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Palo Alto Mayor Greer Stone expressed interest in collaborating with East Palo Alto Mayor Antonio López in creating a multi-city plan to address homelessness, after López pitched the idea following calls from Gov. Gavin Newsom to clear encampments on July 25.
Foster City Mayor Pat Sullivan and Half Moon Bay Mayor Joaquin Jimenez have also expressed interest in collaborating, according to an East Palo Alto press release.
López pitched the plan to form “regional partnerships” with neighboring cities to share resources like housing, mental health services and shelters on Aug. 21. Within the partnership, cities would ideally pay a fee and then have access to equal mutual aid, López said in the August press conference.
While the city of East Palo Alto continues to determine the logistics of the plan, Stone said he supports the general idea of sharing resources and best practices to address homelessness, especially across the Peninsula, where there are “so many smaller and medium-sized cities,” he said.
“Having a plan in place, where we have similar policies from city to city is going to make the most sense,” Stone said. “I think that East Palo Alto’s approach is the right one.”
López plans to propose a city ordinance to remove East Palo Alto encampments on Sept. 17, and if the city proceeds, it would give people two warnings to clear out their belongings and move into a shelter. The city will not issue citations or “relocate” people who might refuse shelter, López said in August.
Stone believes it is not ethical to penalize people who refuse services, he said, and echoed López’s approach.
“But the concern that I had, the unanswered question was what do we do after providing these two warnings?” Stone said. “What’s the final offer?”
López said that if people refuse shelter, the city could rely on more experienced outreach groups, but he believes the plan, with more wrap-around services, will reduce homelessness.
“In the past two years, contrary to other cities, we’ve actually reduced our homelessness, by over half,” López said. “I’m very confident that with increased resources, we can drastically reduce those numbers.”
The city may then work with the remaining people on a case-by-case basis, he said.
Still, Stone hopes that aligning with neighboring cities on homelessness policy will ensure people who are homeless won’t simply move from one city to another without getting into shelter.
In 2022, there were 274 people who were homeless in Palo Alto, slightly down from 313 in 2019, which is the most recent information, according to the Santa Clara County Point in Time Report on Homelessness, which records how many people are living on the street or in shelters on a given day.
“This is an issue that no one has been able to solve, so I think it’s important for us to work together,” he said.
Currently, there is no timeline as to when Palo Alto might begin its collaboration with East Palo Alto, Stone said.
