Santa Clara County Homelessness Digest

San Diego-area nonprofits and faith organizations struggle to provide for tens of thousands of migrants border agents have released on San Diego streets.

The state is making nearly $300 million in additional grant money available for local governments to clear homeless encampments, with a focus on areas near state highways and Interstate Highways, and provide housing options for people.

The number of homeless high school students and families in one East San Jose school district has increased threefold in just three years. 

Berkeley public works staff and police officers began closing the longstanding encampment along Seventh and Eighth streets in an “imminent health hazard and emergency abatement,” which was ordered to tackle safety concerns.

California’s population of homeless veterans has plateaued despite billions of dollars in state spending to create housing for former service members. Now, Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to shift resources to focus on veterans with serious mental health conditions.

As Palo Alto moves ahead with construction of a housing complex for homeless individuals in the Baylands, state Sen. Josh Becker is advancing a bill that he hopes will make these types of projects much more common across California.

A Santa Clara County spokesperson said the county granted permission to the city to clear out Four Corners after conditions at the encampment had “deteriorated” from a recent homicide, suicide, overdoses and arson.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan unveiled the first iteration of city “scorecards” to track progress in key areas,  hoping this will serve as a model nationwide.

Palo Alto’s elected leaders joined state dignitaries and housing advocates to celebrate the construction of a housing project that is unlike any other in the city: an apartment complex focused on unhoused individuals.

H4U does constant outreach, bringing food and hygiene packs to Milpitas’ unhoused residents while also doing more intensive work to help them get off the streets and into permanent housing.

When Palo Alto asked local churches to open their parking lots to people who live in their cars, city leaders saw it as a small solution to the giant problem of homelessness. Pleased with the results, they’re now looking to expand it.

A San Jose housing operator is receiving millions in funding to address homelessness, despite growing concerns by city officials about the non-profit’s performance and racial profiling allegations.

As part of its long-term vision to stem the tide of homelessness, the city of Mountain View is planning to convert two of its safe parking lots into affordable housing.

Though San Jose Mayor Mahan invited four labor groups representing Valley Transportation Authority workers to receive an award for collaborating to secure more housing options for homeless people in San Jose at the Cerone VTA yard, the leaders are declining the award.

Tiny homes are increasingly California cities’ shelter option of choice — but how far they go in solving homelessness is a contentious question.

South Bay philanthropist John A. Sobrato wants to lend a hand and land to ease the city's transitional housing shortage, offering a five-year lease for $1 per year to construct a 150-bed interim housing project on one of his parcels.

San Jose leaders are looking to cut costs while continuing to fund temporary housing solutions, a main approach of the mayor's plan to solve homelessness.

Homeless service provider HomeFirst agreed to a six-month extension of its existing pilot program with Sunnyvale, contingent on city officials receiving detailed data about sheltered bed usage for its homeless residents.

San Jose is considering adding safe sleeping sites to its long-running list of homelessness responses—an idea officials have shot down before.

An affordable housing development centered on homeless foster youth will break ground in San Jose next month.

After a monthslong debate between local leaders, San Jose is set to receive 200 temporary housing units for homeless residents in North San Jose—with help from the local transit agency and the state.

Whether a result of politics or caution, San Jose’s hopes of opening an interim housing site at a public transit lot in the northern part of the city may not happen exactly how leaders want.

NAACP representatives have accused HomeFirst of racially profiling employees and voiced their anger in front of the homeless service provider's headquarters.

San Jose leaders say homelessness is a crisis, and they intend to jumpstart their stalled progress in meeting ambitious housing goals.

The SureStay Motel, which offers temporary housing and services to homeless seniors, is changing service providers for the third time in two years. HomeFirst will start providing food, case management and security, taking the reins from LifeMoves, another non-profit service provider who stepped in for Abode Services last October.

The newly renovated Arena Hotel in San Jose has reopened to help some of the city's most vulnerable residents, and it's already turned on the no vacancy sign.

Sunnyvale’s contract with its homeless service provider is on thin ice, and officials are demanding more answers. The Sunnyvale City Council voted 4-3 to not renew the city's $407,430 contract with HomeFirst.

San Jose spent $24 million in federal grants last year aimed at addressing homelessness. Of the more than 1,000 people experiencing homelessness that city-funded nonprofits reportedly connected with, less than 10% eventually transitioned into any type of housing.

Officials are struggling to solve the growing number of RVs lining city streets. Mayor Matt Mahan and three San Jose councilmembers want to explore ways to manage homeless residents living in vehicles while simultaneously ramping up available safe parking sites.

San Jose has spent years and millions of dollars to open its safe parking site at the Santa Teresa VTA light rail station—but it is practically empty.

Valley Water is introducing two new approaches to combating pollution created by homeless encampments near creeks—portable toilets and debit cards.

County officials are hoping to coordinate support for the Salvation Army’s expansion of Emmanuel House shelter at 359 N. Fourth St. from 70 beds to 112 during a 10-month renovation project.