Cupertino’s homeless percentage skyrockets

One city saw the highest percentage increase in homelessness across Santa Clara County in two years — and it comes as no surprise to advocates.

Cupertino’s homeless population surged 110.4% between 2023 and 2025, from 48 unhoused, unsheltered residents to 101. The city of about 60,000, home to Apple’s headquarters, topped Palo Alto, which increased 102.9% from 206 homeless residents to 418. Advocates said the data more accurately represents the steady increase in homelessness they’ve witnessed in Cupertino for years, after they said it was undercounted two years ago.

This year’s point-in-time count, part of a biennial tally of the county’s homeless population, differed from 2023 because it included nonprofit West Valley Community Services, which understands the city’s homeless population. The county used a new vendor and app to track the data from previous years. Volunteers also surveyed residents directly.

Sujatha Venkatraman, West Valley Community Services executive director, said including the nonprofit helped the data’s accuracy. She said the data isn’t surprising and doesn’t indicate a new trend, but rather shows the consistent rise in residents who are rent-burdened or have lost their jobs. She said the nonprofit served about four new clients per week seeking food or basic assistance last year.

She added it’s hard to escape homelessness in the West Valley.

“West Valley cities — we’re still these hidden pockets,” Venkatraman told San José Spotlight. “I’m glad the count showed the actual need, so now we can collaborate more with the county, with our cities and even our electeds to make sure we bring in some of these services.”

Venkatraman is optimistic the data will bring more services to Cupertino that usually go to larger cities such as San Jose. The nonprofit only has one caseworker for 255 homeless residents in the West Valley.

Cupertino’s homeless community makes up about 1% of the 10,711 unhoused residents countywide, but it has fewer resources and little to no nearby shelter options, after the North County Shelter in Sunnyvale transitioned from housing single adults to families with children. Cupertino relies on the county for homeless services.

The city’s homeless policy includes county and Sheriff’s Office outreach before unhoused residents are swept. If there’s a shelter bed available, the county offers it. But the region doesn’t have enough resources for the whole community, with one bed for every three homeless residents.

Cupertino resident Susan Colley, homeless for about seven years, was surprised by how much the new data increased. Colley, 60, said advocates have been working to find her housing. She wants housed residents in the city to understand homeless people are just like any other neighbor.

“It’s our neighborhood and we’re very protective of it,” she told San José Spotlight.

The data also aligns with the numbers from the area’s rotating safe car parking program, where unhoused residents use church parking lots as a place to sleep.

Finny Abraham, WestGate Church compassion pastor and program leader, said the Saratoga location primarily sees people from the Cupertino area. It regularly serves more than 20 cars a night, up from the eight to 10 cars the program saw before 2024.

Abraham said the Saratoga program is larger than the church’s San Jose location. He said most people are newly homeless and many are older women.

“These are human beings, and there needs to be a real human connection to (care). (That) should not be forgotten,” Abraham told San José Spotlight. “We can do everything (policywise), but if we don’t have the human element to it, I don’t think there will be a change in the cycle.”

Cupertino is collaborating with the four other West Valley municipalities on a shelter feasibility study to work on the issue. But recently the city began requiring permits for RVs parked on public streets, displacing some homeless residents living in the vehicles.
Councilmember Sheila Mohan said she’s willing to try most solutions in a multi-pronged approach, including a hotel program mirrored off of Los Gatos and Campbell, where homeless residents can stay in a room during inclement weather.

“There’s a lot of empathy for these people,” she told San José Spotlight. “It’s our obligation to make sure that the housing solutions that we come up with can work for these people as well.”

Venkatraman wants a van to bring resources straight to homeless encampments as a solution to address the lack of resources.

“We have a deficit in the sense of not meeting the needs in the community,” she said. “We’re not building affordable housing fast enough… We have a huge bandwidth issue.”

Contact Annalise Freimarck at [email protected] or follow @annalise_ellen on X.