San Jose city leaders are looking into a proposal to use Valley Transportation Authority property to build temporary small homes for unhoused residents.
The city will consider using areas at the Cerone VTA yard and the Cottle VTA station to build the tiny homes, which would have private bedrooms and bathrooms, as well as support services.
The goal, according to the city, is for unhoused residents to use the homes as a steppingstone to permanent housing, a strategy that already has succeeded with another tiny home site in San Jose.
"About two-thirds of the people who end up in that site at the end of 6 months end up locating into other types of housing and don't end up back on the street," Councilman David Cohen said. "If we really want to make a dent in our unhoused population, we want to have 1,000 of these units across the city, and the idea is to spread them out across the districts."
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
The City Council is expected to take up the issue of using the VTA properties during its regular meeting Tuesday.
