Evans Lane, an interim housing site in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, May 17, 2024. Since 2020, the city has developed six tiny home sites with around 500 beds. Three upcoming locations will add more than 700 new beds. The facilities provide rent-free private units, some with individual bathrooms, as well as shared kitchens and even community gardens.
One tiny home site for families with children on Evans Lane in South San Jose is outperforming the rest, with nearly eight in 10 residents finding housing upon leaving. As San Jose pushes to build tiny homes to bring more of its estimated 4,400 unsheltered residents off the street, what can the city learn from Evans Lane?
“For me to see how comfortable they are now and how good they are resting — they shower, I make sure they do chores, it makes me feel good,” the woman said. “Because I know that they have nothing to worry about today.” At one East San Jose tiny home site, which restricts residents to six-month stays because it’s on state property with stay limits, only 51 of the 284 residents who left moved to lasting homes, about 18%. Other sites don’t have set time limits, though city officials said they are considering capping such stays.
PATH of Santa Clara County Associate Director of Interim Housing Jenn Torres shows this news organization one of the rooms at Evans Lane, an interim housing site in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, May 17, 2024. The kitchen inside the community room at Evans Lane, an interim housing site in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, May 17, 2024.
The bathroom inside one of the rooms at Evans Lane, an interim housing site in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, May 17, 2024.