CHAK'S TAKE: The City of Gilroy - Build 4000 More Homes? And Effect on Homeless?

The battle between residents of Gilroy and San Martin and the city of Gilroy is far from over, given the fact that Gilroy plans to have 4000 new homes sometime in the future. The city of Gilroy passed a bill that allows the city to acquire more land in the area between Fitzgerald Avenue, Santa Teresa Blvd, and Monterey Road - a controversial idea that is panned by many Gilroy and San Martin residents like Robert Carerra for various reasons. Last time, I talked about how traffic in Morgan Hill would be impacted by the housing plan, particularly during the morning commute. But in this blog, traffic is not thing that is the problem - it's the homeless impact. This in turn picks up from where I left off in the last blog.


THE TAKE ON HOMELESSNESS - ANY OBJECTIONS TO HOUSING?

Scott Wagers, who is a pastor for the Community Homeless Alliance Ministry (CHAM), has attempted to help as many homeless people in Santa Clara County into affordable homes in Santa Clara County. However, finding a home anywhere in Santa Clara County may be tough in San Jose, even as more new homes are put up despite the number of homelessness have actually decreased in 2015 (Reference 1). Gilroy may be one of the locations Wagers could be considering, despite that many of the homeless prefers living closer to San Jose.

But with 4000 new homes proposed to be built comes a question on how many of them will be shelters for homeless people. That only Wagers could ask the City of Gilroy. I previously have attempted to contact the cities of Gilroy and Morgan Hill for inquiries and their thoughts on Gilroy's housing plans and the traffic impacts, but have not heard back as of so far. Furthermore, neither the city of Gilroy nor Morgan Hill has addressed whether they have any plans for additional housing for the homeless within the city limits, including those of the city of Gilroy's new housing plan.

None of the Gilroy's city council members nor the mayor has specified anything about the additional land other than the plans as indicated to the public, including those for the homeless. And there were either little or no such opportunity for people to voice their objections against expanded land use until it was too late. And even if Scott Wagers were to ask the city of Gilroy, he too would attempt to send an e-mail or put phone calls to the mayor.


HOUSING COSTS AND CHANCES FOR HOMELESSNESS?

As more people are moving to the southern end of Santa Clara County like Gilroy and Morgan Hill, the comparison between Gilroy and Morgan Hill in regards to expansion is largely different. In many parts of Morgan Hill, the expansion that I see is generally within the city limits, with more land ready for both business and residential housing along Butterfield Blvd between Sutter Blvd and Cochrane Road. However, the city of Gilroy is mainly relying on their attempts to expand their land beyond the city limits without any input from residents after my review of at least three sources.

With Gilroy's population at around 61,000 as of 2015, there are still unanswered questions of how the cities of both Gilroy and Morgan Hill will be dealing with both traffic congestion near their neighborhoods along U.S. 101 and homeless population in many other Santa Clara County cities like San Jose, Mountain View, and Palo Alto. As I have said in my previous blog, 101 is only configured to just three lanes in each direction and has continued to grow with little or no action from both Caltrans and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA). The frustration over congestion has already been fed up for many residents and does wish that a High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane was added sooner.

To me, the chances for the homeless population to be housed in new homes would only be less than 10%, due to a combination of both available housing and the controversial plan by the city of Gilroy. One of the reasons behind the chances is due to the fact that the fiscal cost to put the homeless in houses is staggering (Reference 2). It is likely that the fiscal cost could rise as the lack of new homes are also on the rise and San Jose's population could continue to grow beyond one million people in population. And this could disappoint Scott Wagers himself because the growing cost of housing could make putting homeless people to new homes or shelters could be harder.

Overall, the picture that I see in regards to Gilroy housing plans is very bleak not only due to opposition in traffic, but the question on homelessness as of so far. Gilroy and San Martin residents have long been in a huge tie-up with the city of Gilroy, and neither the battle between both homeless and local residents and Gilroy seem to rest - of which the war of words will likely continue. I will continue to keep my eye on Gilroy and give my take when warranted.

Original Work: Kyle Chak
E-mail: chak595301@gmail.com
Twitter: @KyleSChak

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES

Reference 1: See Santa Clara County Point in Time Census & Survey, 2015 report.
Reference 2: See San Jose Mercury News report on the fiscal cost to deal with homelessness in Santa Clara County.