DignityMoves Cherry Avenue

San Jose, California

A Dignified Place to Land for Unsheltered Homeless in San Jose

DignityMoves Cherry Avenue serves as a vital bridge for 136 San Jose residents experiencing unsheltered homelessness — offering doors that lock, wrap-around services, and a thoughtfully designed community to restore stability and dignity.

A group of people sitting at tables outside.

Trauma-Informed Design Prioritizes Privacy, Choice, and Dignity
Shared Community Spaces Foster Connection and Belonging
136 Private Rooms, Each With a Door That Locks
Replicable Model, Delivered in Just Under One Year
Public-Private Partnership Spanning Philanthropic, Corporate, Nonprofit, and Government Partners
Community Outreach Turned Neighborhood Opposition Into Advocacy
Gensler-Designed, Volunteer-Painted Murals and Placemaking Design
5-Year, 10+ Community Partnerships With DignityMoves

Every night, over 750,000 Americans experience homelessness, including tens of thousands of unhoused Californians. For many of these individuals, there’s rarely an option between living on the streets and the long wait for a permanent supportive housing unit. The cost and time it takes to build permanent housing push more people onto the sidewalks every day. Interim supportive housing bridges the gap by giving unhoused neighbors a safe place to land while much-needed housing comes online.

DignityMoves engaged Gensler to design a trauma-informed tiny home village to shelter the unhoused in San Jose, California. The project, funded through private philanthropy and state and local sources, reflects DignityMoves’ core belief that every person deserves dignity. Each of the 136 residents gets their own private room with a locking door paired with shared community spaces to foster connection. Gensler-designed, volunteer-painted murals draw from the surrounding Santa Cruz and Diablo mountain ranges, bringing warmth, color, and optimism to every corner.

Completed in under a year through a strong public-private partnership, Cherry Avenue demonstrates how interim supportive housing can effectively address unsheltered homelessness. Neighbors who initially opposed the project became its biggest advocates, volunteering and helping welcome residents before opening day. Part of San Jose’s citywide efforts that have meaningfully reduced street homelessness, Cherry Avenue joins more than 10 DignityMoves communities statewide in proving that cities leading with urgency and dignity can deliver interim housing thoughtfully and at scale.

A couple of people walking by a building with a blue roof.

A building with a large white structure.

“

When you design with dignity — a private room, a door that locks, a community that feels safe — people come inside. Mayor Mahan committed to this solution in San José, and the city saw a nearly 23% decrease in street homelessness. Cherry Avenue is part of that proof, and San José is on its way to being the first major U.S. city to end street homelessness.

—Elizabeth Funk, Co-Founder and CEO of DignityMoves

A group of people walking by a row of blue buildings.

A building with a parking lot and a body of water in the background.

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