Santa Clara County Supervisors Consider Voucher Program to Help Chronically Homeless
SAN JOSE (KCBS) - Santa Clara County wants to get more of its homeless population into permanent housing. To that end, the county is considering a program that advocates claim could actually end up saving taxpayer dollars - it involves the distribution of housing vouchers to 100 people.
People who have been sleeping on the streets for more than a year in Santa Clara County would be the recipients of the vouchers, for up to $13,000 towards housing costs.
The most recent homeless count for the region indicated there are more than 7,000 homeless in Silicon Valley and just over 2,500 of those were described as chronically homeless.
"People are continuously stunned and they say you don't have homelessness in Santa Clara County and my response is we absolutely have homelessness here. You just don't see it," said Jenny Niklaus, CEO of EHC LifeBuilders, a nonprofit that contracts with the county to run shelter programs.
KCBS' Matt Bigler Reports:
The voucher program could be approved as early as Tuesday at the Board of Supervisors' meeting, and would cost the county an estimated more than $1 million but could trim the county's expenses in the long run with less money going to emergency shelters, emergency rooms and jails.
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