The homeless crisis in Milpitas might be headed for a dead end. Some officials and advocates blame the mayor for exacerbating the problem. Milpitas, a city of roughly 80,000 people, started to see its homeless population balloon during the COVID-19 pandemic. An encampment behind the city’s library, one of the largest camps in Milpitas, has grown to...
Santa Clara starts task force to study homelessness
Santa Clara is assembling a task force aimed at tackling homelessness within the city and needs recruits. The city is working with San Francisco nonprofit Homebase to examine the needs and service gaps for the unhoused by creating a task force and strategic plan. The task force will be comprised of four to eight members, including...
Law group probes complaints at San Jose affordable housing site
Complaints are emerging at a San Jose affordable housing complex—and housing lawyers are taking notice. Attorneys with the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley said several clients face eviction from Renascent Place, a housing site for chronically homeless and disabled people. The law group has heard complaints about property management firm John Stewart Company deactivating room keycards, maintenance workers entering...
California CARE Court could help get homeless, mentally ill off the streets
Gov. Gavin Newsom could change how the state handles its severe mentally ill—if he can persuade legislators to fund a proposal in the upcoming fiscal year budget. A Thursday morning event at Crossroads Village, a Momentum for Health mental health campus, brought together Silicon Valley advocates and politicians alike to learn about the new CARE...
Homeless advocates pitch tents at Milpitas City Hall
Pitched tents surrounded Milpitas City Hall Monday night, where advocates for the unhoused staged a campout to address the city’s ongoing homeless crisis. At tonight’s City Council meeting, recommendations will be heard from the Milpitas homeless task force over an issue riling up the community on both sides. While some elected officials such as Councilmembers...
Silicon Valley homeless tally guaranteed to be an undercount
As hundreds of volunteers went out before dawn to tally the number of people living on Silicon Valley streets this week, advocates say many are being left out of the count. The point-in-time homeless census count is part of a requirement for Santa Clara County to receive federal funding. The two-day event in Silicon Valley involves volunteers, lawmakers and advocates searching...
Volunteers scour Silicon Valley to tally homeless people
Geneva Strickland used to bounce from one street to another in North San Jose for more than six years before she found housing. On early Wednesday morning, Strickland came back to her old stomping ground with new purpose—to count the number of people who are still homeless. “I want to give back,” Strickland told San José...
San Jose homeless wary of housing at police parking lot
After decades of criminalizing the homeless—often profiling and citing individuals—San Jose now wants to house them. The San Jose City Council announced last October that a parking lot at the San Jose Police Department headquarters along Guadalupe Parkway would serve as a site for temporary homeless housing. City officials broke ground on Feb. 9 and...
Misleading notice scares San Jose homeless residents, may skew headcount
Homeless advocates worry that a misleading cleanup notice has prompted homeless residents along Guadalupe River to leave their camps—days ahead of an important census count. On early Friday morning, San Jose officials and contractors pulled up in trucks at the sprawling encampment along the Guadalupe River Creek near Columbus Park to haul away trash, tents...
Santa Clara County expands homeless prevention services, lacks housing
Two years after adopting a multi-prong plan to address the growing homelessness crisis in Silicon Valley, Santa Clara County and San Jose are making some headway. But advocates and officials say the work is far from finished. Since January 2020, Santa Clara County has cut the number of people falling into homelessness annually by more...