Matt Mahan

But keep in mind, when the country was founded, everybody was running off pamphlets in the basement saying whatever the heck they wanted.

And we all was...

We've always dealt with this issue of misinformation.

This is not a new problem.

Yeah, well, first of all, the starting point on this as I came into office was things just kept getting worse year after year, even though we were spending more and more.

The state had spent over $30 billion.

Even just in a city like San Jose, we were spending $100 million a year.

Our county had passed a billion-dollar bond.

And I try to be a data-driven guy.

It's important to have a governing philosophy and some core values.

But then on top of that, you've got to actually look at data and what works in practice.

And everything was going in the wrong direction.

We had this community plan to end homelessness in San Jose that didn't have any math behind it.

And as I did the back of the envelope math, what I found was what we were doing was never going to solve the problem.

We would have needed...

$6 billion in 20 years just to address the people on our streets at that moment.

And so we moved away from the slowest, most expensive solution, which was using public dollars to build brand new apartments for folks at $1 million a door, which is 30% higher than it costs the private marketplace to build new housing.

And over six years to build, and we pivoted to building basic dignified shelter.

We converted old motels, bought prefabricated modular units.

What they all have in common is we're giving people a safe, dignified place, a room with a door that locks, access to services, case management, onsite security, meals, the basic things people need.