Santa Clara County Launches First Homelessness Census Since 2019
SANTA CLARA COUNTY (KPIX) -- After a yearly homeless census in Santa Clara County was postponed twice because of the pandemic, this week officials started a head count of the unhoused for the first time since 2019.
There is already some new data showing a 33% drop in the number of people who are seeking homeless services for the first time.
"I think it's really encouraging to see those numbers coming down, but certainly we're nowhere near finished," said Supervisor Otto Lee.
Lee said the decline could be from the impact of 2016's Measure A bond, which raised $950 million to build hundreds of affordable housing units.
Many of the 40 construction projects the bond measure funded are already built and operating, while others are still at the ground-breaking stage.
"These are important milestones that we certainly wouldn't be able to do without that funding," Lee said.
"I want to give a shout out to everybody who's built housing for the unhoused," said Pastor Scott Wagers, who's been on the front lines of San Jose's homeless crisis for three decades.
But Wagers said it's too soon to celebrate.
"I've never seen the tide turn," he said. "And I've heard a lot of speculation that this year the tide's going to turn. But every year, the tide keeps rising."
Wagers is waiting for the new census counts, but says the only number that really matters to him is how many unhoused people die on the streets. Last year, that number was up dramatically.
"In 2021, there were 250 deaths. The year before that there was 198," Wagers said.
Lynn -- a formerly unhoused woman who spent eight years on the streets -- was one of the lucky ones.
"I went to the shelter and got into the first permanent supportive housing," she said.
She now has a job and volunteers serving meals to the unhoused, hoping they too will soon come in from the cold.
