Our streets are for everybody, but they shouldn’t be anybody's home. San José is facing a homelessness crisis, and I bring the right experience to address it. As a mental-health professional and former police officer, I know that real progress requires compassion and accountability.

That’s why I’ll work with Mayor Matt Mahan and help him implement a plan that gets the job done: 

• Build Basic Shelter, Fast

  • Spending a million dollars for every unit of shelter is never going to solve this crisis. I believe we need to utilize every available tool to build shelter quickly—such as tiny homes, hotels converted to housing, safe sleeping sites, and designated RV parking areas.

• Make Every Neighborhood Do Its Fair Share

  • Every council district and town in Santa Clara County must do its fair share to solve this crisis. District 9 will step up to do our part to take care of our neighbors, but communities across our city and region must do the same. 

• More Treatment Beds and Mental Healthcare 

  • San José is turning the corner on building the shelter we so desperately need. But the State and County need to do their job and provide meaningful mental healthcare and treatment beds for addiction. As a mental health professional, I get this need firsthand and will push regional and state partners to do their fair share. 

• Implement Responsibility To Shelter

  • If shelter is available, we should work with our unhoused neighbors to ensure they use it. I have the skills to improve city processes in doing that. But if a counselor or police officer offers shelter multiple times and it’s refused, I believe accountability is necessary to keep our unhoused community safe and our streets clean.

• Expand No-Encampment Zones 

  • We must approach this crisis with compassion, but we can’t allow encampments to stop us from accessing our public parks, playgrounds, and sidewalks. And we shouldn’t let folks live in unauthorized RVs or other vehicles on our residential streets, either. 

• Use Proven Prevention Programs 

  • We can stop homelessness by working to prevent it from happening in the first place. That means using proven programs like emergency rental assistance to keep families in their homes. These programs keep families safe and sheltered, and they’ve been shown to save cities money.