Lack of West Valley homeless shelters prompts action

James, an unhoused Campbell resident, has a hard time trekking to the closest shelter in San Jose roughly 5 1/2 miles away. He avoids shelters, preferring to move around, but would go to a safe one if any were nearby.

“I’m surviving right now, I’m surviving,” he told San José Spotlight. “(I’m) getting stuff I need out here.”

The 40-year-old, who asked to use only his first name, is one of hundreds of unhoused residents left without access to a walk-in homeless shelter in the West Valley, a region void of shelters with limited resources. That situation could change due to a shift in perception about the region’s responsibility to its unhoused residents, with one city spearheading a potential solution.

The Campbell City Council unanimously supported a $100,000 West Valley shelter feasibility study earlier this month using some of its remaining American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds. The study is one of the first in the West Valley to explore creating a local shelter for the more than 200 unhoused people in the area, according to the 2023 point-in-time count, which advocates said is often an undercount.

The study will begin around December after Campbell selects a company to take on the task. It could expand some of the city’s existing limited resources, such as free lunches for older adults at the Campbell Community Center five days a week, safe overnight parking for people living in their cars and police outreach connecting unhoused people with resources outside the city.

Campbell is close to hiring an unhoused coordinator, a new position, for a two-year pilot program to help address homelessness while conducting the study. The city is also examining the use of ARPA money to fund a hotel voucher program where unhoused residents have access to a room temporarily.

Jon Pedigo, parochial vicar at St. Lucy Catholic Parish in Campbell, has worked primarily with the San Jose unhoused community for about 33 years. San Jose has the fourth largest homeless population per capita in the country; yet he is surprised by the number of homeless residents in the West Valley.

He said the problem is more hidden in this part of Santa Clara County, making it harder to address, and that a local shelter could be helpful for people who can’t travel far distances.

“It’s not just giving them a shelter and that’s an insulting way (to view it). I think it’s more than that,” he told San José Spotlight. “It’s the care, it’s the healing that has to happen, it’s the care of their animals that are there, it’s the companionship that they need to experience.”

Longstanding problem

Campbell isn’t the only West Valley municipality struggling with homelessness and fewer resources.

In Cupertino, homelessness and hunger nonprofit West Valley Community Services (WVCS) serves 244 unhoused clients and provides groceries and case management services. Cupertino has provided grants to the nonprofit for its work with the county.

The city also works with volunteer organizations, including churches, which offer a rotating safe parking program to residents with working cars, valid registration and driver’s licenses who pass screening. The city has received grants from Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian, which it used to support the program.

But for unhoused residents such as Susan Colley, 59 and living on Cupertino’s streets, there are no nearby walk-in shelters. The closest facility to Colley, who has been unhoused for roughly 5 1/2 years, is the North County Shelter in Sunnyvale, a roughly 6.1-mile journey by foot.

Colley is one of 25 WVCS clients who receive free transportation passes through VTA. She prefers not to use shelters due to concerns about theft, fights, pests, disease and her independence, but said using the bus to get to a shelter is not easy because she has to leave her belongings and isn’t guaranteed a bed for the night.

She said she would use a local shelter for laundry, showering and a mailing address.

Cassandra Magana, WVCS manager of policy and advocacy, said transportation is a big factor in unhoused residents’ ability to access resources. She said the limited amount of public transit passes the nonprofit gets for its large client base isn’t enough and that a local shelter or day center would help.

“It’s really hard for our unhoused clients to get around right now, especially because the West Valley region is so large. They just give up,” she told San José Spotlight. “It’s kind of like they lose hope.”

The county offers transportation to people who call its shelter hotline. Kathryn Kaminski, acting director of the Santa Clara County Office of Supportive Housing, said the department refers people from the West Valley to shelters countywide.

But Kaminski said homelessness is simply too large to handle under current conditions because there aren’t enough resources and shelters fill up. She said the county is working on expanding shelter services.

WVCS serves Los Gatos too. The town offers a hotel program where unhoused residents are provided a room during inclement weather and relies on the faith community for a food pantry and showers. Its police department also has a homeless liaison.

Cupertino Vice Mayor J.R. Fruen is a proponent of Campbell’s study.

“(Homelessness) arises everywhere, therefore the solution should be everywhere,” he told San José Spotlight.

A changing approach

The push for more homeless services represents a changing attitude in the West Valley.

Campbell Vice Mayor Sergio Lopez said the region previously viewed unhoused services as a county or larger city problem, especially because the West Valley is considered a more affluent area with a smaller unhoused population. But that’s shifting.

“What we’ve seen as this crisis has gotten worse is we have people struggling, just like any other community, and that perception only makes it more difficult to be able to offer them the kind of help and resources (they need),” he told San José Spotlight. “We’ve seen a real turning point where it’s this realization that this region has these challenges where we’re not immune from them.”

Los Gatos and Cupertino officials said the municipalities support Campbell’s study and look forward to collaborating on it, but Los Gatos officials said they are not looking to hire an unhoused specialist.

Simitian, who represents both communities, announced he would give Cupertino and Los Gatos $50,000 in grant funding for homeless services earlier this month.

Colley said that change is for the better.

“It’s not as much of an issue as it used to be because the awareness of the general public as to who we are and what we’re doing and the fact that we’re not all thieves and prostitutes is coming to light,” she told San José Spotlight. “That helps a lot.”

Pedigo said he hopes the West Valley’s efforts will provide a networked approach to the issue now that cities are taking action.

“The crisis doesn’t stop at the border of a city, so we do need to have a weaving of strategies,” he said.

Contact Annalise Freimarck at [email protected] or follow @annalise_ellen on X, formerly known as Twitter.