Silicon Valley lawmaker secures millions for veteran housing

The redevelopment of a San Jose housing site for veterans has been bolstered with funding secured by a Silicon Valley lawmaker.

Congressman Ro Khanna has secured a more than $3 million grant for the veterans shelter at 10 Kirk Ave. in East San Jose. The money will be used for site improvements that include a potential redevelopment for a portion of the property into permanent veteran housing. The grant comes from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Project Funding, which provides money for economic development projects and infrastructure improvements.

“I’m absolutely committed to our veterans and getting more funding for this center,” Khanna told San José Spotlight. “I have such respect for those who wear the uniform.”

During Khanna’s site visit, veteran Anthony Aiello shared with the congressman how he’d appreciate some respect and better treatment from site workers. Nonprofit Abode Services operates the site and provides food, supportive services and case management to the 50-bed facility.

“We’re not happy. We don’t deserve to be talked to this way, and it’s not coming from (just) me,” Aiello told Khanna. “I just don’t understand how we can be of service to our country and sometimes the way people talk to us veterans, we just stand there and go, ‘Do they know that we put our lives on the line to keep our flag flying?'”

Khanna said he was moved by Aiello’s story.

“It shows why it matters for people in positions of power, folks like me, to come here. It’s not just about bringing back the funding, it’s about showing up, being present,” Khanna told San José Spotlight. “Hopefully his life will be better and that we will have people treated with more respect.”

Vivian Wan, CEO of Abode Services, said the nonprofit is looking into the staff issues and will remedy them.

“It’s important that we honor them in the way they honored us,” Wan told San José Spotlight. “It’s really important that people can live in high quality places, so being able to do renovations in the shelter is really important.”

Abode runs both a shelter program and renter program at the site. There are 40 rooms for the shelter program, where veterans can stay at least 60 days. There are 10 rooms for the renter program, where veterans pay for their rooms using federal housing vouchers called HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing or HUD-VASH. Veterans in the renter program do not have a time limit for their stays, but are expected to provide their own meals.

The 4.26 acre property is comprised of eight, single-story buildings with individual rooms and bathrooms built between 1963 and 1993. The county is planning to demolish two buildings that are considered uninhabitable and create more housing for veterans. The county is holding listening sessions with veterans, neighbors and residents to solidify what the redevelopment will look like.

Santa Clara County acquired the site in 2023 to save it from further neglect and deterioration. Formerly homeless veterans had been living for years with bed bugs, black mildew, fire hazards and a lack of warm water. The facility relied on outdated evacuation plans, had disconnected fire sprinklers and unsafe electrical systems. At that time, the site was being operated by nonprofit Homeless Veterans Emergency Housing Facility.

The county replaced the operator with Abode in October 2024, but problems continued. Some rooms didn’t have hot water, while mold and what appeared to be bed bugs persisted. Veterans previously told San José Spotlight that Abode was unresponsive to their needs.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren secured $1 million in federal funding in 2024 to help support time sensitive repairs, including installing a new HVAC system, fixing plumbing and mold remediation. Renovations in some buildings are ongoing.

Since the acquisition, the county has fixed the fire sprinklers, installed new piping, re-roofed several buildings, remediated the mold in some buildings, pumped standing water out of the basement and installed air conditioning in some rooms, among other repairs.

Last February the county moved nine remaining vets to a hotel in Milpitas while it made interior renovations in two buildings. The majority of those vets returned about a month ago after renovations in one of the buildings finished. But they remain frustrated with the way the site is being run — including the lack of hot water, no Wi-Fi access and no access to kitchen facilities to make their own meals.

Santa Clara County Office of Supportive Housing Director Kathryn Kaminski said a fix for the hot water is on its way.

“We acquired this building before knowing all the issues,” Kaminski told San José Spotlight. “We knew it needed work, we knew we wanted to provide a better environment for the veterans, but didn’t know all the issues until people were living here and experiencing these issues. We will do everything we can to fix things as quickly as possible.”