San Jose Opens a 136-Unit Tiny Home Village as Unsheltered Homelessness Falls

In November 2025, San Jose, California opened a new tiny home community on Cherry Avenue — 136 compact units offering people experiencing homelessness a private, dignified place to sleep, paired with the services they need to find their footing. Built on land made available through a partnership with the Santa Clara Valley Water District, the roughly 18.3 million dollar site became the city's 11th temporary housing community to open in a single year, lifting San Jose's total interim capacity to nearly 1,240 spaces.

The village is more than a row of cabins. Residents have access to case management, security, meals and a structured pathway toward permanent housing, with services provided through the nonprofit HomeFirst. The model rests on a simple insight: it is far easier to help someone rebuild their life when they have a stable, safe place to return to each night. "This community reflects our belief that every person deserves a chance to rebuild their lives," said San Jose Vice Mayor Pam Foley at the opening, as reported by Local News Matters.

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The data suggests the approach is working. San Jose has reduced unsheltered homelessness by more than 1,000 people since 2022 — a roughly 10 percent decline — even as the rest of California saw unsheltered homelessness rise by about 10 percent over a comparable period. In a state where homelessness has often felt intractable, a city moving in the opposite direction is a hopeful outlier worth understanding.

Part of the secret is collaboration across levels of government, with a water agency contributing land it was not otherwise using. "I urge all government institutions to consider this dynamic intergovernmental relationship," said Valley Water Director Jim Beall, pointing to a model that other cities could replicate. None of this solves homelessness on its own; tiny home villages are interim shelter, a bridge rather than a destination. But for the people moving in this winter, that bridge means a door that locks, a roof that holds and a team committed to helping them reach something more permanent — and for a community, it is proof that steady, coordinated effort can bend the curve.