Hundreds of volunteers across Santa Clara County gathered to count the unhoused population in Sunnyvale and provide them with support and food.
Sunnyvale’s point-in-time homeless count took place on Jan. 22 and Jan. 23, with around 50 volunteers gathering at Sunnyvale Community Services, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to prevent homelessness and hunger, to assemble teams and pack food, gift cards, water, and other resources to provide members of the unhoused community with during the count.
The group of volunteers left Sunnyvale Community Services early in the morning to count the unhoused population, distribute resources, and survey willing participants on their current housing situation. Upon finding an unhoused individual or encampment, the volunteers would mark the spot on their map and fill in their location via an online app, the data from which would later be shared with government officials.
“Every two years, volunteers distribute resources to homeless shelters to conduct a count of the homeless population,” said Jaime Yong, a sophomore at Carlmont High School who has worked with the homeless in the past. “This determines the amount of funding they get for homelessness programs.”
The point-in-time homeless count is held in counties across the country biannually, with volunteers reporting the number of unhoused people within their borders to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The goal of the count is to help HUD determine the amount of funding to provide every county to address homeless needs, and to provide national estimates of homelessness.
The Santa Clara Continuum of Care is in charge of leading the biannual homeless count, with county officials heading the project. Much of the support for similar programs to help the homeless comes from hospitals that treat marginally housed individuals for a variety of conditions. Many students across the Bay Area have also found ways to get involved with unhoused communities and help them in whatever ways they can.
“I’ve prepped and served food for homeless people at the Tenderloin in San Francisco, and I’ve also talked to them and handed them clothes and blankets when needed,” said Carlmont High School sophomore Katelyn Yee.
“While I can get a little bit intimidated by them, especially because we have a much higher population of homeless people compared to other areas, I’m definitely not scared of them,” Yee said.
Hospital workers and physicians also play an important role in helping individuals with housing insecurities by offering treatment and support to them.
“Many of the people who do not have secure housing end up in hospitals for mental illness, substance use disorder, and other chronic illnesses which they don’t have access to primary care doctors for, so I take care of them instead,” said Dr. Ritu Bansal, a professor of medicine and hospital physician at the University of California, San Francisco.
Helping the homeless, whether it be through the point-in-time count, preparing food for them, or treating them for an illness, can seem challenging at first, but volunteers have found their experiences with the unhoused population to be incredibly rewarding.
“Packaging produce and foods into boxes that I knew would eventually be sent to homeless and low income communities was a great experience,” Yong said. “I loved knowing that my volunteer work was making a difference to marginalized communities.”
Santa Clara County’s Office of Supportive Housing first helped organize the homeless count with the goal of increasing housing for low income and special needs households, and to reduce homelessness overall.
Santa Clara is the county with the largest unhoused population in the Bay Area, with San Jose, a city in Santa Clara County with a 2024 homeless population of around 10,400 according to U.S. News, ranking seventh for U.S. cities with the highest unhoused populations.
In 2023, California’s unsheltered population made up 49% of the entire country’s unsheltered population and was almost eight times the number of unsheltered people in the state with the next highest unsheltered population, which was Florida. California also saw a 30.5% increase in homelessness from 2007-2023 and had the highest homeless population in the country in 2023.
San Francisco has long been considered a “sanctuary city” for the homeless, and a place where they are able to live largely freely without fearing arrest and having ample places for shelter.
“In our hospitals, we have social workers who can help people who don’t have housing by providing them with a respite, a place where they can go and recover after they’ve healed from their medical illness. I treat them just like any other patient, with the best medical treatment that we have to offer,” Bansal said.
