You can view an online version of this article at: https://mailchi.mp/destinationhomesv/covid-19-update-march30
Addressing COVID-19 in our Homeless Community
Over the past month, the County of Santa Clara, City of San Jose, and Continuum of Care Partners have been working together to address the needs of homeless individuals affected by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak locally.
We know that the spread of COVID-19 could be particularly dangerous for those experiencing homelessness. Individuals without stable housing not only face greater difficulty taking preventative actions, but they are often in poorer health than other residents. Over the last few years, the County, City and their partners have been working tirelessly to reduce and prevent homelessness. From 2015 through 2019, we helped more than 14,000 homeless persons obtain permanent housing. The epidemic has made an already critical mission even more urgent.
Read this March 28 update on our community’s collective efforts to protect and assist our homeless neighbors during this crisis, including recent efforts to secure 172 hotel/motel rooms for sick and vulnerable homeless individuals and ongoing progress towards standing up thousands of temporary shelter beds in the weeks ahead.
More Funding Needed to Help Low-Income Residents Cover Rent, Groceries and Other Basic Needs
Last week, we launched a new initiative to help low-income residents facing severe economic hardship pay rent, cover groceries and meet other basic needs during the COVID-19 crisis – and the rate of applications has been nothing short of extraordinary. We received 4,400 applications in the first three days, which is more households than we have the resources to serve with the initial $11 million committed from a broad coalition of public and private donors.
As a result, we were forced to make a difficult decision to pause accepting new applications, and are instead directing eligible households to add their name to an Interest List (also available on the Sacred Heart webpage), which we will begin contacting once we’re able to raise additional funds towards this critical initiative.
While we were all surprised that we reached this point in only three days, we are not giving up. As of this morning, an additional 4,500 households have added their names to our Interest List and we will continue to aggressively raise the money we need to help these families and individuals during this time of crisis.
We appreciate anything you can do to aid these efforts. If you are able to help support this financial assistance initiative, please consider making a donation through the Silicon Valley Strong website (Click on the “Donate” button and select “Use this Donation for Residents”).
