More than a dozen homeless advocates and unsheltered individuals protested at a rally in San Jose on Friday against Santa Clara County’s approach to protecting unhoused people from the novel coronavirus. The county is pushing unhoused individuals into shelters instead of the safer option of sheltering them in hotel and motel rooms, protestors said. It...
Real estate experts talk COVID-19 impacts on tech, government and economy
The coronavirus changed how — and even if — Silicon Valley works following statewide and regional orders to stay home. But real estate insiders say it may change the way employees work long after the outbreak, too. “I truly believe the biggest change coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 will be the downsizing...
Bay Area rental market rates expected to drop due to COVID-19
Even in the pricey Silicon Valley market, rents are expected to drop as tenants across the country settle into stay-at-home mandates that have upended their finances amid the coronavirus crisis. Market-rate Bay Area rents saw the slowest start of the season since 2017, rising 2.3 percent compared to last year, landing at an average monthly...
Reports detail Silicon Valley’s housing crisis pre-coronavirus
As the stock market plunges, so may the real estate market. The coronavirus pandemic will shatter San Jose’s ambitious plans for housing growth over the next two years, some officials said. “We absolutely need to build more housing and we’re not going to make our target (of) 25,000 homes by 2022,” San Jose Councilmember Pam...
San Jose homeless struggle to get necessities during COVID-19 shutdown
Everyone has been affected by the region’s stay-home mandate, but those in San Jose without homes say the order has left them without ways to meet their basic needs. Four homeless residents and several homeless advocates spoke to San José Spotlight this week to share how the shelter-in-place order, which went into effect March 17,...
Efforts to house homeless during COVID-19 may lead to long-term housing options
At-risk homeless Californians are moving into trailers, motels and hotels, where they can isolate under a program Gov. Gavin Newsom said could become a long-term solution in California and a model for other states as COVID-19 spreads. Counties and cities, including Santa Clara County, have worked with the state to lease more than 7,000 rooms and...
Santa Clara County repurposes fairgrounds to protect homeless from coronavirus
Santa Clara County will soon use its fairgrounds to shelter at least five dozen homeless residents and provide trailers to socially isolate people with mild cases or symptoms of coronavirus in its latest effort to limit the spread of the pandemic. The 150-acre area normally hosts events like weddings and dog training. Now, it will...
San Jose advocates provide supplies to help homeless fight coronavirus
While most people are huddled indoors because of the novel coronavirus, activist Shaunn Cartwright instead found herself on Friday headed to a San Jose homeless encampment. She’s done it countless times before. But now she’s there to ask a potentially life-saving question. “Has anybody come by to talk to you about the virus?” Cartwright asked....
San Jose approves $2M for coronavirus homeless prevention fund
Following a statewide directive to shelter-in-place, San Jose leaders on Tuesday unanimously approved allocating $2 million to fund homelessness prevention services for low-income families at risk of being pushed into poverty. Santa Clara County’s Board of Supervisors on Tuesday also approved an additional $2 million to the same $11 million fund meant to provide rent assistance...
As coronavirus spreads, Newsom works to secure hospital beds, find rooms for homeless
California Gov. Gavin Newsom in the past 36 hours has announced a slew of measures to combat coronavirus, including placing the state’s National Guard on alert, devoting money to secure hospital beds, trailers and shelters for homeless residents and signing orders to peg $1 billion to slow the spread of the deadly virus. As of...