Fighting a continued rise in homelessness in the region, a county program is successfully helping families avoid eviction.
According to an article by Patrick Sisson in Bloomberg CityLab, Santa Clara County’s Homeless Prevention System, or HPS, an eviction prevention program, has helped reduce homelessness and provide a crucial safety net for families in the San Jose area. “Researchers at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, who studied HPS found that 81% of those who enrolled were less likely to experience homelessness within six months.” The study also found that each $1 spent on the program returned $2.47 in community benefits, and almost all (95 percent) of recipient families remained in stable housing.
As Sisson explains, “HPS is part of a proliferating family of interventions predicated on the notion that the cheapest way to address homelessness is by keeping struggling tenants from being turned out on the streets in the first place.” The program offers more flexibility than other assistance programs and has no spending caps.
While the program can only serve as a stopgap in a region with a growing affordable housing shortage, the positive results show that no-strings-attached programs can help keep families in stable housing and address homelessness before it happens. However, broader issues continue to plague California’s housing market. In 2023, homelessness in Santa Clara County grew by 24 percent.
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