Comments on: Santa Clara County fights to stop homelessness https://sanjosespotlight.com/santa-clara-county-struggles-to-stop-homelessness/ Mon, 07 Jul 2025 17:46:22 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2 By: Lisa Reeve https://sanjosespotlight.com/santa-clara-county-struggles-to-stop-homelessness/#comment-175259 Mon, 07 Jul 2025 17:46:22 +0000 https://sanjosespotlight.com/?p=215995#comment-175259 In reply to mike X.

Most homeless in San Jose were born and raised in Santa Clara County and/or California. As a matter of fact over the last 5 years the fastest growing homeless population is elderly that have been priced out of housing and kids that have aged out of foster care. Also undocumented immigrants can not collect any benefits. So nobody is “supporting” any of them.

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By: mike X https://sanjosespotlight.com/santa-clara-county-struggles-to-stop-homelessness/#comment-175253 Sat, 05 Jul 2025 23:10:12 +0000 https://sanjosespotlight.com/?p=215995#comment-175253 In reply to SJCA.

All correct !!

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By: mike X https://sanjosespotlight.com/santa-clara-county-struggles-to-stop-homelessness/#comment-175252 Sat, 05 Jul 2025 23:08:25 +0000 https://sanjosespotlight.com/?p=215995#comment-175252 Fight to stop homelessness?? Yeah, OK. Lets see,….the last incompetent administration let in over our border around 14 million homeless illegal aliens. Newsom admitted thousands of those homeless into California did he not?? Exactly who’s supposed to foot the bill for them??

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By: C L https://sanjosespotlight.com/santa-clara-county-struggles-to-stop-homelessness/#comment-175239 Thu, 03 Jul 2025 22:13:42 +0000 https://sanjosespotlight.com/?p=215995#comment-175239 A few questionable quotes from the article:

“The county connected 17,485 homeless individuals to permanent housing as of 2024, and is on track and may even exceed the goal of housing 20,000 individuals by the end of 2025.”

How is permanent housing defined? As stated in the article, a rapid rehousing participant is documented as “permanently housed” when entering the program – so the 17,485 number includes the 26% of those participants (about 1,400) who definitely didn’t remain permanently housed. How can they define a temporary assistance program as “permanent?” Similar to “homeless prevention” – where they give someone rental assistance for a short term, then stop. The only way someone is permanently housed is IF they receive a permanent supportive housing unit with a permanent voucher. Rapid rehousing, motel programs, homeless prevention – many of those participants end up back on the streets or end up displaced by the thousands – but the County/City doesn’t capture that data, and just considers anyone they ever helped as “permanently housed.” It’s not the truth. So what are all of the temporary programs they operate that categorize someone as “permanently housed” when they enter? And, what type of program exit data are they collecting, and why aren’t they deducting that from the 5-year total?

“The county set to reduce the inflow of new households becoming homeless to 3,330 by the end of 2025. However, last year 4,098 new households fell into homelessness, about 200 families less than the year prior — and about 800 households higher than its goal for this year. In 2024, for every one person housed, 1.8 fell into homelessness.”

The “for every one person housed, 1.8 fell into homelessness” is the same data point the County and City have been using for YEARS. There is no methodology or breakdown on how they get this number – it’s just a number they cite to make it seem as if the failures to address the crisis isn’t on them. It’s all just factors outside of their control – has nothing to do with the “plan.” If you just look at the amount of people they say have been “permanently housed” over the last 5-years and multiply by 1.8 – it just shows how nonsensical that data point is. Also, the “inflow” metric makes no sense, honestly – which is why they missed the mark by a longshot on that estimate.

We continue to see a lot of built in excuses. We hear that “programs are working” when we know via several audits that we are pretty bad on data collection/quality. We are on which version of the County Plan to End Homelessness? 3 or 4? Year after year we see the issue get worse and have to listen to the same old talking points over and over again. We see change when leadership changes – until then, it’s status quo.

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By: Lisa Reeve https://sanjosespotlight.com/santa-clara-county-struggles-to-stop-homelessness/#comment-175235 Thu, 03 Jul 2025 15:09:33 +0000 https://sanjosespotlight.com/?p=215995#comment-175235 When they tell you the people placed there gt all the support they need. That’s a big lie!!! Few if any get mental health help. There are no actual mental health workers there. They tell the funders that everyone gets this great big hug of support..all they need to be successful. And that is a big fat lie!!! Even after I left for months the staff themselves were calling me for information on resources!! It’s a rigged system that benefits Noone except the nonprofits. And reckless humans to keep the sham going all at the taxpayers expense. No wonder it’s so expensive to live here!!!

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By: Lisa Reeve https://sanjosespotlight.com/santa-clara-county-struggles-to-stop-homelessness/#comment-175234 Thu, 03 Jul 2025 15:01:51 +0000 https://sanjosespotlight.com/?p=215995#comment-175234 I have now been out almost two years and doing well in my new place. Still never a rent missed with no issues. Now I see that they have changed the rules and people are not being given a chance at a section 8 voucher to get out. These supportive housing units are nothing more than a bankroll for the nonprofits that run them And Mayhem and the rest of the county just want to keep building these homeless warehousing units everywhere. And to top it off they are now evicting much faster for the slightest reasons and encampments are now forming of x-psh residents who now have to start all over again in the system. And people wonder why some people dont want to go into these situations. Did you also know your not eligible for any psh or any other housing other than the super scary shelters until you’ve been what they call chronicly homeless and to be considered chronicly homeless you must be homeless for at least a year. So now that they are so easily evicting the are building a now crop that will,,if they make it,, be ran through the system again in another year. Hey..gotta keep that rotating crop to keep everyone working right. No homeless…no job…no more need to build human warehouses.

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By: Lisa Reeve https://sanjosespotlight.com/santa-clara-county-struggles-to-stop-homelessness/#comment-175233 Thu, 03 Jul 2025 14:46:22 +0000 https://sanjosespotlight.com/?p=215995#comment-175233 My two years was up. I applied and received my section 8 voucher but not without a lot of hoops to jump through. One of the few times I did ask for help from Abode and Office of supportive housing was to help me in finding an apartment with my voucher and I was flatly told by Consuelo Hernandez (who was running OSH at the time) That they do not help people find housing and that they actually discourage people from getting their section 8 and leaving permanent supportive housing!! I had not once been written up, had issues, or missed a rent payment. And my payment was more than most because I had a fairly decent income. If it was not for the caseworker I had elsewhere it would have been nearly impossible for me to leave that hell hole. I got out. Not without fighting uphill against the very people I thought were supposed to help me move on from homelessness.

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By: Lisa Reeve https://sanjosespotlight.com/santa-clara-county-struggles-to-stop-homelessness/#comment-175232 Thu, 03 Jul 2025 14:34:33 +0000 https://sanjosespotlight.com/?p=215995#comment-175232 I survived homelessness for two years. In my truck in a failed safe parking program. Who gave me absolutely no help to find any housing. I had to sit on a list and wait for a Permanent Supportive Housing bed. Which got surprisingly rushed when the program failed but couldn’t happen the two years prior?? I was in the same financial situation all along. I’m elderly and disabled on a fixed income. No drug issues. No criminal issues. Don’t drink.
So then being told if I stay in PSH for two years I get my section 8. That was the first lie. It changed to I could apply for it. Not just get it. Ok. No problem. Living in that hell hole in Milpitas was nothing short of highly trauma inducing. No less than 2 overdoses a month. A crazy guy that would chase you down the hall with a thick chain that took 8 months to evict. Broken elevators for months at a time. Until we went to the press.and it was fixed in a matter of days. I was assaulted IN A MEETING and the staff actually hid the man who assaulted me because “he had a fear of police “. Don’t assult anyone then! I personally had to Narcan two people myself while security stood there doing nothing. I tried to form a tenants group. We were blocked at every move and staff of ANY entity told us they didn’t know why we were trying because tenants there had no real say in anything. Exact words.

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By: SJCA https://sanjosespotlight.com/santa-clara-county-struggles-to-stop-homelessness/#comment-175229 Thu, 03 Jul 2025 03:02:53 +0000 https://sanjosespotlight.com/?p=215995#comment-175229 In reply to Julinda LeDee.

The best study I’ve seen on homelessness was out of UCLA. It found that 75% of the homeless suffer from drug addiction, 78% suffer from mental illness, and the majority suffer from both. See:

https://www.capolicylab.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Health-Conditions-Among-Unsheltered-Adults-in-the-U.S..pdf

These are people who cannot afford an apartment no matter how little it costs. The only apartment they can afford is a free one, courtesy of taxpayers. And if they do get a free apartment it’s only a matter of time before they trash it and are back on the street again.

California has spent over $25 billion in just the last five years on Housing First policies that try to provide a free apartment to every homeless person, and during that time homeless has gotten worse, not better.

It’s madness to keep trying the same thing and expect different results. The only viable solution are low cost shelters and new laws to force the homeless off the streets and into the care they need.

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By: Joe Smith https://sanjosespotlight.com/santa-clara-county-struggles-to-stop-homelessness/#comment-175228 Thu, 03 Jul 2025 02:53:50 +0000 https://sanjosespotlight.com/?p=215995#comment-175228 Build more jails, prisons and substance abuse/mental health treatment institutions. Problem solved.

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