Did homelessness really double in this wealthy South Bay city?

Cupertino saw the highest jump in its homelessness count in Santa Clara County more than doubling since according to the latest homelessness count by Santa Clara County Even so city county and public leaders are split on whether the jump represents a genuine trend of increasing homelessness or merely the mark of in an imperfect count Related Articles Newsom signs new shopping cart law championed by San Jose politicians California s Prop promised mass remedy for defendants A new analysis shows how it s going Large RV encampment ensnared in abatement whack-a-mole since leaving San Jose s Columbus Park Complaint alleges San Jose employees contractor improperly disposed of homeless residents belongings Beating victim located last month in Oakland succumbs to injuries We see people being squeezed by the cost of living and the lack of affordable housing supply and the wage gap and we see that across the county explained Hilary Armstrong deputy director of the Santa Clara County Office of Supportive Housing We re not surprised because of all of these systemic factors Every two years scores of assistants go out for a point-in-time homeless count in cities across the county The number is a snapshot of homelessness by focusing on one night it avoids double-counting but misses how homelessness may fluctuate over the year It offers chosen of the the bulk consistent information available on homelessness and in the bulk current count the county shifted how they conduct it to get more accurate results and speak to as various unhoused residents as doable Cupertino famously serves as a hub for the tech juggernaut Apple and ranks among the wealthiest cities in the county with a median household income of according to the input from the US Census Even so the city has a high cost of housing over for the median household and has consistently been home to a small homeless population which city leaders have attributed both to those who work and inquiry in the city and those who come to the city from elsewhere Since Cupertino s homelessness count has teetered back and forth reaching a high of in While the count saw a low of the latest count saw that more than double to marking the highest jump by percentage of any city in the county Even with the latest change in methods Armstrong says the count lines up with the roughly Cupertino residents who sought housing assessments the first step to be placed in multiple shelters or supportive housing programs in the last year Armstrong argues that the jump likely reflects more of a gradual increase over time due to common economic factors across the region and notes that residents largest part often became homeless due to job and income losses The jump also comes in the wake of a slate of anti-RV ordinances in nearby cities which may have pushed certain to move to Cupertino noted Cupertino Mayor Liang Chao Last year Fremont passed an RV parking ban that requires oversized vehicles to move feet every hours San Jose has been boosting enforcement on RV encampments and in Mountain View designated three miles of streets for oversized vehicles after being sued by the ACLU for their initial ban When we have certain cities taking a harder line on oversize vehicles but folks don t have places to go There s no doubt that it is challenging noted Armstrong We dependably come back to the need for a regional approach Last month Cupertino became the latest Bay Area city to impose strict restrictions on RVs parking on city streets with both city councilmembers and residents referencing the bans elsewhere in their reasoning Chao maintains that the city has overall kept a service-oriented approach in collaboration with the county and local arrangement providers and asserts that the county collects more tax dollars and bears more responsibility for homeless services She held that rise and fall in the homeless count should be considered with caution noting the unusually low number in and the change in methodology since the last count The point-in-time count provides only a single-day snapshot each year declared Chao in an email Like any one-time material point it s subject to fluctuation and doesn t constantly reflect broader trends Those serving the unhoused in Cupertino however say the trends are clear Sujatha Venkatraman executive director of West Valley Locality Services which is the main provider of homeless services in Cupertino and nearby communities revealed she and her employees have seen more people coming in for help across the board from food assistance to quarters for laundry and bus passes Venkatraman declared that the updated count helps highlight pockets of poverty that are so hidden it almost becomes invisible amid an otherwise wealthy region and maintains that the work keeping people housed in Cupertino helps keep them from exacerbating existing issues in San Jose and Gilroy I definitely believe it s a regional issue it s a county issue it s a city s issue revealed Venkatraman arguing that despite changes from one year to the next the resolution ultimately lies in providing enough housing We ve done a lot of work around both prevention and rapid rehousing but I m not surprised the numbers are up from because it s unaffordable If we don t build affordable housing we are going to see more unhoused unsheltered people in our cities