Rows of bunk beds in a homeless shelter in San Jose
Privacy panels have been added between the beds at Boccardo Reception Center, a congregate homeless shelter in San Jose. Photo by Joyce Chu.

San Jose’s largest congregate homeless shelter serving individuals has been updated to offer more privacy for residents.

The 250-bed Boccardo Reception Center on Little Orchard Street, operated by nonprofit HomeFirst, has gone through a $150,000 renovation funded by Housing Industry Foundation. Upgrades include adding privacy panels between every bed, installing panels between the main shelter floor and bathrooms, painting the interior and overhauling the lobby to add office spaces and bathrooms.

“These seem like a small thing, but … now those residents, when they’re sleeping or sitting on their beds, they have some privacy,” Steve Sullivan, executive director of nonprofit Housing Industry Foundation, said at a Friday news conference.

The foundation funds renovations for shelters and temporary housing, filling a gap residents don’t realize is there, Sullivan said.

“Most people are focused on building homes or new units, and that’s understandable, but we often don’t think about what are the needs for shelters?” Sullivan told San José Spotlight. “We fill a very real need, a very specific need.”

A man and a woman stand inside talking
Housing Industry Foundation Executive Director Steve Sullivan and HomeFirst Chief Program Officer Beatriz Ramos attended a ribbon cutting for the updated shelter on Jan. 24, 2025. Photo by Joyce Chu.

The bathrooms built at the front lobby are ADA-accessible to better serve aging and disabled residents.

“The services offered at the shelter are vital and these renovations will fulfill our mission more effectively,” HomeFirst CEO René Ramirez said at the news conference.

HomeFirst offers meals and case management services at the shelter, which opened in 1997. There is no timeline for when people living at the shelter need to leave in order to give them space to get back on their feet.

“We want to work with individuals and make sure that they have an action plan and that they can take successful steps in exiting their homelessness. That includes (offering) extensions,” HomeFirst Chief Program Officer Beatriz Ramos said.

San Jose has about 6,340 homeless residents, the largest homeless population in the county, and the fourth highest homeless population in the U.S. With thousands of new households falling into homelessness, there is a growing demand for housing and services while fundraising becomes more difficult, Sullivan said.

HomeFirst serves between 6,000 to 6,500 people a year in Santa Clara County and provides a variety of homeless support services at shelters, hotels converted to temporary housing, tiny home locations and through street outreach.
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The foundation tries to take some pressure off service providers by renovating spaces that see a constant flow of homeless people.

“(Organizations) don’t have to spend the money that they would have spent on renovations, so they can put it toward programs,” Sullivan said.

Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X. 

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