What is interim housing? How does it differ from homeless shelters? How does it complement permanent supportive housing? The City of San José is a national leader and innovator in interim housing. The City currently operates five interim housing sites. This approach to housing offers compelling benefits vis-à-vis more traditional approaches to addressing homelessness. However, there are significant tradeoffs. On this bonus episode of Dwellings, recorded as part of SV@Home's Affordable Housing Month 2021, Ramona Giwargis from San José Spotlight chats with a panel of experts about the role of interim housing in combating homelessness, and what City and nonprofit staff have learned since San José opened its first interim housing site 16 months ago. Our panel of experts is René Ramirez, Chief Operating Officer of HomeFirst Services, Ragan Henninger, deputy director of the Housing Department, and one of our interim housing community residents.

To learn how to be referred into one of San José's interim housing communities, please call 408-278-6420.

To learn more about our interim housing communities and watch the video recording of this episode, please visit our Bridge Housing Communities page.

2020 was a whirlwind year, challenging our collective notions about what the world around us should look like. Housing, already top of mind in California, became a national conversation. On today’s episode, we’re joined by David Friedlander, CEO of the Change Order Group, a climate and innovation-focused development company. We talk about what needs to change in the world of planning and development to ensure fewer people are unhoused, and what the future of housing might look like in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Books and research mentioned in today's episode:

• Research by Issi Romem:
  • "Young People Don’t Want Construction Jobs. That’s a Problem for the Housing Market." Wall Street Journal, 2018.
  • "Disparity in Departure:Who Leaves the Bay Area and Where Do They Go?" Terner Center for Housing Innovation, UC Berkeley.
• "Phoenix has hit 100 degrees on record-breaking half of the days in 2020." Washington Post, 2020.
• "Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things." Netflix, 2016.
• "Making Room: Housing for a Changing America." National Building Museum exhibition, November 2017 - January 2019.
• "Reinventing the Residential Hotel: One Way to Help Solve the Housing Crisis Affecting San Francisco and other American Cities." Panoramic Interests, 2017.
• "Living downtown: the history of residential hotels in the United States." Paul Groth, 1994. San Jose State University Library Listing.
• "In Stockholm, a Turn to Sharing Homes." New York Times, 2019.
• "Vienna’s Affordable Housing Paradise." Huffington Post, 2019.

Transcript: Episode 8: What Could the Future of Housing Look Like?

A Continuum of Care is a regional planning body that coordinates housing and supportive services for homeless individuals and families. In Santa Clara County, this program is overseen by Kathryn Kaminski, Deputy Director for the County’s Office of Supportive Housing. In today’s episode, we talk with Kathryn to learn how the Continuum of Care works with the City of San Jose and our nonprofit partners to coordinate the distribution of federal funds, delivery of care, and data collection for local homeless programs.

• Office of Supportive Housing for Santa Clara County
• Santa Clara County Continuum of Care
• Community Plan to End Homelessness
• 2016 Measure A Affordable Housing Bond

Transcript: Episode 7: Santa Clara County's Continuum of Care

Tackling a problem as large as homelessness requires cities to use a variety of tools in their toolboxes. In the City of San José, one of these tools is the Bridge Housing Program, which serves as interim housing for unhoused residents while they work with case managers to get back on their feet and find permanent housing. Today we sit down with Ragan Henninger, deputy director of the Housing Department, to learn about San José’s Bridge Housing Program, and find out how it is helping in previously unexpected ways during the pandemic.

Check out our Bridge Housing Communities website to learn more.

• Learn more about AB 2176
• Governor Newsom Takes Emergency Actions & Authorizes $150 Million in Funding to Protect Homeless Californians from COVID-19 (March 18, 2020)
• Citywide Anti-Displacement Strategy

Episode 6: San José's Bridge Housing Communities Transcript

The City of San Jose’s Rent Stabilization Program is a community-facing program designed to help tenants and landlords navigate issues around rental housing. On today’s episode, we sit down with Rachel VanderVeen, deputy director of the Housing Department, to learn more about what the Rent Stabilization Program does, and how its work has changed during the pandemic.

• Apartment Rent Ordinance
• Mobilehome Rent Ordinance
• Tenant Protection Ordinance
• Resources and Legal Assistance for Landlords and Tenants
• Rent Registry

Transcript: Episode 5: How Does the City Protect Renters and Landlords?

The best way to help someone struggling with homelessness is to get them housed. Seems simple, right? But it wasn’t - and still isn’t - as simple as it seems. On today’s episode, we chat with Joel John Roberts, CEO of PATH and PATH Ventures, and Ray Bramson, Chief Operating Officer for Destination: Home, to learn more about the housing-first approach to ending homelessness.

• PATH: www.epath.org/
• Destination: Home: www.destinationhomesv.org
• Housing Ready Communities Action Network: www.destinationhomesv.org/hrcaction/

Not sure what some of the jargon you heard on the episode means? Check out our jargon glossary below.

• Permanent supportive housing: provides longer-term rental assistance, case management, and supportive services to the most vulnerable chronically homeless individuals and families in the community. As part of the Housing First model, PSH provides homeless individuals and families with housing quickly, and then provides supportive services as needed.
• SRO: single-room occupancy, a type of housing aimed at residents with low incomes who rent small, furnished, single rooms. Often there are shared kitchens and bathrooms.
• VI-SPDAT: a standard assessment tool that considers an individual or household's situation and identifies the best type of housing intervention to address their situation.

Transcript: Episode 4: A Housing-First Approach to Ending Homelessness

Coordinating the homelessness response across a city as large as San Jose is no easy feat. It takes partnerships with dozens of agencies; managing grants from the federal and state governments; and a dedicated team. Today, we sit down with Kelly Hemphill and Darius Brown from our Homeless Response Team to learn more about what their team does to help unhoused residents in San Jose find shelter.To learn more about the nonprofits we work with to help unhoused residents, please see the websites below.

• Destination: Home: www.destinationhomesv.org
• Sacred Heart Community Service: https://sacredheartcs.org/volunteer/
• HomeFirst Services: https://www.homefirstscc.org/how-to-support
• LifeMoves: https://www.lifemoves.org
• Abode Services: https://www.abodeservices.org/ways-to-give
• Silicon Valley Strong: https://www.siliconvalleystrong.org

Not sure what some of the jargon you heard on the episode means? Check out our jargon glossary below.

• Homeless Management Information System (HMIS): an online database that enables organizations to collect data on the services they provide to people experiencing homelessness and people who are at risk for homelessness.
• Rapid rehousing: provides short-term rental assistance and supportive services, with the goal of helping someone quickly find housing and stay housed.

Transcript: Episode 3: The People Behind San Jose's Homeless Response Team

The City of San José is exploring ways to add additional housing. In episode 2A, we discussed the concept of opportunity housing, which would allow homeowners to convert their homes into duplexes, triplexes or fourplexes. On this episode, we sit down with Jerry Strangis, a local land use consultant and realtor in San José, and Patrick Condon, professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, to learn more about the local impacts of opportunity housing as well as possible impacts upzoning might have on affordability.

To learn more about opportunity housing, please visit the Planning Department's Opportunity Housing webpage.

Cities across the country are trying to find ways to build more housing. One path some cities are taking is to create “opportunity housing” by updating zoning regulations to allow for more density in residential areas. You may have seen this type of housing in your neighborhood – duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes – in what appears to be one single-family home. Today we’re joined by Michael Lane, Director of SPUR San Jose, a regional nonprofit public policy organization, to learn more about opportunity housing in San Jose and the greater Bay Area.

To learn more about opportunity housing, please visit the Planning Department's Opportunity Housing webpage.

Ending homelessness is a group effort. It takes the strength of dozens of local governments and nonprofits, working together with volunteers and currently unhoused residents, to find solutions. On today’s episode, we sit down with Jennifer Loving, CEO of Destination: Home, and Lee Clark, Lived Experience Advisory Board Member for Destination: Home, to talk about what it takes for a community to come together to end homelessness.

To learn more about Destination Home, please visit their website: www.destinationhomesv.org.

Get involved with the Housing Ready Communities Action Network.

Click here to learn more about the National Low Income Housing Coalition's The Gap report.

Not sure what some of the jargon you heard on the episode means? Check out our little housing jargon glossary below.

• Public-private partnership: a cooperative arrangement between two or more public and private sectors, typically of a long-term nature, involving government and business working together to complete a project and/or to provide services to the public.
• Measure A: a voter-approved affordable housing bond measure in Santa Clara County that addresses the housing needs of the County's poorest community members. To learn more about Measure A and its impact on housing, please visit the 2016 Measure A - Affordable Housing Bond website.
• Permanent supportive housing: this type of housing combines deeply affordable apartments with on-site services that are critical to helping vulnerable and chronically homeless individuals remain stably housed.
• AMI: area median income

Transcript: Episode 1: Community Plan to End Homelessness