County sets aside $1.4M for MV homeless shelter

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors agreed this week to pour $1.4 million into financing a 50-person cold weather shelter at Trinity United Methodist Church over the next four years.

In a 4-0 vote, with board president Dave Cortese absent, supervisors agreed on a broad, $4.5 million contract increase with HomeFirst, the nonprofit agency responsible for running several shelters in the county. The money would keep the county’s cold weather shelters open for a longer period each winter, and sets aside $350,000 this year and three subsequent years for HomeFirst to operate a new shelter at Trinity United Methodist Church, located at the corner of Hope and Mercy streets in Mountain View.

Earlier this year, the church’s leadership — working with county Supervisor Joe Simitian — proposed using the church’s sanctuary space to house up to 50 homeless people, specifically families with children and single women. The shelter would require a provisional use permit from Mountain View, which would need to be approved by the city’s zoning administrator, before it can start operating this winter.

Although Santa Clara County and numerous public agencies have officially acknowledged homelessness as a “crisis,” the number of people couch-surfing, living in cars or camping out on creek banks has grown particularly quickly in Mountain View. A “point-in-time” count of homeless residents in Santa Clara, conducted in January, shows that the city’s homeless population has shot up from 139 in 2013 to 416 in 2017 — the highest increase north of Morgan Hill. Nearly 99 percent of those 416 homeless residents are considered “unsheltered” because of the limited availability of emergency and temporary housing.

Last year, the county opened up a 125-bed cold weather shelter in Sunnyvale by converting a portion of a county-owned warehouse into shelter space, but that still wasn’t enough to meet the demand. Last winter, 25 families had to be turned away due to “lack of bed availability,” according to a county staff report. In an interview with the Voice earlier this month, Simitian said turning families away at the Sunnyvale shelter was a clear sign that there is still an unmet need for shelter space in the North County.

The funding approved by county supervisors at the Aug. 29 meeting also included a big boost in funding to the Sunnyvale cold weather shelter, from $854,000 to $1.15 million annually, starting this year. The money allows HomeFirst to extend the “cold weather” season, allowing the shelter to keep its doors open much longer. The seasonal shelters currently operate from the Monday after Thanksgiving until the end of March, but the proposed budget boost expands that window to Oct. 15 through April 15.

The extra funding means the Sunnyvale shelter can also accommodate up to 50 more people for “interim” housing, dedicated to residents who are receiving housing services and have access to rental subsidies but are still searching for a rental unit. The stop-gap measure for homeless residents provides more stability for people facing so-called housing barriers such as health problems, according to the staff report.

HomeFirst CEO Andrea Urton said the decision by the county to extend the “cold weather” period to six months is a response to a growing number of homeless residents seeking respite from inclement weather, which can result in illness and death when they don’t have a warm, dry place to sleep. After the point-in-time census, everyone know that something more had to be done, she said.

“We all saw what happened last year, with it being one of the coldest, wettest winters we’ve had in a long time,” she said. “And this year it’s been exceedingly hot. What the county is doing is throwing resources at this very serious issue.”

The decision by county supervisors means that HomeFirst will need to hire more people, and hire them much earlier, in order to take on its larger responsibility, but Urton said the organization plans to rise to the occasion.

There are still a few major questions that remain unanswered when it comes to the Mountain View shelter’s operations this winter. Because of planned renovations at the church site, the county’s Office of Supportive Housing staff conceded that the shelter may not be available until January. The current plan is to have the church shelter keep its doors open through March — rather than the new extended schedule — but that could change, according to the staff report.

Working with faith-based organizations to provide homeless shelter space isn’t exactly a new concept in Santa Clara County, but Urton said there will still be some “unique challenges” if and when they launch a new shelter in Mountain View. She said she anticipates the new shelter beds will reach capacity, even though it will be on a referral-only basis and is limited to families.

“I have a feeling those 50 spots are going to get filled up pretty quickly,” Urton said. “Knowing that there is a place only for women and children might make a mother feel more secure reaching out to get the help that she needs.”

Simitian commended the Office of Supportive Housing for its diligence searching for suitable homeless shelter sites, and listening to the concerns of local residents in communities around potential new locations. In the case of Mountain View, the county has held a half-dozen meetings with Old Mountain View residents around the church property to hear out feedback and questions.

“It’s time-consuming, it takes hard work, but the public is entitled to have legitimate questions and concerns addressed,” he said. “Ultimately, it puts us in a better place to make our case … that these services are necessary and appropriate where we place them.”

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