SANTA CLARA, Calif. (KRON) — The Santa Clara City Council is moving forward with an interim housing project aimed to serve unsheltered families despite strong pushback from residents and some councilmembers.

“There is too many of these things not certain for me that protect our community, so not supporting it,” Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor said.

“If this was market-rate housing, would the majority be opposed to that?” said Santa Clara city councilmember Anthony Becker.

Tuesday night’s city council meeting was full of people holding signs in opposition of the housing. A 30-unit complex would be built on county-owned land on the corner of Lawrence Expressway and Benton Street.

The council voted four to three to partner with the nonprofit, Life Moves, to build and manage the units.

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“I have issues with this thing. First of all, I’m not convinced with the track record of Life Moves. To them, we are giving out $3.5 million, managing 30 units. It comes out to be $115,000 per unit of managing those units” said Santa Clara city councilmember Raj Chahal.

The project comes at a time when the number of unhoused residents has increased three percent from 2019 to 2022.