(Photo by Brandi Ibrao via Unsplash)

Santa Clara County will receive the most state funding of any Bay Area county to help the homeless population weather the COVID-19 crisis and limit the spread of the disease. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom has awarded $7.6 million to be split among Santa Clara County, the city of San Jose and the county’s continuum of care planning body, which provides rental assistance and other help to the homeless, according to a statement released March 18 by the governor’s office. 

Here’s how the counties rank by the amount of state money each will receive.1. Santa Clara County — $7.6 million2. San Francisco — $6.3 million3. Alameda County — $6.2 million4. Sonoma County — $1.1 million5. Contra Costa County — $858,7396. San Mateo County — $565,7577. Solano County — $430,6798. Marin County — $386,9009. Napa County — $120,485In all, the Bay Area will receive about $23.5 million of the $150 million in emergency funding authorized by the governor to protect the homeless from the coronavirus.

“This is money that will be immediately available to help those who are homeless — among the most vulnerable to COVID-19,” Newsom said in a statement. 

One homeless person in Santa Clara County has died from the disease, county officials said March 27.

Source: California Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, Santa Clara County

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.