Homeless in San Mateo County up 20% from 2019

As a requirement to receive federal funding for homelessness aid, the count has been conducted every two years beginning in 2011, with the exception of last year when it was postponed due to the pandemic. The estimate is conducted by volunteers who fan through the county during a single night.

Similar to years prior, Redwood City, East Palo Alto and Pacifica had the largest numbers, with 245, 169 and 161 unsheltered people in each city, respectively. Between 40 and 60 people were counted in Half Moon Bay, San Mateo, San Bruno, Menlo Park, Daly City and South San Francisco, and excluding unincorporated areas, fewer than 15 people per city were counted throughout the rest of the county.

In presenting the numbers, San Mateo County officials reiterated their commitment to achieve “functional zero” homelessness, a plan unveiled last year that involves increasing the country’s capacity to provide shelter and permanent housing options to exceed the number of people unhoused.

“While the numbers went up, we believe the situation could be much worse without the supports we have put in place due to the impacts of the pandemic,” Ken Cole, director of the County’s Human Services Agency, said.

The county recently used state funds from the governor’s Homekey program to purchase five motels, two of which are already filled. The others will combine to offer 190 additional rooms, and a navigation center, a location for services being built in Redwood City, will have another 240 rooms.

And while the number of those unsheltered would likely still outweigh the beds and rooms being added, Selina Toy Lee, director of collaborative community outcomes with the county Human Services Agency, said she believes the county’s goal can be reached.

A big part of the equation is the county’s effort to add more permanent support housing and affordable housing options for people transitioning out of shelters. “The complexity with homelessness is that people become newly homeless every day, but then people also become housed every day,” she said.

Additionally, “even if we had 1,092 beds available, not everybody who is unsheltered will accept those beds,” she added. “That is partly the challenge of what we have ahead of us.”

She said the new navigation center, which is replacing the 110-bed Maple Street Shelter, will address some issues that can deter people from accepting shelter, for instance rooms will be private, some even allowing couples.

“We’ve really crafted this navigation center to create more privacy, because individuals don’t want to go to a space where there are 50 other people and they don’t feel safe,” she said.

The majority of those counted, 718, were in vehicles, with the rest divided between those in tents or other encampments on the streets. The county will be releasing more information in July, including demographics, which Toy Lee said will help shape the county’s strategy going forward.

Several neighboring countries released data this week as well, with Santa Clara County up 3% for their total count, Alameda County up 22% and Contra Costa County reporting the largest increase, up 35%. San Francisco and Sonoma meanwhile both saw modest decreases.

San Mateo County continues to have far fewer people experiencing homelessness than its immediate neighbors — Santa Clara County counted 10,228 individuals while San Francisco counted 7,754.

corey@smdailyjournal.com

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