REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Study Session on 2025-2030 Community Plan to End Homelessness and Updates on Local Work Efforts
Report
BACKGROUND
On July 8, 2025, the City of Santa Clara (City) hosted a City Council Study Session on homelessness. The session provided an overview of the supportive housing system, updates on city services, and sought feedback on a two-year homelessness response implementation workplan.
There are three primary purposes of this Study Session. First, representatives of the Santa Clara County (County) Continuum of Care will share results of the 2020-25 Community Plan to End Homelessness (2020-25 Community Plan) (Attachment 1) adopted in 2020 and introduce the draft 2025-30 Community Plan (Draft 2025-30 Community Plan) (Attachment 2). Second, City staff will discuss how the draft Citywide Plan to Reduce Homelessness and its Impacts (Citywide Plan) generally aligns with the new Draft 2025-30 Community Plan. This discussion will allow the City to finalize its local plan later this year and ensure it is informed by any new strategies and ideas that may have come up during the County’s update process. Lastly, City staff will provide updates on local work efforts related to homelessness.
DISCUSSION
2020-25 Community Plan to End Homelessness
Continuums of Care (CoCs) are required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to coordinate the regional homelessness response system. As part of that role, the CoC brings together local governments, service providers, and other stakeholders to assess needs, use system and outcome data, and set regional priorities across outreach, shelter, housing, and supportive services. The Draft 2025-30 Community Plan serves as the regional plan for Santa Clara County and in its final form will inform strategies and investments of federal, state, and local funding to address homelessness and its causes over the next five years. The Santa Clara County CoC is currently in the process of gathering feedback on the Draft 2025-30 Community Plan, after which it will seek endorsement of the final plan from local jurisdictions throughout Santa Clara County in Fall 2026. As background, this plan introduction and endorsement process models what occurred for the 2020-25 Community Plan, which the Santa Clara City Council endorsed on March 16, 2021.
The 2020-25 Community Plan was structured around three core strategies:
1. Address the root causes of homelessness through system and policy change.
2. Expand homelessness prevention and housing programs to meet the need.
3. To improve quality of life for unsheltered individuals and create healthy neighborhoods for all.
Over the course of the last five years in which this plan was in place, the CoC, the County, cities, service providers, housing developers, people with lived experience of homelessness, and countless other stakeholders have contributed to the region meeting and exceeding several important goals related to the above strategies.
|
2020 - 2025 Community Plan to End Homelessness Key Results |
|
|
Countywide |
City of Santa Clara |
|
Permanently Housed |
20,830 |
1,894 |
|
Obtained Temporary Housing & Shelter |
27,073 |
3,443 |
|
Received Homelessness Prevention Assistance |
38,060 |
1,514 |
Draft 2025-30 Community Plan to End Homelessness
The Draft 2025-30 Community Plan to End Homelessness is structured around four Focus Areas, each with multiple strategies and sub-strategies supporting them:
1. Prevent people from becoming homeless
2. Continue to house people and support them in retaining their housing
3. Strengthen access to care and services for people experiencing unsheltered homelessness.
4. Center and invest in people with lived experience to lead and transform the homeless system.
Since Fall 2025, the CoC has been meeting with a wide range of community stakeholders, including staff at local agencies, to develop and gather feedback on their draft 2025-30 Community Plan strategies. Through this process, City staff provided input based on the specific challenges that homelessness presents in the City, different opportunities the City has participated in the larger systems of care, and existing strategies and workplan items that are included in Santa Clara’s draft Citywide Plan.
Santa Clara’s Citywide Plan to Reduce Homelessness and its Impacts
The City of Santa Clara’s draft local Citywide Plan to Reduce Homelessness and its Impacts was developed by a task force including City staff, community members from every City Council District, people with lived experience, and other stakeholders.
Homebase, a consulting firm, organized the task force and drafted the Citywide Plan based on the priorities and input of the task force. The Draft Citywide Plan presented at the July 8, 2025 Study Session includes a two-year workplan (respectively, Attachments 3 and 4) organized under six strategies that address homelessness and related impacts. They are:
• Strategy 1: Prevent homelessness for City residents who are at-risk.
• Strategy 2: Increase availability of short-term shelter, permanent supportive housing, and Extremely Low Income (ELI) housing
• Strategy 3: Conduct proactive street outreach to engage people who are unsheltered and connect them to resources.
• Strategy 4: Address basic needs of people living outside, including health, and hygiene
• Strategy 5: Reduce the impacts of unsheltered homelessness throughout the community
• Strategy 6: Foster productive community conversation about the causes, needs, and experience of homelessness to foster support and volunteerism.
Despite being developed independently and at different times, the Draft 2025-30 Community Plan and the City of Santa Clara’s Draft Citywide Plan share many of the same goals. Both plans emphasize the importance of prevention, seek to expand housing and shelter opportunities, and strengthen access to services for people experiencing homelessness.
The primary difference between the two plans is in Strategy 5 of the Draft Citywide Plan, which focuses on the impacts of homelessness on the broader community and includes work around blight reduction, sanitation, and vehicle enforcement. This difference is an important reminder of the varying roles that agencies play in addressing homelessness, as well as the different challenges that agencies experience.
At the July 8, 2025 Study Session, City staff and the County received feedback and a number of questions from the City Council. Staff has provided formal responses to these questions in Attachment 5 of this report.
Updates on Local Work Efforts
As part of this Study Session item, staff will provide a presentation with updates on local work efforts related to homelessness. Those efforts include:
• City Council Priority: Provide Interim Supportive Housing and Outreach Services for the Unhoused
o Pending agreement under negotiation with WeHOPE to expand homelessness services through street outreach/case management, temporary hotel program, and inclement weather hotel program. Staff is evaluating the feasibility of changes to the pending agreement requested by the vendor.
o 30-suite interim family housing development at Benton Street and Lawrence Expressway.
• City Council Priority: Off Street Parking for RVs/People Living in Cars
o Sub-sequent evaluation of potential sites to develop safe parking program on City-owned properties.
o Alternative options to utilize real estate broker services to identify potential private properties for safe parking program and/or conduct a Request for Proposals for private property owners to host safe parking program on their property.
• Potential Relocation of Dignity on Wheels - Mobile Shower and Laundry Service
o Evaluation of usage data.
o In response to the Council’s interest/comments, staff identified a potential site near transit and other basic needs services to relocate program.
Next Steps
The City’s Study Session on the regional Draft 2025-30 Community Plan is among the first that the Santa Clara County CoC and Santa Clara County’s Office of Supportive Housing are holding as they gather input and feedback from policy makers and other stakeholders across the county. It is anticipated that the final plan, inclusive of feedback from the community where viable, will be finalized in late Summer or Fall 2026. At that time, the CoC will seek endorsement from the City of Santa Clara and other cities. City staff will aim to present a final draft of the Citywide Plan to City Council at the same Council meeting for adoption to ensure that it aligns with the new regional plan. In the interim period, staff will continue working on the local efforts outlined above based on the Council’s feedback during the Study Session and other work items within two-year workplan in the Draft Citywide Plan.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The action being considered does not constitute a “project” within the meaning of the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) pursuant to CEQA Guidelines section 15378(a) as it has no potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment.
FISCAL IMPACT
While there are no costs to present the information in this report other than staff and administrative time, costs could be incurred or proposed depending on the recommendations or direction provided by the City Council in this Study Session to bring back proposals for funding consideration.
COORDINATION
This report was coordinated with the Community Development Department, City Manager’s Office, and City Attorney’s Office. In addition to these departments, the Draft Citywide Plan was coordinated with the Police, Public Works, Library, and Parks and Recreations Departments, and the Office of Emergency Management.
PUBLIC CONTACT
Public contact was made by posting the Council agenda on the City’s official-notice bulletin board outside City Hall Council Chambers. A complete agenda packet is available on the City’s website and in the City Clerk’s Office at least 72 hours prior to a Regular Meeting and 24 hours prior to a Special Meeting. A hard copy of any agenda report may be requested by contacting the City Clerk’s Office at (408) 615-2220, email clerk@santaclaraca.gov <mailto:clerk@santaclaraca.gov> or at the public information desk at any City of Santa Clara public library.
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
Consider staff's report and presentations on the regional Draft 2025-30 Community Plan to End Homelessness and local work efforts, and provide feedback.
Staff
Reviewed by: Afshan Hamid, Director, Community Development and Christine Jung, Deputy City Manager, City Manager’s Office
Approved by: Jovan D. Grogan, City Manager
ATTACHMENTS
1. 2020-25 Community Plan to End Homelessness
2. Draft 2025-2030 Community Plan to End Homelessness
3. Draft Citywide Plan to Reduce Homelessness and Its Impacts
4. Draft Citywide Plan to Reduce Homelessness and Its Impacts - Appendix A: Two-Year Workplan
5. Responses to Council Feedback and Questions from July 8, 2025 Study Session