Homeless Registry Is About Faces And Names Not Numbers

Housing 1000 SV ended on Wednesday in Cupertino, but the project continues next month in southern parts of Santa Clara County to find the region's most vulnerable to get them the services and care they need.

But while the early-morning outreach to the county's homeless residents might resemble the biannual homeless census required by the federal government, officials say that Housing 1000 SV is more about faces than numbers.

"The Housing 1000 SV campaign is different because rather than talking about the numbers, we are trying to create a registry to identify individuals and match them with services," says Ky Le, Santa Clara County director of homeless systems.

Volunteers who went out in the wee hours of the day Monday through Wednesday issued a survey to every single individual spoken to. The survey has two purposes: to identify and prioritize services based on their health and then, within Santa Clara County, house 1,000 chronic homeless people within the next two years, Le says.

"Our local chapter is part of a larger effort sponsored by 'Common Ground,'" he says. "We use this information while maintaining all their privacy rights to identify homeless individuals and see how they are actually impacting, not only county services but community services as well."

The group is identifying individuals and creating a registry, part of the county's commitment to end chronic homelessness.

Since 2005, the county adopted and supported the development of "Keys to Housing: A 10-Year Plan To End Chronic Homelessness in Santa Clara County."

The plan has representatives from cities, nonprofits and community organizations and focuses on preventing chronic homelessness, providing permanent housing and services, increase income through benefits and employment and garnering the resources.

And in 2007, the city of San Jose and the county sponsored the Blue Ribbon Commission on Ending Homelessness, now called Destination: Home.

"We’ve been trying to implement those plans, but what we see now is a reinvigorated effort," Le says. "By ending and preventing chronic homelessness, we will be saving lives and improving services and eventually saving money to the county systems."

Santa Clara County Homeless Census 2009

Total Homeless

7,086

Unsheltered

4,983

Sheltered

2,103

Housed in Jails, Hospitals or Rehabilitation Facilities

149

Of these, 46 percent have been homeless for more than one year.

There was a total 1.6 percent drop in the number of homeless people between 2007 and 2009.

Changes in the Homelessness Efforts in Silicon Valley

Bob Dolci, the county's homeless concerns coordinator, has been with the department for five years but prior to that was with EHC Lifebuilders for 13 years. He says the changes in homeless issues have been surprising.

"There are more homeless families for sure," he says.

One of the biggest changes that he was surprised about was the actual number of homeless in the county. Preliminary numbers from a homeless census conducted in January have shown a drop, he says.

 "It didn’t go up," Dolci says, "Actually, it went down a little from the last count in 2009. With the economic downturn we expected that number to go up because of the severity of loss of jobs and income."

The funding for many of these programs has also changed.

"We have been able to house some of the shelter population, not so much with federal funding but with local funding," he says.

One example of this was the ability to provide vouchers through the Housing Authority to 200 individuals since October 2010. He hopes that they will be able to duplicate those efforts this year and add another 200 homeless individuals to those 200 now in permanent homes.

But the most significant change in the effort to end homelessness in the county is the support of what Dolci describes as the "politicos."

"At this point in time, this is the most political will and effort to respond effectively to end chronic homelessness in this county than I have ever seen in my 18 years working," he says. "The effort by the Mayor of San Jose, several council people and supervisors banding together through their Blue Ribbon Commission to end homelessness and the strategies to end homelessness within 10 years and dedicate resources to this have been huge."

Most recently, the Santa Clara County Executive Office is conducting an analysis of services to see if there's a better way to realign those services for better results.

"That's a huge commitment by the executive office to help in this effort," Dolci says.