Santa Clara County has helped thousands of families secure permanent housing over the past several years. Yet homelessness continues to rise, and the end of a federal program that houses many families threatens the county’s progress.
In 2021, the county launched the “Heading Home” campaign to reach “functional zero” of homeless families by 2025, or the point in which more families are housed than are falling into homelessness. Over the past four years, 2,543 families have obtained permanent housing, representing 8,601 individuals. Despite the county doubling shelter capacity for families from 682 beds in 2021 to 1,306 this year, the number of homeless families has also nearly doubled since 2022 — from nearly 900 people to about 1,680.
Emergency Housing Vouchers, a pandemic-era program that allows people to cap rent at 30% of their income, is expiring at the end of 2026. The county used a majority of its 950 vouchers for families…