Homelessness in Silicon Valley

Credit: Destination: Home

These 10,000 unsheltered people do have homes: the neighborhood they sleep in. They just don’t have a house.

Houseless people are our neighbors. In a recent study, 83% of our region’s houseless people were from this area. 77% had been houseless for less than 2 years. 67% lost their houses due to job loss, divorce, or eviction. They are families, veterans, women escaping domestic violence, and college students (including thousands of San Jose State students).

Credit: Housing Ready Communities 2019

Many of us are worried about homeless issues in our neighborhoods such as sanitation, property damage, and crime. We can also worry that we may be one illness or lost paycheck away from losing our own houses.

How can we show compassion for our houseless neighbors while addressing our concerns? How do we build a Silicon Valley where no one lives outside?

There’s a Plan!

The Community Plan to end homelessness is supported by thousands of people across hundreds of business, government, and nonprofit organizations. People all agree that there’s a housing crisis, although they don’t always agree on what the root crisis is or how to solve it. There’s tension between the effort and resources required to serve the immediate needs of houseless people today and the long-term need to house them.  It will take all of us bringing our skills and resources together to solve this complex challenge.  Collective impact hub Destination:Home says “We are curbing the growth of the crisis in our community, but we still have work to do to turn the tide on ending homelessness… Every member of our community deserves a safe and stable home—and it is our collective responsibility to make this vision a reality.”

Understand Homelessness and learn about the Community Plan to end Homelessness: 

1. Address the root causes of homelessness through system and policy change
2. Expand homelessness prevention and housing programs to meet the need
3. Improve quality of life for unsheltered individuals and create healthy neighborhoods for all

Prevent Homelessness: Support this large coalition to keep people at risk housed

Service:  Find useful ways to make a difference for someone who’s houseless today

Support permanent housing at Housing Ready Communities & Affordable Housing Month events