Sobrato provides land for 75 “tiny homes” in San Jose

One of the seminal developers behind the rise of Silicon Valley has made a 2-acre chunk of land available to the City of San Jose’s efforts to address homelessness.

The Sobrato Family Foundation — an offshoot of the Sobrato Organization — offered the land for five years on a $1-a-year lease, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The city plans to put 75 “tiny homes” on the property at Via del Oro and San Ignacio Avenue in South San Jose.

The offer forwarded by John Alblert Sobrato is part of a bid to increase its shelter and housing stock and meet obligations under the city’s state-mandated plan called a Housing Element.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan lauded Sobrato’s move.

“It gets private property into the game, into the effort to end street homelessness,” Mahan told the Mercury News. “There is a lot of underutilized privately held property that up until this point has sat on the sidelines because there hasn’t been a good replicable model for getting those property owners engaged.”

So-called tiny home shelters are typically less than 200 square feet, intended for two residents. The models expected on the Sobrato land will have beds and bathrooms, with an eye on housing domestic partners with room for their pets.

A San Francisco-based nonprofit called Dignity Moves is lined up to manage the development and provide social services.

The development would account for a significant slice of Mahan’s goal of moving 1,000 homeless people off the street by mid-2014. San Jose currently has an estimated 4,500 homeless residents without any shelter.

But given the Bay Area’s severe affordable housing shortage, finding permanent housing for shelter residents remains a challenge.

– Jerry Sullivan