Among the concentration of dot.com businesses in Santa Clara County are almost 10,000 homeless people, according to a count made in January by the city of San Jose and the county. 

Silicon Valley, roughly defined as San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, includes a total of more than 11,000 homeless, while San Francisco counted just over 8,000, according to a Point-in-Time count in January by each jurisdiction. 

Here’s how the counties ranked by the number of homeless in early 2019.1. Santa Clara County — 9,706 2. Alameda County — 8,022 3. San Francisco — 8,0114. Sonoma County — 2,9515. Contra Costa County — 2,2956. San Mateo County — 1,5127. Solano County — 1,1518. Marin County — 1,0349. Napa County — 323Advocates for the homeless population said Santa Clara County can reduce the numbers by keeping a focus on prevention, strengthening its support programs and developing more affordable housing.

Bruce Ives, the CEO of LifeMoves, the largest provider of shelter and homeless services in Silicon Valley, said one new program gives people living in vehicles a safe place to park while connecting them to services to get them permanent housing. 

Another effort, he said, is a partnership between the city of San Jose and the county to open a shelter with services focused on the homeless LGBTQ community.

Source: Bay Area counties, LifeMoves

Keith Burbank is currently a fulltime reporter covering Alameda County and Oakland news for Bay City News. He has also worked on the Data Points project for Local News Matters, finding trends and stories about the region through data. In 2019, he was a California Fellow at the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, producing a series about homeless deaths in Santa Clara County. He worked as a swing shift editor for the newswire for several years as well. Outside of journalism, Keith enjoys computer programming, math, economics and music.