City Council and Authorities Concurrent
January 10, 2023

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Homeless Task Force
Date: Tuesday, November 1, 2022 6:46:54 PM
Why are there no members of the homeless community on the task force? The millionaires on the task force can have zero knowledge of this communities problems!

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Homelessness plan feedback
Date: Wednesday, November 2, 2022 1:47:11 PM
Hi, I appreciate your thoughtful plan, and I would like to share my feedback with you:

While it's sad to see homelessness numbers grow, I would want to encourage you to use as much data as possible to inform your decision, and I one common trend I've seen in the data is with regards to:

1. People with mental health problems, especially the threatening one and the ones who shout at you violently on the street, making the community a place to be afraid of, isolating us more, or making people desensitized to homeless, which makes your work even more difficult to do.

2. People with drug addiction problems, because they're the ones who are prone on becoming those in point 1.

Michael Shellenberger, an expert in homelessness in California even suggested renaming homeless encampments as open drug scenes, since that better represents most homeless locations.

In the parking lot under where I live is a homeless lady who I'm worried about and she has mental issues (point 1).

I hope you consider the effect of drugs and mental health heavily in your future plans and wish you the best luck on ending homelessness.

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Homeless Task Force comments
Date: Wednesday, November 2, 2022 2:07:27 PM
Hello,
I would hope that it is abundantly clear (to the Task Force members) that the reason many people do not take advantage of the programs and offers made to them is because they do not want to be drug tested, which, in itself, is almost always a sure sign of the underlying cause for their homelessness.

Substance abuse may not have been the initial cause for being homeless, but once "outdoors" it
* becomes readily available,
* seems harmless enough at the beginning,
* and is a method to feel "accepted" by their new peers in their new environment.

Approximately 85-89% of the homeless in our San Francisco Bay Area suffer from either substance abuse, including drug addiction, and/or mental health issues. Until these can be adequately addressed, the number of homeless will continue to unnecessarily spiral out of control.

Another concerned Santa Clara citizen,

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Homeless Plan Draft Framework Feedback
Date: Wednesday, November 2, 2022 2:09:04 PM
I read the draft. It's a joke. Nowhere does it mention the REAL prime causes of homelessness.

Substance abuse and mental illness. Until those are addressed ? You're wasting your time and my tax money.

The substance abusers will not be able to maintain any kind of housing that is handed to them until they are sober. That means voluntary or involuntary rehab. The mentally ill should be institutionalized. Allowing them to exist as they are is far from humane. Note that I used 'exist' rather than 'live', because that's what these people are doing. Existing. That's sad.

But again, nothing will be accomplished until the root problems are a) admitted to, and b) addressed. This isn't a replay of 'The Grapes Of Wrath'. Treat for what it is and maybe you have a chance of making an impact.

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: So-called "Homeless"
Date: Wednesday, November 2, 2022 2:34:02 PM
To Whom It May Concern:

The only plan or solution regarding the so-called "homeless" (or just plain "bums," I would call them) that I want to hear is one that gets them the hell out of this whole county altogether, preferably the sooner, the better.

They contribute nothing to the community, all the do is drive down property-values, increase crime and cause deterioration & decay of the area. This County used to be a nice place to live & work at one time. Now however, it's quickly becoming a pigsty with all the "homeless encampments" left & right. I don't care where you move them to; deposit them onto Newsom's front lawn. Drop them into the middle of Death Valley for all I care. But get them the hell out of here. Rent & cost of living in this area are way too high to have to put up with scum like this hanging around ruining the place.

Sunnyvale, CA

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Re: review
Date: Wednesday, November 2, 2022 2:54:49 PM
yes
On Nov 2, 2022, at 2:35 PM, CommunityService
<[email protected]> wrote:

Hello , are you referring to the City’s Homelessness Plan Draft Framework document?

From:

Sent: Wednesday, November 2, 2022 2:19 PM
To: CommunityService <[email protected]> Subject: RE: review

Hello,

I read the overview, and called for services it seems it’s only for families.. if you are single you can only have a shelter which to me is discrimination.

Secondly, I would like to request that you change your language to unhoused or displaced people rather than homelessness.

I’ve been unhoused for 5 months now, the parking program I am on the wait list, have not heard back from anyone.

I think you need to add singles to your housing program and not just shelters..

*************************************
Chief Kindness Officer | Life Coach | Doula Giver

c:
*************************************

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Feedback on Homelessness Plan
Date: Wednesday, November 2, 2022 4:24:02 PM
Instead of reinventing the wheel, utilize methods that other cities have found "successful", especially since this appears to be a never-ending problem with few solutions. How many homeless exist in Santa Clara? Whatever approach you devise should be put forth with location, cost, process, time, etc.

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Feedback - Homelessness Plan Draft Framework
Date: Wednesday, November 2, 2022 4:47:03 PM
Hello - Just read through this document and clearly believe this is the wrong path.

Lack of affordable housing and public services is NOT the key driver for homelessness.

The driver for Homelessness (90+% of homeless), as we see it, is drug abuse or mental illness.

Solving those drivers FIRST, and people will find jobs and housing.

Regards,

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Homeless
Date: Wednesday, November 2, 2022 5:03:59 PM
Hello!
I just want to say Not just homelessness is the problem but mental health for these people without homes so a mental health facility is important as well. Drug rehabilitation as well. I almost got assaulted by a homeless man near Lions who was ranting asian hate. Luckily, i was able to run. But it was very traumatic for me and my 4 year old. I did not report it to the police since i wasn't harmed but should we wait for anything to happen before we do something? Safety is becoming a big issue as well. I'm glad that there is somehow an open communication between the community and the government. Thanks for this.

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: City of Santa Clara Homelessness Plan,Draft Framework Date: Wednesday, November 2, 2022 5:13:34 PM

1.) "Lack of affordable housing is a key driver of homelessness." - This is a fallacy. If you cannot afford to live in a certain area, you must look elsewhere. The answer to homelessness is charitable organizations and removal of regulations preventing the building of charity housing. Get out of the way and let the public find a solution.

2.) "More community education is needed about homelessness, its causes, and current efforts to
address it and its impacts."
- Nonsense. Most people don't really care
about how this disaster occurred, but some us know why. Government interference and "social engineering" caused it.

3.) "Education, employment, and living wage opportunities are key to keeping people housed and
helping them to return to housing."
- Teaching people skills is good as long
as those skills are in demand. Otherwise you're wasting time and our tax dollars. A large percentage of the homeless are mentally incapable of learning advanced concepts, such as engineering, required to work and live here. The so called "living wage" concept is silly and a typically compassionate political rhetoric. Anybody with the common sense of being able to "think past first base"
should realize that a "living wage"
is a silly
concept debunked by real economists.

4.) "More resources should be located within the City" - No. The area is too expensive for homeless people. Arrangements should be made with communities outside of this area for entrepreneurs to build accommodations for the homeless.

5.) "City staff need more support and resources to respond to safety concerns and feeling
overwhelmed."
- Yea... I bet you want more money. Fact is, government cannot spend money as efficiently as the private sector. Never has...never will.

In short, everything you are proposing will, no doubt, exacerbate the

problem. It's what government has done to cause this problem in the first place, the difference being that now government wants more money to do it.

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Comments on homelessness framework
Date: Wednesday, November 2, 2022 5:35:32 PM
One common barrier to housing is not addressed here: pets. Many who are evicted cannot find any housing options that allow pets within anything resembling a reasonable price range. They become homeless for the love of their pets. But few shelter scenarios offer any accommodation for pets, so often, homeless pet owners will refuse
all support offers. Yet it's the opposite of callousness or selfishness. As Leslie Irvine noted in her book "My Dog Always Eats First: Homeless People and Their Animals" (see article
), those pets are keeping people alive as they cope with a harsh reality. Anyway, that's one thing I'd like to see addressed. Frankly, I'd like to see it addressed for all renters, and I freely admit that it was a driving factor in my purchasing my first home nearly 20 years ago. (Couldn't possibly afford to today, but back then, it made more sense.) But you can have kids that color on walls and pee on everything and all sorts of shenanigans, but have a nice, well-behaved pet and good luck finding a place to rent. And they have now started charging extra pet rent and pet deposits.

--
Thanks,

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Plan to end homelessness comment
Date: Thursday, November 3, 2022 12:16:11 AM
Hello,
Disclaimer: I don't have time to read the whole thing, and mostly skimmed the titles to see if the structure of the plan is sound (though read a little into some of the sections that stood out to me).

That being said, the outline looked solid. I think based on the outline and some of the details written, this was written with empathy and efficacy in mind. I mostly wrote in to give encouragement to the folks behind this, as I have the assumption that in government that good things fly under the radar relative to the actual support it would have.

Thanks,

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: HOMELESS PLAN
Date: Thursday, November 3, 2022 9:12:55 AM
To whom it may concern,
I have many opinions about Homelessness remedies. I'm not sure that the current plan addresses. I'm extremely opinionated because someone close to me is Homeless..........my husband.

Wow! How can that be one may ask....? Well in our current Affordable or Low Income Housing there are incorporated policies that make attainability of this type of property impossible. I resided in low income housing, married some 20 years after I moved to a man I knew from high school.

I didn't know his experience with the law and short term incarceration would eliminate his possibility of living with me in this classification of housing. I also did not know he was Bi-polar. His mental health has limited his ability to work, do taxes (so therefore missed stimulus checks; advocate to have his record expunged etc. If I
didn't have to work it would be my full time job to prepare him for each of the necessary steps in life he needs to take.

Please remember that homelessness extends to those living in their cars; which he does. He has been assigned social workers but none have liberated him from this very debilitating cycle.

I'm a mentor for a non-profit. If others in similar
conditions had a one on one mentor to help
them navigate through the many unnecessary hurdles in life, I know many more could actually escape the bondage that is associated with being homeless especially in this state. I KNOW provisions like free legal aid, short term work assignments; unbiased rental opportunity, and
reasonable rental properties for those living with the mentally ill.

Thank you, I could go on and on but I have to work for a living.

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Homelessness plan review feedback
Date: Thursday, November 3, 2022 9:25:08 AM
I'm not an expert of homeless but did review the plan and think it is comprehensive.

I will say this... Alcoholics Anonymous is the most successful treatment program in the world and is based on 'one drunk helping another' so efforts to enlist the help of people who have experienced homelessness
would be key in my opinion.

This and these points from the plan would be most effective Increase connections to mental health services (including crisis services) for people
experiencing homelessness in the City, especially those who have been hesitant or lack the
capacity to access services.

The City Police Department’s Community Response Team conducts outreach while not in
uniform
o Partner with the County and local service providers to train City staff about crisis
response and other resources that are available in the community.

3.1: Engage people with lived experience of homelessness to inform decision- making about
funding, housing development, and to support community education efforts. o Set aside seats on the City’s planned Housing Commission for people with lived
experience of homelessness within the City.
o Coordinate with the Lived Experience Advisory Board-SV to obtain input about funding
decisions and community engagement efforts.
o Adopt a City Displacement policy which would be applicable when existing units are
proposed for demolition.

From: Mallory von Kugelgen
To: CommunityService
Subject: feedback on Homelessness Plan Draft
Date: Thursday, November 3, 2022 12:30:56 PM
Attachments: image001.png
image002.png
image003.png
Hi,

1. Per the Age-Friendly domain of communication, some headings are not readable for older adults - font is faint and there is not enough contrast for older readers, which prevents text comprehension. Also, this report has a very high readability index, which puts it well beyond the literacy skills of many citizens who might be interested in this information.

2. There is no scope of the problem in this report to quantify the strategies proposed - How many unhoused folks in the City limits?
Who are they?
Why are Santa Clara’s homeless citizens unhoused and how are they managing to survive?
Where are Santa Clara’s unhoused people living?
How does the City prioritize who gets the most assistance and equitably? (like families with children versus older adult men, who might make up a larger percentage of our homeless?)
What is the total amount of money the City is spending on existing services and where does it come from?

3. It would be helpful to educate readers about the County Coordinated Entry system and how works, including the term VI-SPADT used by homelessness workers as a noun with no explanation of what that is. (It is never clear that local agencies can conduct this assessment, but that the database is a county system through which people are sorted and then referred back to local providers who are overwhelmed and not able to provide their services fully.)

4. Under Priority Area 1: Conduct proactive street outreach with the goal of assessing people for supportive housing, SCPD’s crisis team is noted (and now, we have the TRUST team), but not the other City departments that frequently encounter and assist homeless individuals seeking housing because they are already homeless or are on the verge of becoming unhoused:
the library, Senior Center, SC Fire Dept, Housing department, SC Unified School District (including Adult Ed), and Finance. There is more City assistance being provided than just though SCPD.

5. Accountability - didn’t see any strategies for making sure that City dollars spent to outsource services, such as at the Salvation Army, are being used effectively, responsibly, and without additional barriers to individuals in need to gain access.

Thank you for your efforts! I hope there are some very tangible outcomes from this plan for our citizens - they are hurting.

Mallory

Mallory von Kugelgen, RN, PHN
Pronouns: she/her/hers │Pronombre: ella
Health & Wellness Coordinator
Santa Clara Senior Center
1303 Fremont Street
Santa Clara, CA
95050
(408) 615-3180

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: homeless project
Date: Thursday, November 3, 2022 4:26:07 PM
It is obvious a lot of work and thought went into developing this plan.

Thank you.

My comment is on when services are offered and how they are offered. My recommendation is to work proactively. It will cost less in the long run and can help ensure that folks get support before they hit a crisis point.

For
example, it is much cheaper to keep someone in their home than it is to get someone into a home. Teaching individuals how to may also result in more resilient citizens.

--
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From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Homeless feedback
Date: Friday, November 4, 2022 9:10:05 AM
Hello,
To tackle the homelessness issues, here are some thoughts that the City of Santa Clara needs to consider:

1. Pass a new LAW to make living on the street a punishable felony crime, immediately to jail.

By allowing homelessness to perpetuate unattended, it now sprawls and grows unchecked. If it were illegal, this would set a new precedent that street living is not allowed at all (zero tolerance) and people need to find other resources (friends, family, co-housing, etc.).

2. For now, HIRE enough manpower to individually interview each homeless person in depth to fully understand and then categorize needs. Not every person is homeless for the same reason(s) obviously.

3. Some suggested CATEGORIES classifications: based on why is each person homeless, either voluntary or involuntary

1. Drugs/alcohol

2. Incarceration

3. Job loss

4. Home loss

5. Medical bankruptcy

6. Mentally Ill

4. Some suggested hard line ACTIONS for classification - plus city accountability for stats/tracking, follow up, transparency, and measurement of success/resolution.

1. Mandatory rehab (not optional) and follow up for job and house placement

2. Felons returned to jail (not negotiable), then job and house placement assistance upon release

3. Job placement assistance (not optional)

4. Housing assistance - Temporary housing/shelter and then priority placement assistance into low income housing

5. Medical assistance - government aid program enrollment, low interest or deferred repayment, credit protection

6. Involuntary commitment and assessment for release (not optional) - into mental health facility, monitoring on meds (involuntary and not optional), and follow up. Refusal of mental health help equals jail time, non negotiable.

5. CLEAN up the streets, tear down all encampments, remove all traces, post prominent notices of illegality.

6. PUT funding to assure quantity and quality of the above. Rehab facilities, prisons, job placement agencies, housing agencies, medical programs and agencies, and sufficient numbers of mental health facilities.

A possible brave new WAY forward, using tough love with a hand up and not a hand out. We do NOT need to keep throwing more $$$$$ money at the problem with NO resolution or accountability in sight. We can't keep doing the same things and expect a different outcome.

Thank you.

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Comment on Homelessness Plan Framework
Date: Saturday, November 5, 2022 2:18:37 PM
First, there are some items in the plan that are objectionable. Primarily, "o Update the Affordable Housing Ordinance to require a minimum amount of Very Low Income housing units in market rate developments"
This is a horrible idea. We have
a massive shortage of built housing. Enacting what are
basically taxes on development to fund other development is at best a net 0 game, but more likely it will result in less housing being built overall. We need millions of homes being built in the bay area, we should be reducing development costs, making it easier to get permits, and making reviews more final and reliable to ensure as much housing gets built as possible.

Trying to fund affordable housing on the back of other housing developments is short sighted and has no place in Santa Clara.

Similarly, other housing-negative policies should not be followed, such as "CIty Ordinances to prohibit rent increases", or making it more expensive to redevelop (A displacement policy).

These will simply make the problem worse.

We need to be redeveloping denser, not creating
incentives to not do so.

Identifying sources of funding that do not come from the housing sector itself should be the top priority. "Reduce opposition to new development at all stages" is a very good idea and should be aggressively pursued.

Instead of the bad policies mentioned above, it would be better to adopt policies that require approvals for a range of housing types (all market rate, but to ensure we build a balanced range of housing types in the city), and finding ways to ensure more finality in review processes. Uncertainty
that can be caused by endless appeals or lawsuits is a massive problem, and there should be some ability to declare review processes final and not subject to clawback.

As long as the toxic provisions at the top are included, I would urge the city council to vote against this plan.
-

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Homeless Plan Draft commentary
Date: Saturday, November 5, 2022 5:19:20 PM
Thank you for posting the draft online and promoting it on NextDoor. I'd hope that some of our programs are taking a realistic look at a person's ability to become self-sufficient in the Bay Area. I mean realistic as in probabilities - real data. The Bay Area is one of the most desirable
and thus expensive places to live in the US - sort of like Maui. Research has shown that most people are homeless only for a short bit of time, but for others, especially the chronically homeless I'd hope that part of the social worker's plan is to take an assessment of an individual's skills, family connections, etc. and consider if moving to another area such as the central valley or another area in the US with more affordable housing and job openings matching the homeless person's skill sets
is taken into account. I don't think sleeping outdoors
should be legal. I appreciate there are legal precedents (set in places like San Diego, CA) which
mean that we must either carve out a place for people to camp or provide them with some type of shelter. There need to be sticks and carrots. Since a problem can only be solved if we have good data to know if progress is being made, this means we need homeless people
showing up at places where they can be triaged, assisted and counted. I would discourage, possibly outlaw, assisting homeless people living by the creeks and under overpasses.

Crackdown on panhandling. During a creek cleanup I observed members of a religious group fanning out with snacks and
bottled water to people living in the creek. We were of course picking up a lot of the trash these people generated. This leads to people seeing homelessness as an unmanaged problem, and leads to homeless people (especially women and the elderly) in a much
more precarious place. We should also look at expensive cities that do not have the same level of homeless per capita. Take for instance Zurich and Vancouver (BC).

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Homeless Plan Draft Framework Feedback
Date: Sunday, November 6, 2022 4:41:19 PM
To whom it may concern:

I have the following feedback points for the Homelessness Plan Draft Framework. I have the perspective of someone who is impacted daily by homelessness due to the proximity of a homeless community directly behind my back fence in Saratoga Creek.

Specific points of feedback:

1. As a city resident experiencing impact at my residence (as opposed to in public spaces such as streets and parks), it is important for the city plan to prioritize prevention of illegal housing from impacting legally zoned property owners. By analogy, if myself or my legally zoned neighbors violated zoning laws, we would be subject to stiff penalties. We must enforce rules/laws that establish where homeless communities can exist, and where they can't exist.

Recommendation:

Buffer zone laws and enforcement from legally zoned residents and unhoused/un- zoned communities. Buffer zone laws should also include sensitive areas such as schools.

2. Establish a strong partnership with Valley Water and their homeless committee. The homeless community behind my fence lives on Valley Water property. They access that property through a gate provided by Valley Water through the Bill Wilson Jr. park. They also use the restrooms in Bill Wilson Jr. and Central Park and frequently vandalize or leave debris in these areas. The city needs to work closely with Valley Water on where communities are going to be allowed to exist, what resources will be used, access points, etc.

The waterways are a bad place for homeless camps for many reasons including safety of those in those camps and those impacted around those camps.

3. The city needs to recognize the dangers that residents such as my family are subjected to due to the situation above. We have seen weapons, illegal drugs, fireworks, campfires, domestic disputes, vandalism, and other issues within a few feet of our residence. I have an 8-year-old daughter that has been afraid of being in the backyard. It is easy to tell us to report such incidents, but they will just repeat over and over with little that can be done. We need real enforceable laws for safety. We can't wait for the county or the water district or some other jurisdiction to solve our city problems. We also can't fear the courts or lawsuits from homeless advocates when public safety is involved. Real city leadership is required.

4. I also endorse other aspects of the plan to help those that are unhoused. We must work for a win-win for both caring for those that are unhoused and providing enforceable rules to keep residents safe.

Thank you,

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: RE: Feedback from ND
Date: Monday, November 7, 2022 10:37:56 AM
NextDoor, our social media account.

From: David Knight <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, November 7, 2022 10:13 AM
To: CommunityService <[email protected]> Subject: Feedback from ND

Good Morning,

I’ve gathered some comments from ND on the Homelessness Plan Draft Framework:

This was always needed Outreach and engagement programs and staff should be person- centered and housing-focused. Is this enough? The City, in partnership with the County Office of Supportive Housing, funds $125,000/year for intensive case management. • The City, in partnership with the County Office of Supportive Housing, funds $50,000/year for Homeless Prevention Services.

Good but risky

2.4: Create storage options for people experiencing sheltered and unsheltered homelessness to enable safe storage of personal items.

Good Ones

4.2: Provide training and support to City staff who regularly interact w

4.6: Create mechanisms to supplement existing sanitation and safety efforts

David Knight (he/him)
Acting Communications and Outreach Manager
City Manager’s Office | City of Santa Clara

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: comments on Homelessness
Date: Monday, November 7, 2022 11:02:15 AM
Good Morning,
After reading all 10 pages of this City of Santa Clara Homelessness Plan Draft Framework to Reduce Homelessness, as a Santa Clara City Resident I find the “Needs and Gaps” bullet points to be an odd mix of totally dishonest and strangely accurate statements.

A lack of affordable housing has never been a key driver of homelessness for those who have put their efforts into actually gaining education and seeking employment.

Priority Area 5 is so typical of woke socialism. It borders on being unbelievable that the city employees would abandon their tax paying employers to invest even more of the tax payers’ hard earned money and leverage city ordinances to force property owners/landlords to subsidize housing for more drunks, drug addicts or mentally ill than those that currently leach off of the citizens of this city.

Soon, if this “feel good”
stupidity is grown further in Santa Clara we will be just like San Francisco & spending hundreds of thousands of dollars monthly picking up discarded syringes and scooping up feces in the streets. Some projects are worth investing in, but most of this is just an outline to grow more jobs for minor bureaucrats & expand existing city staff in support of projects that will, in the long run, (after all these staffers have retired & moved out of this city) will leave Santa Clara as just another ghetto like East Los Angeles is now.

The free housing and other amenities are just magnets to draw the homeless to Santa Clara. Maybe all the free stuff will draw the homeless from other areas, such as San Francisco, and we can have more mentally-ill people, drugs, drugs addicts, and bums on the streets, which make the streets of Santa Clara more dangerous for tax-paying residents.

To actually solve the homelessness issue, the very first thing is to find out the true reasons of why the number of homeless people has increased in appearance in the City of Santa Clara.

Where are they from, and why do they come here?
What can they do to earn money?
If they can only work the jobs that require minimum education, how could the city prompt businesses to offer more job positions? Apparently, increasing minimum wage is pushing businesses to lay off workers and increase prices in order to stay in business.

I love the city of Santa Clara. It's sad to see more and more crimes and homeless people. Hope the homelessness issue gets solved soon, so that the newer generations can enjoy living in our city again without fear. -- A concerned Santa Clara Citizen.

1 City of Santa Clara
Homelessness Plan Draft Framework
This framework provides a proposed overview of the City’s plan to reduce homelessness and its impact, including an outline of the major plan sections and a summary of the proposed strategies.

Proposed Plan Outline
The City’s plan to reduce homelessness and its impacts will include the following sections:

I. Introduction and Background o Context for the plan: City of Santa Clara Homelessness Taskforce and adoption of the
Santa Clara County Community Plan to End Homelessness o Homelessness in the City of Santa Clara [Point in Time (PIT)Count, Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) data]
II. Planning Process o Summary of planning process, including avenues for collecting feedback
III. Overview of Existing Resources and Programs o City’s ongoing efforts, initiatives, programs, and resources o High-level overview of homeless system of care and services provided at the County level
IV. Needs and Gaps o Summary of needs and gaps identified by the community and available data
V. Strategies for building upon existing efforts to reduce homelessness and its impacts throughout the City
Needs and Gaps
The following needs and gaps emerged during Taskforce meeting discussions, focus groups with a variety of stakeholders, feedback from the Community Forum event, public comments sent to the Homebase team, and additional feedback and information shared with Homebase by City staff. A few common themes from the feedback include:
• Lack of affordable housing is a key driver of homelessness RESPONSE: Also to be considered: 1. a) absentee landlords – tends to make the response time for repairs and other tenant concerns the tenant’s rationale for lag in payment, property abandonment, destruction, etc.; all of which exacerbate the problem(s); b) corporate- driven/ownership-driven rent fluctuations; c) fluctuations in property value effected by “snow- bird” ownership; etc.
• More community education is needed about homelessness, its causes, and current efforts to address it and its impacts
RESPONSE: Include perspectives that represent 1) voices of women from historically patriarchal societies, 2) those who self-eliminate themselves from the equation due to

2 adherence to station in marginalized hierarchical societal network status NOTE: Senior citizens in-the-know would be a good source for outreach agents, in this instance.; 3) Address this need for education from a local, state, and federal level. If purely done on local levels, without addressing how outside agency impacts the “bottom line”, this becomes a futile exercise that best resembles a dog chasing its own tail. Also, consider expanding the process of housing finance to one that is more global in execution. It may upset the deed-driven process of finance. However, it would be greatly enhanced by finance that more greatly reflects the cash flow tendencies of the global society that is our community makeup ex. the Islamic finance rule regarding lending practices.
• Education, employment, and living wage opportunities are key to keeping people housed and helping them to return to housing;
• More resources should be located within the City
RESPONSE: Agreed: Resources that are in-sync and equal one-to-the-other; i.e. rules regarding hotel/motel habitation should be the same length of time, across the board, for all the sites that are publicly-connected and private concerns when it comes to the established support of an indigent citizen. Incentivize the businesses, across the board, so that they will all feel comfortable and economically-rewarded for their “compliance” and participation for the public good.
• Trash, bio waste, graffiti, and fires impact public health and quality of life for all residents
RESPONSE: A commercial and public service partnership? How has this issue been treated nationally i.e. reference the resolution to the 1968 sanitation worker’s strike in Memphis, TN. • City staff need more support and resources to respond to safety concerns and feeling overwhelmed; and
RESPONSE: Consider 1) hiring incentives; 2) opportunities for disabled and/or senior citizens on fixed income; 3) retired civil servants.
• Dedicated, proactive outreach is needed within the City, including rapport building, basic needs, and assessment for connection to housing resources.

RESPONSE: Consider 1) shoring up the extant services; 2) surveying, recognizing, and mirroring how secular and non-secular NGO’s are doing it in ways that recognize the care in the “differences” i.e. race, faith, sexual orientation, etc. (Partnership Opportunity?).

Proposed Strategies
Below is a list of proposed strategies compiled by the Homebase team to address the needs and gaps identified by the Homelessness Taskforce, available data, various community feedback processes, public comment, and input from City staff. The proposed strategies are grounded in best practices in the field, aligned with the City-endorsed Community Plan to End Homelessness, honor the lived experiences and expertise of people experiencing homelessness, and consider the collective needs of all community members.

How the Strategies are organized

3 In considering the breadth of feedback that was collected and the strategies most likely to address the feedback and needs of the community in a meaningful and long-lasting way, Homebase identified six priority areas of focus for the potential strategies:

1. Conduct proactive street outreach with the goal of assessing people for supportive housing.

2. Address basic needs of people living outside, including shelter, health, and hygiene.

3. Build community understanding of the causes, needs, and experience of homelessness.

4. Reduce the impacts of unsheltered homelessness throughout the community.

5. Create broad based support for interim and permanent supportive housing as well as Extremely Low Income (ELI) housing development across the City.

6. Prevent homelessness for City residents at-risk.

Seven (7): Increase home ownership opportunities in ways that appreciate and incorporate the diverse valuation systems that are culturally-inherent amongst the citizenry.

What is included in the Framework

The following section identifies strategies for each of the six priority areas and addresses:
• The Santa Clara County Community Plan to End Homelessness strategies that align with each priority area; socio-economic and culture-based fiscal solutions; ones that devalue and de-incentivize absentee landlord and snow-bird ethics.
• Objectives to be achieved by the proposed strategies; and • Existing or ongoing efforts and investments already underway that the proposed strategies are intended to build upon. New incentives? Who are the investors? Are they citizen-based? Priority Area 1: Conduct proactive street outreach with the goal of assessing people for supportive housing
Aligns with Countywide Community Plan Strategy 3
Objectives:

 Ensure that people experiencing homelessness in the City are assessed as part of the community’s Coordinated Entry System1 and connected to other services to meet their health and basic needs wherever possible. endemically ascribed

4 1 The Coordinated Entry System is a community-wide access model for supportive housing that assesses, prioritizes, and refers households experiencing homelessness to supportive housing resources as they become available.
 Increase utilization of existing City and County homeless assistance resources by people experiencing homelessness in the City.
 Increase connections to mental health services (including crisis services) for people experiencing homelessness in the City, especially those who have been hesitant or lack the capacity to access services.
 Proactively engage, develop rapport with, and ultimately house people with the highest needs in the community.

Existing/Ongoing Efforts by the City:

• The City Police Department’s Community Response Team conducts outreach while not in uniform to respond to crises and connect people experiencing homelessness to existing services. The team does not conduct housing assessments for the County’s supportive housing system, but it does facilitate assessments with partnering entities.

Proposed Strategies

1.1: Fund a coordinated street and encampment outreach team serving the City of Santa Clara that includes staff from a mix of different disciplines, including healthcare, behavioral health, and housing navigation.
o Outreach and engagement programs and staff should be person-centered and housing-focused. > home-ownership?
o Support efforts to assess people experiencing homelessness in order to connect them to the Coordinated Entry System.
o Ensure unhoused and housed community members are aware of available outreach services and when and how to contact them.
o Collect lived experience feedback from people living unsheltered who are not engaging with services or accepting services/resources about the reasons why and to inform improvements to both outreach/engagement efforts and shelter/housing/service programs.

Sustainable funding support for the following:

1.2: Explore opportunities to support peer outreach that trains and employs people with lived experience of homelessness to provide street outreach and system navigation services.

1.3: Improve coordination with the County Office of Supportive Housing and the County’s Office of Behavioral Health Services to increase access to reliable and timely options for responding to crises that require clinical responses or de-escalation.

5 o Partner with the County and local service providers to train City staff about crisis response and other resources that are available in the community. o Create clear guidelines for outreach workers, volunteers, and other City staff about the crisis response services available and how and when to use them. o Train outreach workers and volunteers in outreach and engagement best practices, including de-escalation.
o Work with the County Office of Supportive Housing and other local jurisdictions to explore opportunities to expand mental health outreach and crisis response within the City.

1.4: Increase coordination between City staff and County Behavioral Health to ensure that outreach teams serving City residents can provide a warm hand off to connect people with available behavioral health services, including mental health care and substance use treatment.

Priority Area 2: Address basic needs of people living outside, including shelter, health, and hygiene
Aligns with Countywide Community Plan Strategy 3 Incentivize businesses: unused Tech spaces, hotels, motels etc. in this process. Consider infusion of finance to increase staff and work- time.

Objectives:

 Create opportunities for engagement, connection, and trust-building with people living unsheltered by providing resources to meet basic needs and build a foundation for making progress toward housing goals. home ownership goals.
 Address the immediate unsheltered crisis in the City by creating spaces for people experiencing homelessness to safely stay, address immediate needs, and access services.  Improve the accessibility and experience of public areas throughout the City for both housed and unhoused residents. Fund the incentivization of libraries, community centers, schools, etc. to return to their pre-pandemic service/presence with safe practices and protocols learned during the COVID 19 Pandemic using public and private monies, the latter being corporate.

Existing/Ongoing Efforts

• The City, in partnership with WeHope, is piloting a mobile shower and laundry service. This service also includes case management.
• The City, through NextDoor Solutions, funds support and counseling services for survivors of domestic violence.

6 • Covenant House provides transitional housing for youth experiencing homelessness. • The City, in partnership with the County Office of Supportive Housing, funds $125,000/year for intensive case management.
• The City, in partnership with the County Office of Supportive Housing, funds $50,000/year for Homeless Prevention Services.
• The City funds school-based homelessness prevention through Bill Wilson Center’s Family Advocacy Services.
• The City, in partnership with Abode and Bill Wilson Center, funds a Tenant Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) program of more than $1,000,000 combined each year. • The City, in coordination with Tucker Construction and the Police Department, funded Homeless Encampment Clean-Up at $90,000 in FY 2022-2023. • The City, in coordination with United Way, provides funding of $5,000 per year for 2-1-1 services to help residents locate shelter and food.

Proposed Strategies

2.1: Assess current hygiene, shower, biowaste, and laundry services and determine optimal locations and times to expand access and participation in existing programs. o Leverage and coordinate with County mobile services.
o Build in opportunities to connect people accessing services to outreach workers, services, and the Coordinated Entry System. o Ensure unhoused and housed community members are aware of available services.

2.2: Explore partnerships with businesses, nonprofits, faith-based, and volunteer organizations to leverage funding, facilities, expertise, and staffing to support provision of basic needs services, such as food, hygiene supplies and services, and restrooms for people living unsheltered. For example:
o Donation drives o Volunteer days or programs
o Community events staffed in part to connect housed and unhoused community members potentially endanger vulnerable, helpful community members from both sides – well-meaning, but potentially harmful to heretofore established good public program relations.

2.3: Establish safe and welcoming places for people living in unsheltered situations to access. o Locations should be places where people can find day-time respite from inclement weather, rest indoors, access restrooms, use computers, wifi, and phones, charge devices, and access services.
o Staff locations with volunteers and/or paid staff who can engage with, provide information, and connect people with services if needed. o Aim to establish additional options for people beyond parks, libraries, etc.

7 2.4: Create storage options for people experiencing sheltered and unsheltered homelessness to enable safe storage of personal items.

Priority Area 3: Build community understanding of the causes, needs, and experience of homelessness
Aligns with Countywide Community Plan Strategies 1 and 3 Objectives

 Build community societal support for new housing developments or programs for people experiencing homelessness in the City ?????
 Foster greater understanding, support, and a stronger sense of overall community by increasing connections between housed and unhoused people ????? through partnerships with the leading employers of the area.

Existing/Ongoing Efforts ?? extant and funded but not coordinated/not working cooperatively?

• The City convened a Homelessness Taskforce and hosted an interactive community forum event to provide education and gather feedback from residents. Employers? Proposed Strategies

3.1: Engage people with lived experience of homelessness to inform decision-making about funding, housing development, and to support community education efforts. o Set aside seats on the City’s planned Housing Commission for people with lived experience of homelessness within the City. o Coordinate with the Lived Experience Advisory Board-SV to obtain input about funding decisions and community engagement efforts.

3.2: Provide opportunities for members of the public to engage with people who have lived experience and to learn about the causes of homelessness, the impact of high housing costs and other barriers to exiting homelessness, existing resources and how to access them, what is needed to effectively respond to homelessness, and how different stakeholders can help right now (e.g. shelter, new housing, locating sites for development). o Develop educational materials and marketing campaign to disseminate information (e.g., flyers, posters, information shared via City websites and social media)

8 o Use existing public meetings and forums focused on housing topics to raise awareness of the experience of and contributing factors to homelessness in the City. Include employer-focused / socio-economic focus

3.3: Work with local service providers to coordinate information sharing and connections with business, faith-based groups, and other community organizations interested in fundraising or volunteering. Corporations?

Priority Area 4: Reduce the impacts of unsheltered homelessness throughout the community Corporate/Employer Responsibility? Aligns with Countywide Community Plan Strategies 2 and 3 Objectives

 Ensure safe and healthy community spaces for all City residents.  Leverage collective community resources to create efficient and impactful interventions.  Improve interactions between people experiencing homelessness and housed community members by empowering, educating, and building capacity of City staff and other housed community members who regularly interact with unhoused people.

Existing/Ongoing Efforts

• The City has hired Tucker Construction to provide clean-up services at encampments and other needed areas in the City.
• The Police Department’s Community Response Team partners with the Santa Clara Valley Water District, the Santa Clara County Roads and Airports Department, Caltrans, Railroads, private property owners, and others to conduct clean-up and abatement.

Proposed Strategies

4.1: Develop City protocol to triage crises and concerns. > Corporate sponsorship? o Determine what issues should be routed to specific City departments and agencies (e.g., Police, Parks and Recreation, Housing), County services (e.g., Behavioral Health), outreach teams, and hospital emergency departments. o Disseminate protocol to outreach teams and City staff who receive calls about or regularly interact with people experiencing homelessness

9 4.2: Provide training and support to City staff who regularly interact with people experiencing homelessness as part of their job.
o Topics may include trauma informed care, information about available resources in the City or County, how to get assessed for housing placement, and how to connect with other services and assistance. > anti-racism; bias based on culture and physical aptitude, etc.

4.3: Provide additional emergency shelter and interim housing options until more permanent affordable housing options are available.
o Include people with lived experience in the planning process to ensure that new options are designed to meet the needs of people living in unsheltered situations. o Prioritize client-choice in shelter and interim housing options (e.g., to the extent possible, allow people who have developed support networks while living in encampments to move into shelter or interim housing with or near members of those support networks/’street family”)
o Coordinate with County to ensure people experiencing homelessness in the City are aware of and accessing the full spectrum of existing shelter and interim housing options.
o Set aside interim housing for “unhoused residents” (be more definitive) currently living in the City of Santa Clara.

4.4: Explore opportunities to implement innovative models for safe parking (e.g., rotating safe parking programs) throughout the City, including with access to supportive services, hygiene services, and biowaste and trash services. >corporate physical and fiscal support

4.5: Explore partnerships with Valley Water, the County, Caltrans, railroads, businesses, nonprofits, faith-based, and volunteer organizations to leverage funding, facilities, expertise, and staffing to manage the impacts of encampments and support biowaste and trash collection and clean up near encampments, parks, creeks, and other locations in the City.

4.6: Create mechanisms to supplement existing sanitation and safety efforts throughout the City, especially at encampments campsites and parks, such as in cooperation with the increased manpower and fully-funded services of Parks and Recreation: * o Downtown Streets Team program for City of Santa Clara to supplement sanitation efforts and offer employment opportunities for people with lived experience of homelessness.
o Volunteer opportunities for housed community members to assist with clean-up and basic outreach services, including in partnership with Street Team or other unhoused or recently housed community members.
o Assess needs for expanded fire prevention or other safety protocols.

*Implied by this Respondent as “a need for” and not to be taken as “currently enacted.”

10 o Create regular trash pick-up routes (incorporated in or similar to routine City trash collection services) to service encampments and other needed locations. Provide trash o cans, bags, and/or dumpsters for use by unhoused residents to facilitate efficient pickup.

4.7: Develop a targeted plan for engaging and housing the highest utilizers of County and City resources. Coordinate with mass(ive) corporate layoffs. o Include people with lived experience (including currently unsheltered community members) in planning.
o Identify and assess participants to determine resources needed. o Convene and engage outreach, and housing providers.
o Develop housing and support goals and plan in partnership with participants.

Priority Area 1: Create broad based support for interim and permanent supportive housing as well as Extremely Low Income (ELI) housing development across the City
Aligns with Countywide Community Plan Strategies 1 and 2 Objectives

 Use all the tools available to the City to increase housing affordability, especially at ELI levels.  Reduce opposition to new development at all stages – from initial planning through operation.
 Create new housing that is affordable and accessible to people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Existing/Ongoing Efforts

• The City has invested in 1,286 units of affordable housing, 306 of these units are ELI housing. • The City invests in intensive case management for individuals residing in permanent supportive housing.

Proposed Strategies

5.2: Prioritize available City resources (e.g., HOME ARP, PHLA, CDBG, local affordable housing funds) to fund ELI and supportive housing development.

1 .1: Continue to support implementation of the Santa Clara County 2016 Measure A Affordable Housing Bond to encourage developers to build ELI and supportive housing within the City.

11 5.3 Explore amendments to City’s housing-related policies to make affordable housing easier and less expensive to create. For example:
o Update the Affordable Housing Ordinance to require a minimum amount of Very Low Income housing units in market rate developments. Do not sacrifice durability and sustainability for a quick fix. Folk deserve better.

5.4: Engage housing developers to leverage new state funding for housing for people experiencing homelessness, including Homekey. !!!!!!!!

5.5: Engage with and support Destination: Home’s Housing Ready Communities program to increase awareness of the causes and impacts of homelessness and best practice solutions to foster support for affordable housing development.

5.6: Develop a protocol in collaboration with developers, service providers, people with lived experience of homelessness, property management companies, and neighborhood groups, and corporations to ensure successful integration of new interim and supportive housing developments into the community. This protocol should include:
o Guidelines for staffing ratios and availability of supportive services; o Key messaging/education for housed community members as well as incoming tenants; o Creating channels for communication between neighbors, including during planning phases and after housing is open;
o Connection and community-building opportunities for existing neighborhood residents and incoming tenants; and
o Coordination with and expansion (if needed) of emergency response services, as well as other community-based service options for complaints or concerns that do not warrant emergency response.

Priority Area 6: Prevent homelessness for City residents at-risk Aligns with Countywide Community Plan Strategies 1 and 2 Objectives

 Reduce the inflow into homelessness among City residents at imminent risk of losing their housing. Revamp deeds and restrictive clauses.
 Increase the availability and accessibility of services within the City for City residents. Include monies from Corporate sponsors.

Existing/Ongoing Efforts

12 • The City funds Tenant Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) for families with children who are homeless or are fleeing domestic violence.
• The City contributes to the Countywide Homelessness Prevention System and provides emergency rental assistance and landlord tenant mediation.

Proposed Strategies

6.1: Invest additional City funds in the Countywide Homelessness Prevention System to provide services within the City and to increase access to prevention services for City residents.

6.2: Implement stronger protections to prevent people from losing their housing through eviction, rent increases, or other forms of displacement. For example:
o City ordinances or property owner/landlord incentives to prevent evictions and rent increases.
o Informational campaign for households at risk of homelessness about existing financial and other resources.
o Adopt a City Displacement policy which would be applicable when existing units are proposed for demolition.

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to this monumental effort.

God speed and support your work.

Forward!

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Feedback on the Homelessness Plan Draft Framework Date: Sunday, November 13, 2022 6:44:22 PM
The City of Santa Clara's Homelessness Plan Draft Framework starts off by stating that "lack of affordable housing is a key driver of homelessness", but then lacks any priority area to address this key, obvious insight.

The plan should include ways that the city can cut regulations and rules in order to "get out of the way" and allow housing to be built.

A plan centered around cutting and fighting excessive
regulations around housing planning and construction is a glaring omission from the draft framework.

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Feedback on the Homelessness Plan draft framework Date: Tuesday, November 15, 2022 3:22:19 PM
To whom it may concern:

I am pleased and hopeful these measures will help the unhoused of the City of Santa Clara. I like that it inclusive - meaning that it includes law enforcement and our other partners such as Covenant House and Next Door Solutions. Although, I am unaware of a Covenant House in the local area.

I agree with the plan. I’m interested to know how I can volunteer to become trained to interview those unhoused as outlined in the Plan, with why they are not availing themselves to the services that are available.

Kind regards,

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Homelessness plan
Date: Wednesday, November 16, 2022 11:18:53 AM
This is very important and a tough problem, I'm glad you are working on it. I have no comments on the plan, other than keep on, you rock, and thank you! -

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Homelessness plan
Date: Wednesday, November 16, 2022 3:07:02 PM
Thank you for this, It's good work and brings together the many pieces of the puzzle. I think that a year form now we'll see good results from it.

A few additional suggestions for your consideration:

1. A three-month emergency housing grant program (with case-by-case extensions) would keep these people housed either by tiding them over the crisis, or giving them time to find a new place. While other gourps and agencies have similar programs, the city can do this much more quickly and efficiently. Other prongs of this approach are the eviction notice and rent control ordinances and new development displacement policies suggested. All this could be set in motion by the council tomorrow; maybe some of the new business tax revenue could be earmarked for this.

2. Hire the people served by the programs to do outreach, connect people with services, collect the garbage, maintain the transitional housing etc. People living in encampments aren't living in anarchy; they have established social groups and rules. The proposal to keep social groups together is innovative and one of the best in this plan.

3. Expand the size of the PD's Community Response Team. The only way to reach people who have fallen through the cracks is by going in the the cracks with them and that's one-on-one work. I've seen first-hand how effective this program has been in connecting people with the help they need, but there's only so much 2-3 people can do.

4. Please call things what they are. I have no idea what "improving the accessibility and experience of public areas ... for both housed and unhoused residents" means. Is the report talking about adding park benches or cleaning feces off sidewalks?
Thank you again for your good work,
Santa Clara

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Homelessness Proposal
Date: Wednesday, November 16, 2022 3:41:51 PM
Hello,
I have read the report and have the following comments.

1. Move Priority 6 to Priority 1.

First Priority should be helping those that are currently NOT homeless, working Santa Clara people stay out of Homelessness. These are people that are working, maybe due to loss of job, increased rent, problems with their vehicle, unexpected expense, may be on the verge of losing their home. In my own life, when my children were young, I used "Pay Day Loans" to stay afloat, I used Pond Shops to pond my wedding ring, heirloom watch to make ends meet, I would budget to get my items back by the due date.

It would have been nice if the City had a program to help in time of need and give time to pay back a loan. With Inflation at an all time high, the City should be concerned with the people that are currently making it and provide help when needed to keep them out of homelessness.

Bethel Church in San Jose has a "Heartbeat Offering" once a month, its to help people in time of need, could be for car repairs, rent, dental, anything, something like that.

My niece received help with her rent
a few years ago, her husband was laid off, 3 small children, they helped with the rent, until he could get another job.

2. Keep Priority 2 with modification- Provide shelter and asses after the 2nd or 3rd visit. The City can help those that are willing to check in and stay and follow the rules of the shelter (no drugs, no drinking, no violence....) .

This method will weed out those that are just passing through Santa Clara to get to San Francisco. In San Francisco they have so many giveaway for the homeless without any "asks" and can commit theft without penalty, many homeless are just passing through to get to SF. Priority 1 can be rolled up into Priority 2, you will get true feedback for the true Santa Clara homeless, not just those passing through.

3. Priority 3- Santa Clarins know there is a homeless problem, we see it everyday. Just read all the comments on Next Door regarding homelessness, there is a 50/50 split, some are for bending over backwards to help them and some are thinking they have mental issues or want to be homeless because they like the Freedom to do what they want.

If a shelter is provided and data taken at that point, you can provide Santa Clara residents with facts over feelings and fiction. Use Next Door or other social sites to share a video with the facts, share stories of people that the City has helped at the shelter. Why spend fund educating the public, we see it. We also see the scammers out there begging at the corner and then see them in AM/PM buying lottery tickets.

4. Priority 4, clean up- yes do this and protect the vacant buildings. There is an old restaurant at the corner of El Camino and Lawrence, across frim Chilies', I feel so sad to see what the homeless have done to that building. As a child I used to go eat there with my parents, many memories, now it's total junk. Who would want to lease it, so many repairs needed and probably smells like urine and feces .

Clean up encampments and protect vacant building. There was a huge homeless encampment on Winchester Blvd/Moorpark Ave, by freeway. They cleaned that out, build a nice new wooden fence along the freeway and chain link fence with plants on the inside. No more homeless in that area.

Forget training for staff, it does no good. Safe Parking spaces, no, it will encourage more people to come here and live in their cars and just dump their trash everywhere. Focus on helping the true Santa Clarins, not those just passing through or trying to get something for nothing. The people we should help are those that are tying to better themselves, otherwise it's just dumping our hard earned money out the window.

Please be cautious with other peoples money. This is why we are in a Jam in our country right now, to much wreak less spending with our hard earned money.

5. Priority number 5, I like it but with adjustments. Extreme Low Income housing or any housing program, please weed out those that are not going to improve their lives. There already is Housing Authority that will help people with their housing for Life for those that have no interest in working to get

ahead, my youngest sister is a beneficiary of this and she has never worked in her life. She just kept having children to stay in the welfare system, sounds horrible but true, there are many like her. Her youngest is 16 and she is 47 now, this is real life. Help the elderly, they are truly on fixed income.

Please do not turn Santa Clara into San Francisco that has a department to pick up feces and wash down sidewalks with bleach/water to disinfect it.

6. Look at the states and cities that do not have a Homeless Problem. I visited Charleston, North Carolina last year. No homeless, I saw one at night, sleeping by the Loaves and Fishes building, a Christian Charity that provides food. The streets were clean, no garbage, the freeways were so clean and smooth. Also Arizona, the Phoenix area, so clean and the freeways were so smooth. Iowa, another place I visited for graduation, so clean and the freeways were excellent. How do they do it? Thank you for giving the opportunity for feedback. I have lived in Santa Clara for 50 years, my family picked prunes in the fields where Apple building is now. My mother is 91 years old and still lives in the same house on Pruneridge Ave. The one thing she always complains about is all the trash the homeless leave everywhere, she says if they are homeless for what ever reason, put your garbage in a bag, keep it clean.

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Feedback
Date: Wednesday, November 16, 2022 6:36:01 PM
Excellent draft!
My concerns moving forward is your hat the goals need to be time based or have benchmarks and measurable.

Also, if goals are not being met a way to modify or change the benchmark.

I suggest having people on the task force very good at budgeting limited city resources as well as project management skills to keep the momentum.

Thank you so much!
(Santa Clara resident since 2019)
Sent from my iPhone

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Homelessness
Date: Thursday, November 17, 2022 6:22:11 AM
I am happy to know that the city is finally taking action to solve the homelessness problem in Santa Clara city. We definitely need to increase connections to mental health services.

We need to be proactive on preventing homelessness by providing affordable housing for low income persons and job training.

I am please to know that there will be trained police without uniforms reaching out to people in need and also to prevent so many house burglaries in the city.

Congratulations on taking action and thank you for your commitment on looking after the well being and safety of Santa Clara residents.

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Homelessness Plan Draft
Date: Thursday, November 17, 2022 10:57:29 AM
Below, please find my feedback to the City of Santa Clara Homelessness Plan Draft:
* It is too long (10 pages) and has too many action items. This plan is overwhelming to the point that it is a useless bureaucratic showpiece. It needs to be cut to 5 pages maximum and only high priority action items should be included.
* No action items should be given to the police.

Who specifically in the police department is this
plan referring to? Who is in their "Community Response Team"? Uniformed police officers in Santa Clara are very, very expensive. Inexpensive people or free people should be handling the bulk of the homeless issue if there is any hope to make much of an impact. * EVERY action item needs to include who is supposed to actually do the work.

Almost every
action item in this plan is listed as generically going to be performed to some unmentioned phantom entity. I was an engineering program manager for my career. In industry every action item needs to be assigned to a doer if it is listed in a plan. * The plan needs to have a financial section which summarizes a budget for how much money is needed and available to made action items happen. Dollar values are sprinkled in this plan somewhat randomly and confusingly.
* Take out all abbreviations and acronyms such as "Coordinated Entry System" and "ELI". They are bureaucratic and make the plan impossible for a typical person to understand. * Fire "HomeBase".

They probably charged the city a fortune for creating this report. They are part of the problem. Not the solution. A local organization such as Sunnyvale Community Services could have come up with a much more practical homelessness plan. This organization is fighting homelessness for real on a tight budget just one city away. They know who to make real progress happen.

Regards,

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Homelessness Plan Draft Framework feedback
Date: Thursday, November 17, 2022 2:17:00 PM
Hello,
Thank you for sharing the Homelessness Plan Draft Framework. I found it to be well structured and comprehensive.

However, one aspect that didn't seem to be covered was the topic of persons for which homelessness is a deliberate lifestyle choice. Not everyone desires to live indoors, in a dwelling.

Thank you for considering my feedback,
.

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Feedback on the Homelessness Plan Draft Framework Date: Thursday, November 17, 2022 2:53:30 PM
I moved to Santa Clara after living in San Francisco for almost 15 years. One thing that strikes me about Santa Clara's Homelessness Plan is how similar it is to San Francisco's. Why do we think this plan will work for Santa Clara when it has failed for San Francisco?

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Homelessness root problem
Date: Thursday, November 17, 2022 2:55:42 PM
Hello to help with the homelessness problem you guys need to address the root cause!

1. The government and its continued use of drugs. Meaning the government need to stop being drugs into this country.

2. Rehab centers should be used to help clean up drug users so they can stay off the streets.

3. Help with trade jobs opportunities if those are having a hard time procuring a job.

Next thing would be stop with the real estate scam that need to stop so people don’t become homeless. Wages should reflect the standard of living. Jobs shouldn’t be out sourced anymore. I Remember when “Made in the USA” meant something. Now a days made in china means good for several uses then discard… taxes need to stop.

Banks are scamming people with impunity!
Address the root cause , and then the problem solves itself.

If a great effort is made to correct the list I provided, homelessness will probably be non existent. I would say the framework you guys came up with would be a back up plan. Other than that your idea sounds well thought out. but may I ask who will be footing the bill for all this? The city or the tax payers? I would rather see my tax dollars go into correcting the root cause mentioned above than spending time resources on a bandaid fix.

Wouldn’t this be the logical and realistic solution?
Thank you for your time
Sent from my iPhone

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Homeless survery
Date: Friday, November 18, 2022 1:30:40 PM
To whom it may concern,
I just read the proposal and find it wonderful!! I am hopeful that those who have been on the street, or are on the street were included in the proposal in an active and decisive way and not merely in the capacity of a consultant.

I am also encouraged by the supportive service offered.

Has the idea of sanctioned campgrounds been considered? I am concerned that the cleanup of camps is a premise for 'rousting' people out - that seems to be the case with Caltrans and Union Pacific.

I am hopeful that shelters are not part of the solution as the homeless report to me that they are often worse then being on the street due to illicit drugs, abuse and general disorder as well as a lack of privacy.

Lastly, our church, Hope Lutheran, is interested in participating in a safe parking program.

Regards,

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Homelessness Plan for the City of Santa Clara
Date: Friday, November 18, 2022 8:47:03 PM
Hello there,
I'm a resident at (District 6). I fully support the proposed Homelessness Plan for the City. You may also want to consider a Safe Parking program in partnership with LifeMoves where individuals who live in their vehicles have a safe place to sleep. In these parking areas, you can also bring in WeHope's laundry and showers as well as other nonprofit agencies providing safety net services and/or health screening programs. San Jose does a really good job with this - and we can too! Thank you!!

From:

To: CommunityService
Cc: Anthony Becker
Subject: Feedback: Homeless Plan
Date: Friday, November 18, 2022 10:03:19 PM
I found the "Homeless Plan Draft Framework” to be seriously deficient, for me.

It lacks:
1 Description of the specifics to be addressed
2 Evidence of what the Plan can do
3 A metric for measuring progress
4 Established responsibility for execution
A Silicon Valley (CSC) resident, (Dist 6)

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: RE: Unhoused draft
Date: Sunday, November 20, 2022 10:55:20 AM
Hello
Thank you for your report and things you want to change.

1. language needs to shift to Unhoused, as most people are because of the Pandemic and high rents, needing to work 3 jobs to afford rent.
(I did this for awhile, it started to affect my
health)
Unhoused/displaced now personalizes these people, yes there are the mentally challenge and other junkers.. I believe more solutions will come about.

2. It didn’t see in your report - need to address the NIMBYs.. educate them.. they are an entitled group of people. Can’t wait for their situation to find themselves unhoused.

3. I am in the parking safe program in Fremont, I couldn’t get into the parking program in San Jose.. the ideal thing is housing first, in the interim need more safe parking lots.

Lifemoves.org provides these services. (where people don’t have to move out by 6:30 am, where does one go?) Place to stay all day.. there are shift workers, people with jobs..need sleep.

4. No more shelters, they are not safe, if someone gets sick they shut down.. only shelters if they can be individualized for families or couples.

5. Even these rent a room in a house/sharing housing programs.. it’s ridiculous to pay the same rent if you are renting an apartment. It took me 4 months to find a room to rent, $1,000. I had to move out due to losing my job.

I know this is typical, it is why so many people can’t afford a place to rent and many won’t allow you to use the kitchen either.

There should be a number to call to report these landlords to get help in these situations. Way too many of these people.

6. You need more mobile showers & laundry services.

7. More churches need to be involved.. just because you have a pre-school program, doesn’t mean they can do something to contribute.. IE. charging phones.. plugins. Or have a room open to have coffee and light breakfast. or lunch or ? ( with a microwave)

8. Get the people who are camping near the creeks to clean up their own garbage, give them food cards, trash bins, washrooms. etc..

This is enough..

From: Adam Marcus
To: Homebase Team ([email protected])
Cc: Jennifer Caravalho; Gregory Deger
Subject: Comments on the Draft Framework from Tom Freitas Date: Monday, November 21, 2022 11:30:46 AM
Hello Homebase. I spoke with who serves on the Senior Commission.

complimented Homebase on the draft framework, good work! He would like to see more specific discussion on the unique needs of seniors who are extremely cost burdened and/or at risk of losing their housing.

He would like the plan to discuss specific strategies that address senior’s housing vulnerability.

He said housing instability is very stressful and may contribute to health problems for seniors.

He said sometimes when a spouse dies, the other spouse is caught off guard because the home had liens on it etc.

Jenn please add this to the public record of comments on the draft framework.

Adam Marcus
Division Manager
Community Development Department
Housing & Community Services Division
1500 Warburton Avenue
| Santa Clara, CA 95050
Phone: (
408) 615-2491 Email: [email protected]

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Homelessness Plan Draft Framework
Date: Thursday, December 1, 2022 6:24:33 AM
Attachments: Feedback on Homelessness Plan Draft Framework.pdf Hello,

Attached please find our comments on the Homelessness Plan Draft Framework.

Regards,

--------------------------------------------------------------------- Administrative Coordinator

Office Phone:

Fax:
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From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Comments on Homelessness Plan Draft Framework
Date: Thursday, December 1, 2022 8:43:22 PM
Dear City of Santa Clara,
I appreciate that you have opened feedback up to members of the Santa Clara community to comment on this framework! Please find my comments below.

1. This seems more like a short-term band-aid to address homelessness now rather than a long-term strategy to END homelessness. While caring for the unsheltered now is important, I would like to see strategies that will have a long-term effect on housing, such as ending rent control. Rent control is:
enabling people to take up more space than they really need due to the low cost, leaving less housing available in the market
disincentivizing developers to build more housing

2. Related to #1, no developers have an incentive to build Extremely Low Income (ELI) housing. So I suppose the government (i.e., taxpayers) would pay for this? If rent control were eliminated, new developments
would flood the market, landlords would be
incentivized to upkeep their properties, people with housing would downgrade to keep within their budget, and those who are currently homeless would be able to find more affordable housing (and potentially share with family and friends to minimize personal costs)--all without impacting taxpayers.

If those working on this major issue have not already done so, I strongly encourage reading Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy by renowned economist Thomas Sowell, particularly Chapter 3 on Price Controls, which goes into detail on how rent control affects
the entire economy and housing market.

Thank you again and I look forward to staying up-to-date on these important initiatives.

Best,

From:

To: CommunityService
Subject: Summary of discussions with Adam
Date: Friday, December 2, 2022 8:30:26 AM
Hello,

With sincere apologies for the delay in posting these comments after the Dec 1 deadline – hoping they may still be considered.

In discussions with Adam regarding some “out-of-the-box” actions which may be more “organic” and sustainable with relatively low costs, the following were a few ideas:

1. HTF should ensure that we have inputs from people who have recently experienced homelessness to understand their priorities. i.e. To not treat this issue as a “problem” requiring “a solution”, rather a “condition” needing “healing”. The HTF seems to be well on its way in this regards.

2. There are several Bay Area organizations which we may partner with to examine in regards to providing some healing activities:
a. Organize working teams of able-bodied homeless personnel to harvest seasonal fruit from “backyards” and distribute to the homeless; homeowners may be paid a token amount for their contribution. “Organize” means to provide necessary training/clothing/cleaning/equipment etc., and a remuneration to team members so they can earn their livelihood and gain a sense of dignity too. b. The City could do more for “transitory” housing – much like JW House provides for families in dire health-related situation
Thank you very much.

Regards,

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