Homelessness is the most visible sign of our collective failure to provide the housing infrastructure necessary to support the lowest-income members of our community.
No one person, organization or government agency is either responsible for, or capable of, addressing homelessness on its own.
For more than a decade, dedicated public, private, and nonprofit leaders have collaborated to entirely transform the system of care for homeless individuals and families across the county.
This effort was born out of a belief that we can and must do better for those experiencing or at risk of homelessness in our community.
While there’s still a long way to go, our collective efforts have already secured safe and affordable housingSubsidized housing where rents are set at a below-market rate based on the tenant’s income. There are many different types of affordable housing - units are typically designated based on a tenant’s income level (i.e. low-income vs extremely low-income) and certain types of affordable housing may also be reserved for a specific demographic (i.e. seniors or veterans). Deeply affordable housing refers to developments or units where rents are kept particularly low and are intended to serve the lowest-income residents in the community. for thousands of our homeless neighbors.
SUCCESS TO DATE
TIMELINE OF COLLECTIVE IMPACT
Grappling with both an increase in homelessness and fragmented countywide response to the challenge, it was clear that a new roadmap was needed to end homelessness, rather than just manage it. A collective impactA concept first introduced in the Stanford Social Innovation Review in 2011, collective impact is a framework for deep and sustained collaboration between actors from different sectors to solve a specific social problem. model is born, uniting a wide array of stakeholders around shared strategies to end and prevent homelessness in Santa Clara County.
Engaged around a shared mission, the collective work to solve homelessness in Silicon Valley truly begins. Informed by research and guided by clear objectives and metrics, the coalition spearheads key initiatives providing valuable proof points and laying the foundation for future victories.
Deep collaboration on evidence-based strategies is underway resulting in early successes permanently housing thousands and achieving functional zero on veteran homelessness. But the shortfall of affordable housingSubsidized housing where rents are set at a below-market rate based on the tenant’s income. There are many different types of affordable housing - units are typically designated based on a tenant’s income level (i.e. low-income vs extremely low-income) and certain types of affordable housing may also be reserved for a specific demographic (i.e. seniors or veterans). Deeply affordable housing refers to developments or units where rents are kept particularly low and are intended to serve the lowest-income residents in the community. options at the root of this crisis is growing even larger, demonstrating a clear need for new local sources of funding for housing development.
Leveraging a decade of collaboration and an effective homelessness prevention system, local leaders took action just days into the COVID-19 pandemic to establish the nation’s first COVID rental assistance fund, ultimately deploying $85 million to nearly 20,000 households. Revealing deep inequities, the pandemic underlined the need to address the root causes of homelessness and informed an updated roadmap to guide bold collective action in the years ahead.
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By documenting progress so far — including challenges and lessons learned along the way — we hope to encourage others to take bold systems-level action to end and prevent homelessness. Our experiences so far tell us that, while complex, this crisis is solvable, and that promise drives us forward.
Thank you to the many coalition partners who have played a vital role in our collective successes and innovations.
This journey is far from over, and we’re grateful to be on it together.