But the residents were not buying it.

Mahan was left smiling awkwardly as they shouted down his plan, insisting that any camp should be built elsewhere.

'I don't see how moving that same group across the way and suddenly managing them is suddenly going to change those entire people or change the environment,' one public speaker said.

San Jose resident Kathleen Almoslino spoke up for residents in her Willow Glen neighborhood.

'I think our city needs to sue the county,' Almoslino told ABC.

Resident Kathleen Almoslinosaid she wanted the homeless people moved 'somewhere else'

The mayor wants to turn this makeshift homeless camp into something safer and more permanent

The planned site would have 'tents in a row with trash pickup, with some amount of security and case management,' the mayor said

'I think the county needs to do their job and ... find some unincorporated property somewhere else — not smack-dab in the middle of neighborhoods.'

The mayor has even faced blowback from local groups who support the homeless, who say it's problematic forcing unhoused people to occupy the same space, as many have grievances with others that could lead to violence.

The row in San Jose comes as California battles a crisis of homelessness and vagrancy.

Homelessness jumped 6 percent to more than 180,000 people in California last year, federal data show.

Since 2013, the numbers have exploded by 53 percent.

Nearly 28 percent of the nation's entire unhoused population are in the Golden State.

Auditors this month panned California's bungled attempts at addressing the problem

The state spent $24 billion tackling homelessness over five years but didn't track if the money was helping its growing number of unhoused people, their damning report said.

San Jose properties close to the planned homeless camp frequently change hands for upward of $3 million 

It slammed the state's homelessness tsars for spending billions across 30 programs from 2018-2023, but gathering no data on why the cash wasn't tackling the crisis.

It confirmed what's clear to many residents — the homelessness crisis is out of control, and that tent encampments and troublesome vagrancy across major cities is bad and getting worse.

More than two thirds of US adults say homelessness is out of control and that officials need to move those sleeping rough into tented encampments outside towns and cities, a recent DailyMail.com/TIPP Poll shows.

Our survey revealed that 67 percent of Americans are fed up with the country's fast-rising number of homeless people and want mayors to take drastic steps to tackle the scourge.

More than 650,000 people were recorded as homeless by the federal government in its annual snapshot for 2023, which was released in January — a 12 percent surge on the previous year.

Officials in Portland, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and other cities have in recent months responded to public ire over homelessness by dismantling makeshift shelters and moving people on.

More than two thirds of Americans say homelessness, which surged by 12 percent last year, is out of control

Scenes of homeless drug addicts stumbling on sidewalks and fears of violence and petty crime have become a national political issue, with former President Donald Trump making it part of his campaign platform.

In a video on homelessness released by his campaign, Trump said that 'hardworking, law-abiding citizens' were being sidelines and made to 'suffer for the whims of a deeply unwell few.'

He vowed to 'ban urban camping' and create 'tent cities' on 'inexpensive land' for homeless people that will be staffed with doctors and social workers to help people address systemic problems.

Still, homeless people and their advocates say sweeps and relocation policies are cruel and a waste of taxpayer money. The answer, they say, is more affordable housing, not crackdowns.

Our survey of 1,401 adults, however, found that a tough policy resonated with swathes of voters across the US — with more than two thirds saying they favored resettlement camps.

Democrat-leaning respondents were keener on resettling the unhoused. Fully 74 percent of them wanted the homeless moved on, compared to 64 percent of Republicans and 62 percent of independents.