When Gary Diaz was homeless, all he could think about was how he was going to make it to the next day. Now that he’s staying at a temporary housing program at Tully Inn, he’s been able to get his head above water to do things that are important to him — and that includes voting.
For individuals who are homeless, many don’t know they have a right to vote. And even if they do, a lack of transportation and access to any technology or information about the issues or candidates are problems that confront this disenfranchised community, according to current and former homeless individuals and advocates.
“When you’re in a shelter it’s a lot better because you have more freedom to get things done. But being on the street, it’s just too hard,” Diaz told San José Spotlight.
This election is particularly important for Diaz because he doesn’t want former President Donald Trump to win.
“Now that I’m grounded and staying (in a place), I see a lot of things,” Diaz said. “I think he’d be bad for our country. He wants to give tax cuts on the millionaires. It doesn’t help us. He takes away a lot of the things that we want to get from the county.”
Advocate Robert Aguirre has been helping homeless people vote for the past decade and educating them on the importance of their voice.
“I realized how disenfranchised unhoused people are,” Aguirre told San José Spotlight. “They are really disconnected from the larger reality — their reality is their daily existence.”
Aguirre goes to homeless encampments in Gilroy and to the Recovery Cafe in downtown San Jose to register people to vote. He helps educate them on the races and issues that are on the ballot. He’s gotten 53 people registered this election cycle, though he doesn’t know how many of them will actually vote.
Another issue Aguirre has encountered with homeless people is a lack of desire to vote. When that happens, he points out the elections where officials have won by slim margins, or the local initiatives that can affect their lives. He said that’s changed some of their minds to register.
“I want to get them to realize the importance of their vote,” Aguirre said.
Homeless people often use various mailing addresses like the Social Services office or a family member’s address to vote. The Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters also asks them to provide the cross streets of where they are physically located so it can send them the right ballot for local races and measures.
Individuals can also register and vote on Election Day through same-day voter registration, or conditional voter registration, where a homeless person doesn’t have to show proof of a mailing address and can simply write down the cross streets where they are staying, Michael Borja, spokesperson for the registrar, told San José Spotlight. The registrar will then do the proper checks to ensure the person is a citizen before the vote is counted. It doesn’t track how many homeless people have registered or voted.
There are nearly 10,000 people who are homeless in Santa Clara County, according to a 2023 count that measures people experiencing homelessness on a single night.
Katherine Davis, 58, has been voting since she became 18. She lives in her car near San Jose’s Columbus Park, but uses her parents’ home in Redwood City as her mailing address. She won’t be able to weigh in on the local elections, but likes to read up on them anyway so she can educate others about them.
“Once I get housed, I will definitely change my mailing address,” she told San José Spotlight. “A lot of the props are very important because it’s the new stuff that’s coming up that’s important, especially to the homeless.”
Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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