Homeless deaths have dropped more than 20%, even though homelessness continues to rise in Santa Clara County.
Approximately 155 homeless people died between Dec. 1, 2024 to Nov. 30, down from 197 the previous year, according to data provided by nonprofit HomeFirst. A majority of the deaths, 187, were male. The oldest homeless person who died was 82, while the youngest was 16. Some causes of death include drug overdoses, health complications such as heart failure, suicide and more.
Deaths have been steadily declining since the pandemic, when the county saw a record high of 250 deaths in 2021.
Elected officials and homeless advocates came together to pay tribute to the people who died at a Friday memorial at Boccardo Reception Center, the city’s largest congregate shelter run by HomeFirst.
“The numbers should give us all hope,” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said at the memorial. “To make sure we continue to reduce the number of lives we mourn each and every year, we need to ensure that every city, every county in our state, does their part.”
Santa Clara County has added nearly 2,000 new temporary housing beds this year, with more than half of them in San Jose. The city has opened 11 temporary housing sites, including tiny homes on Branham Lane, Cherry Avenue and Via del Oro, and expanded the Rue Ferrari site.
San Jose has also opened 822 affordable apartments this year, Mahan said, including the newest site for homeless families at The Charles.
While the county has seen a record of more than 10,700 homeless people — with more than 6,500 in San Jose according to a January point in time count — Mahan said unsheltered homelessness in San Jose has been reduced to about 50% of the population due to the city’s effort to offer more temporary housing.
District 2 County Supervisor Betty Duong said homeless deaths are tragedies that can be prevented, and together the county and its cities can work to make these deaths obsolete.
“We solve homelessness with housing,” Duong said at the memorial. “Once we have housing, then we get to treat the root cause — health, (behavioral) health, stability, addiction, loneliness, lack of support, lack of access.”
Memorial attendees lit candles in memory of the people who died, and several speakers read their names out loud.
Karlee Douglas, a formerly homeless resident who is now a program manager with HomeFirst, said the memorial is important because it offers a chance to remember the people who died and gives value to their lives.
“I could easily have been one of the names we are honoring today,” Douglas said at the memorial. “I didn’t survive homelessness because I was stronger, smarter or more deserving. I survived because of timing, because access came when it did, because someone intervened when it mattered. That difference did not come down to intention or effort, but proximity to support.”
HomeFirst CEO René Ramirez said the memorial underscores the duty to respond to homelessness with compassion and urgency.
“Each of these deaths reminds us that homelessness is not just a housing crisis, it’s a human crisis,” Ramirez said.
Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X.