Homeless Prevention Services Touted In Santa Clara County

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA — Santa Clara County prevented homelessness for nearly 4,000 local residents over the last two and a half years, officials said during a news conference Thursday.

Advocates and legislators representing local homeless people held a news conference Thursday morning at San Jose's Sacred Heart Community Service center to brief the public on the county's successes in reducing the growing number of unhoused people in the region, Jennifer Loving, CEO of San Jose's Destination: Home, said.

"Silicon Valley, like many places in the state of California and the nation, are seeing a rising tide of people becoming homeless," Loving said. "And a lot of this is due to rising rents, wages not keeping pace with housing, the lack of deeply affordable housing stock, displacement and gentrification."

Loving said Silicon Valley sees two- to three-times as many people going into homelessness than there are people leaving homelessness throughout the year. The county also saw 161 homeless deaths last year, which is a rise from the 157 deaths from the year prior.

And while the county works toward housing more of the thousands still living on the streets on any given day, Loving said, it will be for naught and "we're going to continue to have this massive humanitarian crisis in our midst."

County legislators and homeless advocacy organizations in 2017 jump started a homeless Prevention System - funded by both public and private monies - which officials on Thursday said has helped 1,338 households countywide, including a total 3,957 individuals.

Since then, 95 percent of those households remained stably housed and received an average of $4,106 in direct financial assistance while being served by the county's prevention system. Also, just eight percent of those households over the last year became homeless after leaving the prevention program, according to Destination: Home.

"We track the information and we know this intervention is working," Loving continued, though she also leveled with the reality of the county's situation. "But we are only able to help the amount of people that we have the resources to, and so this system is turning families away simply because we don't have enough money."

Loving remains hopeful in the county's ongoing efforts to quash the suffering of homelessness - which plagues a vast majority of working-class families making well-below poverty-level wages and spending half, or more, of their income on rent.

Loving, alongside Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Cindy Chavez and San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, pushed for local voters in San Jose to approve Measure E in the upcoming March primary election - a measure the three county leaders are hoping will make it onto this November's election ballot - to aid in combating homelessness in the county's largest city.

Measure E proposes imposing a real property transfer tax on homes valued over $2 million, with that revenue going to fund more homeless housing projects and services for seniors, veterans, families and poverty-stricken individuals.

The measure is estimated by the city of San Jose to generate about $70 million annually if passed.Chavez said Thursday that pushing for wide support in homeless prevention should be a significant priority for the county, like how it was a priority when two-thirds of county voters in 2016 approved Measure A - a 10-year, $950 million affordable housing bond that has set a goal of 4,800 new, permanent and supportive units for homeless and housing insecure people by 2036.

"What we found is that we spend a lot less money if we can put someone in a home than we do if they're just out on the street," Chavez said, noting that the county currently has 2,100 units in the pipeline waiting to be built and opened. "We spend less in ambulances, we spend less in hospitals, we spend less in the jails - we just spend less as a society. It's not only the right thing to do, but it's cost effective."

Chavez again pushed for local support when she said "whatever San Jose needs, they're leading. Let's help them do it."San Jose's mayor then urged the public's support for "the solutions we know that work in this crisis," which are housing for homeless people and homeless prevention.

"We know we're housing thousands of folks," Liccardo said. "We just know that we're not housing them fast enough because the economy is pushing too many folks back out onto the street. And so as a result, we certainly decided we're all in because we need more solutions."

Liccardo also said Thursday that if San Jose voters don't approve the upcoming Measure E, the city will have one of two options.

"We'll continue to muddle through with the inadequate resources we have, or we find areas to cut to focus dollars on the crisis we face," Liccardo said. "And none of those cuts look friendly for a community that doesn't have nearly enough police officers, nearly enough after-school learning programs or nearly enough fire stations."

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