Santa Clara County Homelessness Digest

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.

Gov. Gavin Newsom wants counties to spend some revenue from California’s so-called “millionaire’s tax” on the state’s homeless crisis. That alarms advocates for programs that are getting that money today.

Many local governments see voter majorities approve bond measures without reaching the two-thirds required. A new effort to reform that system would drastically improve the ability of local governments to fund housing and infrastructure projects.

The California Department of Health Care Services has awarded $6.4 million to San-Jose based nonprofit Pathway Society to construct a 30-bed detox facility adjacent to Pathway House.

A new study suggests that relatively modest financial efforts to prevent homelessness have been remarkably successful. Vulnerable residents receiving emergency financial help were 81% less likely to become homeless within six months and 73% less likely within 12 months.

San Jose city zookeeper Amanda Maulding never thought securing her dream job would lead to her being homeless, but within two years of starting her job it became clear she was never going to make enough to pay rent.

Despite efforts by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to shelter more than 14,000 people this year, the city's homeless population keeps growing. That does not necessarily mean her signature program is failing. The larger question: How does California measure success?

The lack of enough places for everyone to live has sent coastal rent prices inland, removing large swaths of previously cheaper rental units.

After months of delay, a safe parking site for homeless residents has opened at the Santa Teresa VTA light rail station in San Jose, with 42 spaces for homeless people living in their vehicles.

Campbell resident Anjani Nabar and San Jose resident Sameet Das, both students at Mitty High School in Willow Glen, founded the nonprofit Code Red to support people facing both period poverty and homelessness by providing them with hygiene kits.

California’s more than 170,000 unhoused people often lack the means and mobility to locate and visit a doctor who will accept them. At least 25 street medicine teams throughout the state are trying to fill that gap by providing health care to unhoused individuals in need.

Karen Tanveer is a recent high school graduate, except unlike some of her peers, she has dealt with homelessness her whole life. But a new county guaranteed income program will give local students like her financial relief.

When San Jose Councilmember Omar Torres was challenged to sleep in a homeless shelter, he responded by staying at two different sites: a Salvation Army sober living center and Casitas de Esperanza, a shelter run by nonprofit Amigos de Guadalupe.

Palo Alto cemented its commitment to building a three-story shelter for unhoused individuals near the Baylands when the City Council approved a nine-year lease with the nonprofit LifeMoves to advance the project.

Quick-build temporary shelters are faster and cheaper—that’s been Mayor Matt Mahan's pitch. City analysis shows that if San Jose developed all of these projects, it would cost $60 million a year to operate them.

If things go as planned, Palo Alto will soon see two large new facilities go up on San Antonio Road, east of U.S. Highway 101: a housing complex for some of the city's poorest residents and a plant that will purify wastewater.

San Jose officials are being challenged by a formerly homeless resident to stay in a shelter before voting to open more—and one is up for the offer.

A new state bill would give the Santa Clara Valley Water District expanded authority to help thousands of homeless people living along creeks, streams and other district lands find housing and services.