Santa Clara County Opens New Mental Health Housing in San José

Santa Clara County officials celebrated the opening of a new residential treatment facility in San José on Thursday that will provide shared living space for people in jail diversion programs with mental health treatment needs.

The opening of what’s known as the Vermont House, just off The Alameda, will add 15 beds to the county’s growing inventory of places for people who need transitional housing and different levels of treatment or services.

“Having a stable and secure roof over one’s head helps to diminish all of the other challenges one may face,” Board of Supervisors President Otto Lee said Thursday during an event marking the opening.

“By investing in these additional pathway-toward-treatment services, we can get more people toward care more quickly so that they can get the help they need. And by investing in these programs, we’re improving the quality of life for everyone in our community,” Lee said.

The Vermont House beds are spread across two homes, each of which will include a room for a live-in manager or site supervisor, and there will be “wraparound” services for tenants, including case management to help with things such as job placement or benefits applications. There will also be security on site during the week, at night and on weekends, officials said.

Melissa Santos, head of people and workforce development at Community Solutions, the contractor who operates Vermont House for the county, said the program’s clients also can receive support for shopping and meal planning and therapy sessions, among other services.

“Essentially, the idea is independent living. We’re building their skills, and we’re helping them to gain the skills that they need to then go on with the next chapter of their lives,” Santos said.

The program aims to keep clients at the home for about six months to a year, and, during that time, works to find a permanent housing opportunity for them, whether it be an individual apartment or rejoining family or friends.

The county purchased the Vermont House property from San José in January using a California Health Facilities Financing Authority grant. The city previously ran a program for housing formerly homeless veterans at the site.

The house will now serve as a “middle ground for people leaving incarceration whose mental health does not require hospitalization or crisis stabilization, but would benefit from a structured treatment environment and support,” the county said in a statement.

“Everyone, every resident here will have their own bedroom, their own space, closet, bed, beautiful light, windows and a dresser and the ability to close the door and to have privacy and security while they are proceeding on their journey back toward health,” Supervisor Susan Ellenberg said Thursday.

“When residents walk through here, my anticipation and hope is that they immediately feel at home, that they feel well taken care of, that they feel comfortable,” she said.

During the event on Thursday, Ellenberg and other supervisors appeared to allude to an ongoing war of words with San José Mayor Matt Mahan, with whom they have clashed over his recently approved Responsibility to Shelter plan, which aims to get unhoused people into temporary housing by arresting them if they refuse shelter multiple times.

Mahan has called on the county to expand shelter and treatment services as part of his campaign around the program.

“Every level of government bears responsibility,” Ellenberg said in an interview. “So, of course, we need to expand services, and we are working with urgency to do so. We are literally moving at the fastest speed possible in order to expand these services. I would love to see all of our cities work at that same speed to expand the supply of housing at all levels of income.”

Supervisor Betty Duong, who represents the area where the  Vermont House is located, said such facilities will be critical in the push to end homelessness.

“We know that true solutions require critical, clinical, true compassion and care. This is not a problem that we can incarcerate and criminalize our way out of,” Duong said during the event.

Under Ellenberg and Lee’s leadership, the county in 2022 declared a mental health crisis and set a goal to add 530 more beds for people with varying mental health needs by 2030, on top of the 1,060 the county oversaw at the time.

The county is nearly 40% toward the goal, officials said, having added 208 beds since July 1, 2022, including a mix of acute facilities, mental health community homes, substance use homes and withdrawal management centers.

Another 227 beds are in the pipeline, the county said, including 77 in development at the planned Behavioral Health Services Center on the Valley Medical Center campus.

Also on Thursday, supervisors were expected to approve the county’s annual budget, including about $870 million for behavioral health programs and services, the county said. The funds will go toward expanding treatment bed capacity, substance use treatment services and a new mobile narcotic treatment program, among other programs.