Los Gatos council refines strategic priorities, adds coordinated approach to homelessness

The Los Gatos Town Council on Tuesday unanimously approved modest revisions to its list of additional strategic priorities, adopting new language to guide work on unhoused residents and transportation as the town finalizes the FY26-27 budget.

Mayor Moore read the amended wording that the council approved for priority 11: "continue to engage community service providers to meet the individualized and complex needs of unhoused residents while pursuing a more coordinated regional approach." The council voted to adopt that wording after a discussion about staffing capacity and funding possibilities; the motion was seconded and passed with no opposition.

The mayor framed the change as a way to emphasize two objectives: targeting services to residents with complex behavioral-health and substance-use needs and coordinating ordinances and regional action with neighboring jurisdictions. Council members noted the town has available opioid-settlement funds that could support targeted behavioral-health interventions and that the next steps would likely include pursuing partnerships and bringing forward specific ordinances or contracts for council consideration.

Separately, the council revised the transportation-related additional priority to read in part that the town will "implement transportation demand management, traffic calming and other innovative efforts to mitigate traffic congestion and improve safety for all users, including bicycle and pedestrian improvements." That broader wording was intended to allow staff to continue the town pproved traffic modeling effort and to pursue bicycle/pedestrian projects when feasible; council members and staff emphasized the town lready has a Blossom Hill corridor grant and a traffic-modeling contract in progress.

Council members said they supported the changes while cautioning that moving from policy language to on-the-ground programs will depend on staff capacity and available funding. Town staff repeatedly cautioned that additional priorities should be pursued "as resources allow" and that comprehensive, interdepartmental ordinances or new service contracts would require dedicated staff time or outside contractors.

The council made the unhoused-residents revision following an extended exchange in which members discussed short-term services (meals, shelter referrals), the long-term barriers of mental health and addiction, and the risks of uncoordinated municipal responses that might shift encampments between neighboring cities.

Next steps: staff said it would bring more specific proposals back to council as funding options and partnership models are identified; the council did not appropriate new budget resources for either change at the meeting.