A total of $11 million is heading to the South Bay, courtesy of the White House and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to battle homelessness.
“Homelessness has become the moral crisis of our time,” said San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.
Santa Clara County and San Jose leaders are working together and with people like Chad Bojorquez.
He is from Destination Home and Lived Experience Advisory Board.
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“The people who know best, what type of service and how to get off the street are the people themselves,” said Bojorquez.
He was homeless for four years in the Bay Area and is now on an advisory board helping politicians direct money to solutions that are working.
“The actual funding decisions about which non-profit partners receive these funds, and is our community holding ourselves accountable and actually performing?” said Bojorquez. Getting people housed is the ultimate goal. We have a lot more people who have been there before."
The $11 million will benefit a few programs. One is the Agrihood Sustainable Community that’ll be finished next month. It’ll give 54 chronically homeless households a place to live.
The money will also provide rental assistance to 28 households so they aren’t put back on the streets.
And the county says it will double its outreach team, which will help 800 people each year get out of encampments and into a place to live.
“Just as the homelessness crisis we are facing statewide isn’t simple, our solutions cannot be either,” said Susan Ellenberg, president of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. “We must face this work together.”
The message Monday was that every little bit helps and more funding will always be needed.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development says the grant is part of a nationwide initiative to reduce homelessness by 25% by 2025.
So far this year, grants have been given out totaling $486 million.
