Congressman Ro Khanna’s staffers tour homeless encampment in Milpitas

On Monday, July 15, Milpitas nonprofit Hope for the Unhoused (H4U) hosted members of Congressman Ro Khanna’s legislative team for a tour of a homeless encampment and a discussion about homelessness.

Khanna has been active in securing federal funding for multiple projects to ensure affordable housing in Silicon Valley, among them Transitional Housing and Shelter Improvements, Emergency Shelter and Transitional Housing for Homeless Veterans, Affordable Educator Housing in Santa Clara, and Silicon Valley African American Cultural Center Project. Khanna also has a bill, The Stop Wall Street Landlords Act, intended to rein in corporate landlords who are buying up single-family homes. 

Khanna’s team sought direct insight into the unhoused situation in Silicon Valley, and H4U President Rob Jung proposed the encampment visit so as to provide a real sense of what is happening on the ground. 

Legislative staffers from both California and Washington, D.C., participated in the outing. Milpitas City Councilmember Hon Lien also attended, along with other members in the community. The group gathered initially at the Milpitas Police Department (1275 N. Milpitas Blvd.) then moved on foot to a nearby encampment set up on property owned by Union Pacific.

“It was important to me that policymakers got a real sense of some of the things that are happening versus what they read or hear,” Jung explained in an interview with The Beat. “This was a firsthand experience, and I’m always a fan of firsthand experiences.”

Asked how California’s homelessness problem can be alleviated, Jung said, “More housing would be a simple answer.” He gave a laugh, then, indicating that of course it’s not that simple. 

Going into more detail, Jung highlighted the Income-affordability disparity that is particular to our region. In Milpitas and the greater San Francisco Bay Area, people’s incomes often are not enough to cover the cost of their rent. “Nowhere else in the country I can think of, off the top of my head, has that disparity,” Jung shared.

In the meantime, in Milpitas, the Milpitas Unified School District (MUSD) recognizes the federal McKinney-Vento Act, meaning homeless youth living in Milpitas are afforded certain educational rights, namely the right to remain enrolled in school. The act defines unhoused children as those without a fixed regular residence, such as those living with relatives due to financial hardship, rather than only children who are living without shelter. Jung and Ro Khanna’s legislative team touched upon this in their discussion, underscoring how homelessness often does not take on the forms we might imagine it to.

Jung went on to explain that H4U takes a holistic approach to the homelessness problem, not just providing food and hygiene packs, but also pursuing preventive measures to help people avoid falling into homelessness in the first place, and at the other end, assisting people who are in homelessness with getting out. 

One gentleman at the encampment visited by the group is suffering from advanced cancer. His case is so bad that doctors cannot help him. But H4U has made contact with his relatives in the Philippines, and is arranging for him to be transported back there.

After their encampment stop, the group reconvened at the police station for their discussion. “I think a lot of people got a lot out of it,” Jung said regarding the event. He stressed to the officials that H4U would like to see “policies that would help us to prevent homelessness” as “that’s the number one way to deal with it.” 

Yvonne Inciarte, Senior Advisor for Legislative Outreach in Khanna’s office, said to The Beat of the event, “Our experience with Hope for the Unhoused was wonderful because we shared conversations with unhoused community members, but learning about their stories was also heartbreaking. The adversity in our communities has motivated us as a team to spark positive change at the federal level…We need more examples like Hope for the Unhoused to amplify the voices for our unhoused community.”

Inciarte added, “We learned about the misconceptions our communities have about who are the unhoused. They are individuals and families that were born and raised in our district. These are community members that were once our classmates. Not only did Hope for the Unhoused share information, but we also volunteered and met with unhoused individuals explaining the barriers that led them to becoming unhoused. For example, we heard about the tremendous pressure of being a renter that spends over half of their monthly income on rent.”

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The following Monday, July 22, Union Pacific stated that it needed to use the encampment space for other purposes, as yet unspecified. The encampment, which had been set up for months, was promptly swept.

Then on July 25, Governor Gavin Newsom issued a directive ordering homeless encampments to be swept statewide. The move, although intended to be implemented with dignity, raised concerns about homeless people’s fate.

In the wake of the Newsom order, Milpitas City Manager Ned Thomas emailed to The Beat, “Addressing the needs of our unhoused community is a top priority for our City. Milpitas offers a wide variety of services to assist our unhoused residents, as well as residents at-risk of falling into homelessness. Our Rent Relief Program has allocated close to $2,000,000 in funding to at-risk residents to prevent them from becoming homeless. Additionally, the City has allocated funding for proactive outreach services for the unhoused to connect them to available shelter, programs, and services. Our goal is to provide comprehensive support and sustainable solutions, ensuring that every resident has access to safe and secure housing.”

Thomas added, “We are continuing to review Governor Newsom’s executive order and we will continue to coordinate with local and regional partners as we move forward.”

Following the sweep of the encampment near the police station, Jung expressed concern about where those who lived there will end up. He cites that as the question that nobody can answer: “Where do you put these people?”

This article has been updated.