County of Santa Clara and City of San José Release Preliminary Results of 2023 Point-in-Time Homeless Census

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIF.— The number of unhoused community members counted across Santa Clara County dropped slightly compared to last year, according to preliminary results of the 2023 Point-in-Time (PIT) homeless census. The data, released today by the County of Santa Clara and the City of San José, show the overall number of homeless individuals counted this year decreased by 1.2% in Santa Clara County and dropped by 4.7% in the city limits of San José.

The latest results reflect both the progress made and enormous challenges ahead. Over the past several years, stakeholders throughout the community have come together to implement a comprehensive response to homelessness – which has included building thousands of new units of affordable housing, scaling homelessness prevention assistance, expanding outreach and basic needs services, and piloting new temporary housing and shelter models. Collectively, these regional efforts are stemming the tide of homelessness. However, solving this severe crisis will require a continued and focused investment from all partners across the community.

“The PIT count is just a snapshot of one night so it is imprecise, but we can use the data, collected over time, as one of many tools to help us better understand the state of homelessness in Santa Clara County,” said Consuelo Hernandez, Director of the County’s Office of Supportive Housing. “Looking at this year’s count and previous years’ numbers, this signals to us that the crisis has not gotten worse despite the national and local economic fallout. However, the needs in the community continue to grow and we must continue to focus our efforts in expanding the overall capacity of the supportive housing system.”

This year’s preliminary PIT data show there was a 4% decrease in the number of unsheltered individuals. The numbers also show a 7.8% increase in sheltered individuals as jurisdictions across the community have expanded interim housing and temporary shelter options over the past few years.

“This year’s count shows that our investments in permanent housing, interim housing, and prevention are beginning to gain traction and the homelessness crisis appears to be stabilizing,” said Jacky Morales-Ferrand, Director of the City of San Jose’s Housing Department. “While it is reassuring to see tangible evidence that our investments are moving us in the right direction, the count is also a reminder that thousands of people are still suffering on our streets. We must continue pushing as hard as we can to get all our neighbors into safe, dignified housing, and prevent more people from falling into homelessness.”

The 2023 PIT Count also provided insight into trends among key sub-populations, including:

• Veterans: Across Santa Clara County, there was a 27.3% drop in the number of veterans who were homeless in our community. These results reflect a years-long, communitywide campaign to end veteran homelessness – which was launched in 2015 and is now embedded in the countywide homelessness response.
• Families: There was a 36.5% increase in the number of homeless families counted across the county, more than 80% of whom were sheltered. In 2021, the County helped co-launch the Heading Home campaign to end family homelessness, and these numbers mirror the early results of other similar campaigns – where people who typically go uncounted become easier to tally as more community members begin using new resources.

The County, City of San José and other partners continue working collaboratively to create affordable housing, provide services to help residents stay successfully housed, and offer resources that prevent people from falling into homelessness in the first place. Here are a few highlights of those efforts:

• Since 2020, the supportive housing system has helped 9,645 people move from homelessness to stable housing and has prevented homelessness for thousands of households.
• In the six years since voters approved the Measure A Affordable Housing Bond in 2016, 4,481 new apartments and 689 renovated units are completed or underway.
• Since the previous count in 2022, temporary and interim shelter capacity has expanded by 15%. Many of these new beds are supported by the County and City of San José, and new partnerships were made possible by the County Challenge Grant and Project Homekey to develop new service-enriched interim housing programs across the county.
• Since 2020, the Homelessness Prevention System helped more than 24,000 people remain stably housed while receiving services and only 3% of these households became homeless after receiving assistance. There has been a 27% drop in the number of people who become homeless for the first time in a given year. While this decrease is significant, the rates of new people becoming homeless every month continues to exceed the number of people who obtain housing.

“Thanks to our coordinated investments in temporary shelter, affordable housing, homelessness prevention and basic needs services, we are starting to stem the tide of homelessness in our community,” said Jennifer Loving, Chief Executive Officer of Destination: Home. “But we cannot take our foot off the pedal. We will only be able to end homelessness in Santa Clara County if we continue scaling proven housing strategies.”

In order to end homelessness, the County, local cities, and community partners will continue pushing on all elements of the 2020-2025 Community Plan to End Homelessness, from creating more permanent housing to addressing the immediate needs of unsheltered neighbors. Read more about it here.

About the Point-in-Time Count

The Point-in-Time Count is a census of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night. It provides data used for federal funding allocations and national estimates of homelessness. While it is a helpful tool, it is an imprecise method and is best used as a supplement to the many other ways we measure homelessness in our community.

The 2023 count brings Santa Clara County back to conducting the census every other year (on odd years), after the pandemic-related delay in 2021 that led to a subsequent count in 2022.

The data being released today are considered preliminary; data for other cities within Santa Clara County and the full report are currently being analyzed and will be released later this year.

Preliminary data from the 2023 Point-in-Time Count for Santa Clara County

Preliminary data from the 2023 Point-in-Time Count for San José

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ABOUT THE CITY OF SAN JOSÉ

With more than one million residents, San José is one of the most diverse large cities in the United States. It is Northern California’s largest city and the 10th largest city in the nation. San José’s transformation into a global innovation center has resulted in one of the largest concentrations of technology companies and expertise in the world. In 2011, the City adopted Envision San José 2040, a long-term growth plan that sets forth a vision and a comprehensive road map to guide the City’s anticipated growth through the year 2040.

ABOUT THE COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA

The County of Santa Clara government serves a diverse, multi-cultural population of 1.9 million residents in Santa Clara County, California, making it more populous than 14 states in the U.S. The County provides essential services to its residents, including public health protection, environmental stewardship, medical services through the County of Santa Clara Health System, child and adult protection services, homelessness prevention and solutions, roads, park services, libraries, emergency response to disasters, protection of minority communities and those under threat, access to a fair criminal justice system, and many other public benefits.

Visit the County of Santa Clara at: https://www.sccgov.org

Like us on Facebook: http://Facebook.com/County.of.Santa.Clara/ 

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/sccgov  

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Media contacts: Quan Vu, County of Santa Clara Office of Communications and Public Affairs, (408) 299-5119, [email protected]; Jeff Scott, San José Housing Department, (408) 975-2647, [email protected]

Posted: May 30, 2023