San Jose mayor says city's homeless population has dropped by 32%

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said homelessness has dropped by 32% in the last year and a half, according to a new tracking system to take a count of people who are on the streets. But some homeless advocates say there is more to the story than just the numbers.

The city said it has success on moving those on the streets to interim housing.

"We stopped letting the perfect be the enemy of the good," Mahan said. "We let go of the rigid ideology preventing us from treating this crisis like the emergency that it is."

The city has created 1,000 interim housing units and has been able to place many living in large encampments into hotel rooms and tiny homes. A move that critics even applaud.

"I have opposed a lot of his policies, but I have to give him credit," Sandy Perry with the Unhoused Response Group said. "He has vastly expanded our interim housing and shelter capacity."

What Perry wonders now, is what will happen next.

"The problem is it now leaves us in a situation where we are somewhat stuck," he said.

Perry adds as rents rise in the entire region, many workers that are making minimum wage are being priced out of the area. Some move, while others without resources are left on the streets. Perry says the solution is to create truly affordable housing.

"We're at the richest place in the entire planet right here," he said. "If he can't take care of housing, there's something wrong with us. We have to be able to take care of our brothers and sisters."

Mahan said the new data tracking system, UrbanLogiq, estimates that roughly 3,700 people are still living in the streets. The last internal city count had just over 5,400 people unhoused.

"We stopped letting the perfect be the enemy of the good," Mahan said. "We let go of the rigid ideology preventing us from treating this crisis like the emergency that it is."

UrbanLogiq uses 15 different data points from community agencies such as police and outreach groups. The city says it's a more accurate system compared to the PIT, also known as "point in time" counts. which were done every two years.

The goal is for UrbanLogiq to get data every quarter to better deploy city resources.

Mahan said those left on the streets are the hardest to reach, with many dealing with addiction and mental health issues. He feels treatment is what's going to be needed the most in tackling the next phase of the homelessness issue and is looking for more help from county and state agencies.