Two years into an aggressive push to address homelessness, San Jose has managed to bring more people indoors — but the total number of unhoused residents remains stubbornly unchanged.
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A new “point-in-time” census released Monday found that the city’s 2025 homeless population was 6,503, largely the same as 2023’s count of 6,266. That’s despite the city’s efforts to increase its emergency shelter capacity and hundreds of millions of dollars in public spending.
The count, conducted in January as required by the federal government, offers a snapshot of homelessness on a single night. It’s used to help determine federal funding and track trends in encampments, shelter usage and vehicle dwellers.
San Jose fared slightly better than Santa Clara County overall, where homelessness rose 8% from the 2023 count to a record high in the latest tally, going from 9,903 to 10,711 people. That comes even as local agencies have moved more than 8,000 people into permanent housing in recent years.
On the other side of the Bay Area, Contra Costa County reported an estimated 26% decline in its homeless population from 2024, though six in 10 homeless people there still lack a shelter bed.
Since taking office last year, Mayor Matt Mahan has spearheaded a dual approach: clearing encampments, particularly RV clusters, while ramping up investments in emergency shelters and temporary housing. The city this year allocated more than $220 million toward homelessness initiatives, including interim housing, outreach and encampment abatements.
That effort has paid off in at least one way: more people are now off the streets. The number of homeless residents in shelters rose by 37% since 2023, while the unsheltered population declined by 10%. Since 2019, the number of sheltered homeless individuals has increased from 980 to 2,544.
“Our focus is ending the encampments and getting everybody indoors,” Mahan said in an interview.
To make room in the budget for new emergency housing, city leaders in recent years redirected funds from a real estate transfer tax originally intended for permanent housing. Critics, though, warn that without long-term housing investments, the revolving door of homelessness will continue.
San Jose has also taken steps to allow criminal penalties against some homeless people. Earlier this year, the City Council approved a change to city code that Mahan pushed for, which allows police to cite and arrest homeless people who refuse shelter.
The policy has also been met with fierce criticism from homeless advocates.
“Our community has nowhere near enough safe options for people who are simply trying to survive,” Jennifer Loving, CEO of Destination: Home, previously told the Bay Area News Group. “Responding to homelessness with criminalized enforcement doesn’t solve this crisis and will never result in less people on the streets.”
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Destination: Home has also spoken out against the use of affordable housing funds for emergency interim housing.
Still, Mahan and his administration have argued that temporary shelter offers immediate relief — and that a visible reduction in street homelessness is a necessary first step.
“This data proves that the set of policies we have advanced in San Jose in recent years are moving us in the right direction,” Mahan said. “But we can’t do it alone — if the rest of our county and leaders in Sacramento don’t recognize that they need to shift their focus to getting people indoors, we will not be able to solve this crisis.”
The state’s homelessness crisis could be a liability to Gov. Gavin Newsom, especially as he considers a potential bid for the presidency. On Friday, just after returning from a trip to South Carolina where he spoke with voters, Newsom announced the creation of a new California Housing and Homelessness Agency, which would focus on lowering housing costs and getting people off the streets.