San José Mayor Matt Mahan says he spent last Friday walking several of California's top gubernatorial hopefuls through the city's new Cherry Avenue tiny-home village, using the tour as a real-life backdrop for a familiar message to Sacramento: stop cutting, start partnering.
In a Facebook post, Mahan wrote that he had invited leading candidates to visit Cherry Avenue and criticized state leaders for burying their heads in the sand. He argued that Sacramento decided this year to zero out the HHAP funding stream that local officials credit with driving down street homelessness. He said neighborhoods that host shelters should end up better off, not worse.
What Cherry Avenue Is
The Cherry Avenue site opened this month as a 136-bed tiny-home village on Valley Water land, with laundry, private bathrooms, case management, and security. It is funded through a mix of state dollars, Measure E money and private donations, according to San José Spotlight.
The project is situated beside a recently cleared riverbank encampment, and people who had been living along the waterway were given priority access to the new units.
Mahan's Claims And Local Data
Mahan told voters his approach has already cut unsheltered homelessness in San José by "nearly 1/3," a figure he attributes to the buildout of interim housing sites like Cherry Avenue. That specific claim appears in his public Facebook post.
City officials, in previous briefings, have pointed instead to a roughly 10% drop in unsheltered homelessness as new interim beds came online. On the ground, outreach has been messier: some people from the nearby encampment have refused offers to move into shelter, complicating placement and enforcement timelines, as KQED reported.
State Funding Cuts Threaten Progress
Mahan warned that losing support from the state's Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention program, or HHAP, could knock the legs out from under that progress. The Legislative Analyst's Office notes that the 2025-26 state budget includes no new HHAP appropriation and that any Round 7 funding will require future legislative action. The Legislative Analyst's Office details the timing and conditions around that decision.
The California State Association of Counties and other local leaders have warned that the HHAP gap could force rollbacks or slowdowns for homelessness programs that are already up and running.
Legal And Accountability Concerns
At the same time, Mahan is pushing a "Responsibility to Shelter" framework that would tie expanded outreach and treatment options to possible enforcement for people who repeatedly decline interim housing. Critics argue that such a system risks criminalizing residents who are living with untreated mental illness or addiction.
Local reporting has highlighted civil-liberties questions and the practical challenge of enforcing the rules in real time. Local News Matters has documented community pushback and accounts from outreach workers who have been trying to persuade people around Cherry Avenue to move inside.
