County’s homeless prevention program still is serving only a third of those seeking help

As Silicon Valley residents struggle to keep up with the region’s escalating housing costs, even a “revolutionary” Santa Clara County initiative aimed at providing people on the verge of becoming homeless with emergency assistance is able to satisfy only a fraction of residents’ needs.

Since launching in 2017, the countywide Homelessness Prevention System has offered 1,338 families at risk of losing their housing with emergency financial assistance, such as money to cover rent, moving costs or mediation with a landlord. Each family served over the past 2½ years has received an average of $4,102, with 92% able to remain in their homes a year after going through the program, according to Destination: Home, an organization that partners with the city and county to house homeless people.

The idea behind the program, according to housing advocates, is that it is much cheaper and more effective to keep an individual or family housed rather than helping it gain housing after it’s on the streets or in a shelter.

But the countywide system has been able to serve only about a third of people who have sought assistance through the program.

“Unless we’re doing something to keep more people from becoming homeless, we’re going to continue having this massive humanitarian crisis in our midst,” Jen Loving, the CEO of Destination: Home, said at a news conference Thursday.

Simply put, the program needs more funding to make a dent in the county’s homeless problem, said Loving, whose organization is one of 15 tasked with adminis

tering the program.

The county’s homeless prevention system has received $28 million from a combination of public and private funding sources, including the state, county, cities of San Jose, Santa Clara and Morgan Hill and tech companies such as Apple, Cisco and Google.

Despite the effor ts made thus far, San Jose’s homeless population rose 42% in the past two years

— jumping from 4,350 in 2017 to 6,172 in 2019, according to the county’s most recent point-in-time count. For every one person who acquired stable housing during that time, nearly three people became homeless.

In less than two weeks, San Jose voters are going to the ballot to decide whether they will support a new tax on real estate sales worth $2 million or more — dubbed Measure E — that city officials say will be used to fund the construction of affordable housing and the expansion of homelessness programs, such as the homeless prevention system.

Mayor Sam Liccardo, the most vocal proponent of the proposed transfer tax, said the tax would allow the city to more than double its current contribution to the homeless prevention program.

Most recently, San Jose set aside $ 3 million toward the program. Under the city’s spending plan for the funds raised by Measure E, at least 10% of the money generated would be allocated for the program, which would have equated to $ 7 million if the tax had been in place last year.

“If we can help families avoid homelessness, then we can avoid not just millions of dollars of public sector costs but an incalculable amount of human misery,” Mayor Sam Liccardo said during the news conference. “… In the days and weeks ahead, I hope that our residents are thinking about how critically important it is to invest in what works and what we know works is prevention.”

Opponents of Measure E, however, have questioned whether the funds raised will wind up funding the causes its advocates are promoting in their campaign.

City officials cannot legally require that the funding be used for a specific cause, so the tax revenue would flow into the general fund and the spending plan, which the City Council passed last month, is merely a political promise rather than legally binding.

The Homelessness Prevention System is available to anyone making less than 80% of the area median income — or up to about $73,000 for a single person — but it prioritizes those at the greatest risk of homelessness, including households with children or single parents, households earning less than 30% of the area median income — or about $30,000 for one person — and those who have recently lost a job or pay over half of their income on rent.

The top reasons for those who have sought assistance through the program include such things as job loss, eviction, the death or separation of family members, domestic violence and medical issues.