Tamiko Rast and her family know all too well the dangers of leaving homeless residents struggling with addiction or mental health issues on the streets without treatment. She’s experienced the horrors firsthand.
More than a decade ago, the Japantown Business Association president and her husband stopped the attempted rape of a jogger by an unhoused man with schizophrenia. Six years ago, another homeless man with schizophrenia struck her father in the face with a metal curtain rod after being asked not to urinate in front of children. Her brother also was bitten and had his glasses shattered when he tried to stop a man on drugs from breaking windows in their neighborhood.
Rast often encounters an unhoused woman who has assaulted her, openly does drugs and is responsible for at least three fires in the area.
For her and countless other business owners and neighborhood leaders, these incidents are the consequences of the status quo, which is why they are rallying support for Mayor Matt Mahan’s controversial proposal to cite or arrest homeless residents who repeatedly turn down available shelter.
“These near-weekly experiences have deeply affected us emotionally and financially (and) we are exhausted and we are afraid for our safety,” Rast said. “As someone who is fifth-generation Japantown, and whose grandparents returned to San Jose after World War II incarceration camps, I struggle with the decision to stay here. Let me be clear: we do not believe that all unhoused people are dangerous on drugs or mentally ill. But we do believe the people who need help the most are often the least likely to accept it.”
Next week, the City Council will vote on the Responsibility to Shelter proposal, which seeks to incorporate the expectation of accepting shelter into the city’s code of conduct for encampments.
Months ago, when Mahan first unveiled the controversial policy, the idea was to amend the municipal code to allow the city to arrest or cite unhoused residents for trespassing if they refused available shelter three or more times over 18 months.
Mahan’s policy proposal has been met with backlash from Santa Clara County leaders, who said it would result in “unnecessary and ineffective bookings” and divert already stretched public safety resources.
Noting that trespassing does not lead to incarceration, Mahan scoffed at detractors of the policy, and said the overall goal was to petition behavioral health courts to act when residents suffering from mental health or addiction issues turn down services.
“We have a chance to use a brief, targeted interaction with our justice system to intervene before people fall into chronic homelessness, and give them the opportunity to find appropriate services and turn their lives around,” Mahan said. “We have a chance to stop giving up on people.”
While the spirit of the policy remains intact, Mahan acknowledged the need for discretion when determining whether a case needs to be escalated for further intervention, including when the only available shelter may not be appropriate for the situation.
To better implement the policy, the city also plans to bring outreach services in-house to gain a better understanding of what is being offered and how unhoused residents are responding. It also plans to divert existing police resources to create a small, new Neighborhood Quality of Life Unit, which will be charged with enforcing the shelter policy when outreach efforts have completely failed.
“We cannot expect to adequately treat mental illness, addiction or unemployment effectively if someone is living outdoors,” Vice Mayor Pam Foley said. “Stable shelter, whether through interim housing, safe parking, or safe sleeping sites, not only connects people with critical services and job training, but ultimately paves the way toward permanent housing. And let’s be clear, when we invest in ending unsheltered homelessness, we are also reducing emergency responses, fire calls, police incidents, and emergency room visits, which cost far more than proactive investment in shelter and services.”
While county leaders warned that the proposal could stretch public safety resources, the city’s police and fire unions have come out in support.
“It’s gut-wrenching to see a family that’s living outdoors,” said Jerry May, president of San Jose Firefighters Local 230. “It’s gut-wrenching to deal with chronic issues, with people dealing with mental health issues that they’re not getting help with, or that they’re not getting the proper support that they need. When we deal with thousands of fires a year outdoors because people are not living in proper conditions, it impacts us and it impacts our community because we’re not able to meet all of our response times.”
Last month, the city unveiled a new dashboard to track the number of police calls for unhoused residents.
Between January 2023 and April 2025, the police received 44,593 calls, accounting for 6.93% of the citywide total. However, in 2024 and 2025, unhoused calls now account for a slightly greater portion of service requests.
“This is not about criminalizing homelessness,” said Steve Slack, president of the San Jose Police Officers’ Association. “This is about using the behavioral health court system with a special team trained in dealing with these individuals and to get them the help that they need.”
Near her home, Rast said she regularly encounters a senior man named Craig, who camps on the sidewalks surrounded by rotting food, trash, feces and urine, attracting roaches and rats. Despite attempts to connect him with the VA and Catholic Charities, Craig refused and his condition deteriorated to the point where he had bloody sores on his legs, and lice.
Without a requirement to accept help, Rast said she fears more people like Craig will languish on the streets.
While residents and business owners acknowledged the hardships faced by people experiencing homelessness, they said the status quo was not serving anyone.
Alum Rock resident Michelle Martinez pointed to a recent incident where her 15-year-old son was assaulted by an unhoused man who was back in their community within 24 hours of his arrest.
“The system is failing us all,” Martinez said. “I know that it failed my son, and it’s going to keep failing us if we don’t demand better.”