Supervisor Lee misreads bleak rise in county homelessness
Despite Santa Clara County's homelessness count reaching an all-time high, Supervisor Otto Lee remains in denial, and still advocates for Housing First fantasies, while ignoring faster, quicker, more humane solutions. CBS News reports.
Santa Clara County's homeless population has reached an all-time high, according to the latest point-in-time count released by county officials this week.
The visual count, conducted in January, recorded 10,711 individuals experiencing homelessness across the county—an 8.2% increase from the 2023 total of 9,903.
County officials say that while they are making strides in expanding shelter capacity and providing services, the high cost of living in Silicon Valley continues to displace residents.
{Editor's note: this is deflection from county officials, and similar in nature to the deflection from SJ City officials, who also claim "progress" in the midst of an unfolding disaster. The truth is: hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on county homelessness, yet the unsheltered predominate as the overall count continues to up. Neither city nor county officials call out the failure of their joint "go-slow" approach, and local press takes their assertions at face value.}
"We have not been able to increase real housing, affordable housing for our residents," said Santa Clara County District 3 Supervisor Otto Lee.
{Ed. note: That's true, Sup. Lee, as far as it goes. But more important: the county hasn't been able to provide near enough shelter for those on the street.}
He emphasized the need for smarter urban development.
{Ed. note: This is buck-passing. While it's certainly true that smarter city and county planning would help, the real issue is the failure of both city and county governments to provide the sort of quick, cost-effective, high-capacity shelter that is currently available.}
"We really need to build housing, (high-density housing),10 or 12 stories near transit corridors," Lee said. "That's the smart-growth that we need."
{Ed. note: That housing costs up to $1m/unit. High-capacity shelter costs around $15k/year/client, with services. Housing takes years, often decades to build. High-capacity shelters can be up in two months.}
In the current 2024-2025 fiscal year, Santa Clara County allocated $446 million toward homeless housing and prevention programs, including rental assistance. As a result, officials report that the number of people in shelters has increased by approximately 30%.
{Ed note: Anyone want to do the math on cost/client?}
Still, Lee cautioned that temporary fixes and criminalizing unhoused individuals won't solve the root problem.
"Ultimately, we really just need to build more housing. Just moving people around is a very short-term solution and people might just come right back. And certainly putting people in jail just because they're unhoused doesn't make any sense," he said.
{Ed. note: While waiting for long-term solutions, and foregoing short-term ones, people suffer and die needlessly on the streets.}
It remains unclear whether San Jose's more aggressive encampment crackdowns have pushed some unhoused residents into surrounding cities. A city-by-city breakdown of the count has not yet been released.
Despite the bleak numbers, county leaders pointed to some successes. Thanks in part to local initiatives such as Measure A, more than 8,000 people have been placed into permanent housing in recent years.
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