The Santa Clara County Housing Authority’s Continuum of Care announced the release of the 2020-25 Community Plan to End Homelessness amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Continuum of Care is an interest group made up of local government representatives and organizations dedicated to ending and preventing homelessness in Santa Clara County, according to the County of Santa Clara website.
According to the Santa Clara County Community Plan, which went into effect Aug. 25, the previous 2015-19 plan helped 14,132 people from 8,884 households obtain housing. It also doubled the number of supportive housing units and temporary housing shelters and launched a new Homelessness Prevention System that now serves 1,000 households annually.
“We cannot accept a future in which thousands of people are forced to live unhoused,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo stated in an Aug. 13 Twitter post. “The new Community Plan to End Homelessness identifies bold actions [and] aggressive targets to end homelessness in Santa Clara County.”
Santa Clara County, City of San Jose and Continuum of Care partners constructed the 5-year plan in a three-part framework that will serve as the roadmap to help homelessness, according to an Aug. 13 Santa Clara County Newsroom website post.
The Santa Clara County’s Continuum of Care Toolkit site, which helps Continuum of Care partners effectively implement program protocols, stated that the plan will first address the root causes of homelessness through system and policy change in an Aug. 14 post.
Continuum of Care also plans to expand homelessness prevention initiatives and promote housing programs to meet the needs of the community.
It plans on improving quality of life for unsheltered individuals and creating healthy neighborhoods for Santa Clara County.
Before the end of 2025, the Santa Clara County’s Continuum of CareToolkit post stated that Continuum of Care partners hope to house 20,000 people through supportive housing systems. They also have plans to double temporary housing and shelter capacities, reduce annual homelessness inflow by 30% and address racial inequities and track progress.
“This plan reinforces our need to build permanent housing for the lowest income levels housing that otherwise won’t happen,” said Cindy Chavez, Santa Clara board of supervisors president, in the Aug. 13 County Newsroom post. “It points out the need to stop economically displaced families from becoming the newly homeless.”
The County Newsroom post also stated that it hopes to expand the Homelessness Prevention System, which helps individuals and families at risk of homelessness remain housed, and other organizations to serve 2,500 people per year.
Santa Clara County’s previous 5-year Community Plan is the reference point for the new Community Plan for 2020-25, according to the County’s Newsroom post.
According to the Santa Clara CountyToolkit post, community engagement increased in 2019 as Continuum of Care stakeholders participated in more community meetings and engaged in more interviews and surveys with the community, which received more than 5,000 responses.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreaks in early 2020, Santa Clara County’s Community Plan also added safety measures to help control the spread of COVID-19.
The steps to reduce COVID-19 cases include connecting more than 1,920 households into congregate shelters, which is a shared living arrangement, and non-congregate shelters which offer shelter in larger spaces such as community centers.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Santa Clara County stated on their newsroom website that it has distributed over 50,000 pieces of personal protective equipment, provided mobile showers and sanitation services for individuals in homeless encampments and connected 865 homeless individuals to permanent housing.
According to the Santa Clara County Newsroom post, San Jose is currently building three emergency interim housing communities to shelter unhoused individuals and families during the pandemic.
Those communities are located at Evans Lane, Rue Ferrari and an intersection at Monterey Road and Bernal Road. The city will continue to provide temporary housing for over 300 homeless residents after the pandemic is over.
The Santa Clara County Newsroom post also stated that Destination: Home, a public-private partnership with the mission of ending homelessness in Santa Clara County, and Sacred Heart Community Service, a community agency aimed to raise awareness to homelessness prevention efforts. The post said the organizations distributed more than $15 million in assistance to 7,000 low-income families since the start of the pandemic.
