Santa Clara is moving forward with plans to reduce homelessness, which include adding more shelter beds and increasing outreach.
The City Council on Tuesday reviewed a draft, two-year work plan detailing tactics for the city to decrease homelessness and support unsheltered residents. The plan outlines 34 projects and goals, such as piloting a safe parking program for people living in their vehicles, building a 90-bed homeless shelter for families and forming a two-person outreach team.
While the plan is scheduled to return to council for a final vote this fall, parts of it will be approved sooner — such as a one-year outreach contract with WeHOPE. In addition to creating the two-person outreach team, the agreement would also open up five hotel rooms where homeless people can stay for up to 30 days, and 10 hotel rooms for inclement weather. Councilmembers will vote on that contract July 15.
District 5 Councilmember Suds Jain said Santa Clara has taken multiple important steps to address homelessness this year, including setting aside money for an analyst to manage the plan.
“I’m very optimistic that we’re actually making substantial progress,” Jain told San José Spotlight. “In the past, it was basically lip service.”
The city wants to add 136 shelter beds by 2031, which could be partially accomplished through a long-planned and controversial homeless shelter at the intersection of Benton Street and Lawrence Expressway. The shelter is expected to house families, with 90 beds in 30 private spaces. The city received $25 million from the state through Project Homekey to kickstart the effort, and more information is expected to be shared at a council meeting in August.
Santa Clara Housing Manager Adam Marcus said the city has been developing the plan while making progress on a majority of the goals, such as continuing to fund rental assistance and contracting with WeHOPE for its Dignity on Wheels mobile shower and laundry services.
“In a way, we’ve been flying the plane while we’ve been building it because there’s urgency here,” Marcus said at the meeting. “There’s urgency to do something, and there’s a lot of shifting policy and funding changes that are happening.”
Santa Clara County homelessness has increased 8.2% in the last two years, according to a point-in-time count conducted in January. While 10,711 homeless residents live across the county, city-specific data hasn’t been released yet. The last point-in-time count in 2023 showed Santa Clara had 461 homeless residents, 417 of whom were unsheltered.
District 2 Councilmember Raj Chahal said he’s glad the city is considering a breadth of solutions and programs, given how multifaceted the problem is.
“No one thing can fix it, but if we have a comprehensive approach … that will help us out,” Chahal told San José Spotlight.
He’s worried about the impact of federal cuts on the city and county’s ability to maintain these solutions. Santa Clara Police Chief Cory Morgan said the county may remove its mental health specialist from the department’s homeless response team — a decision Chahal said he’s particularly upset about, because of how prevalent mental health issues are for homeless residents.
The two-year work plan proposes spending roughly $3 million in the first year and $2.5 million in the second — a jump in the city’s investments. The city has set aside money for certain programs, including the WeHOPE outreach contract, but some still need funds, such as the safe parking pilot.
Jain said the city is able to increase its investments in homelessness prevention and support because its fiscal year 2025-26 budget is balanced.
“It’s because of fiscal responsibility by the council that we’re now able to do some cool programs like this,” Jain told San José Spotlight.
Contact B. Sakura Cannestra at [email protected] or @SakuCannestra on X.
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