In San Benito County, 621 people live on the streets or in homeless shelters. That is 264 more than in 2022 and 339 more than in 2019, aligning with the upward trend of homelessness in California.
The numbers come from a point-in-time count the county does every other year and were presented to the Board of Supervisors at a special meeting held on Oct. 15. Katrina McKenzie, executive director of the Coalition of Homeless Services Providers (CHSP), the organization in charge of the count, explained that the causes for this include the aftereffects of the pandemic, especially the end of programs that were created to support the most vulnerable population during Covid.
“A lot of our funding was poured into our community due to Covid, and we were able to combat that. And then they said ‘no more.’ So, we just had to start shutting things down,” McKenzie said. “In the post-pandemic, a lot of people are struggling and trying to recover.”
Among the programs that ended was the Emergency Rental Assistance program, which was funded by the federal and state governments and poured $4.5 million into the county. It stopped in March 2023.
In June 2022, California also ended a moratorium on evictions, which was also created during the pandemic and prohibited landlords from removing tenants for not paying.
The funding from Project Roomkey, the state plan to shelter unhoused individuals in hotels, motels, and trailers, was also terminated during this period. The program temporarily housed around 62,000 people around the state. When it stopped, the county lost approximately 75 beds.
Housing and homelessness
McKenzie also linked the rise in homelessness to the county’s housing crisis. She argued that the delays in Homekey Projects, a state housing program, due to issues with developers, “took off 58 permanent supportive housing beds in the community.”
She also mentioned the rise in the cost of living in San Benito County.
“Out here, … an individual or family must be prepared to pay over $30,000 a year just to keep a roof above their heads,” she said. “If landlords require households to make three times that to be considered eligible for renting their unit, this means households must bring in a minimum of $90,000 per year to qualify for housing.”
The point-in-time count was done by CHSP in partnership with the San Benito County Health and Human Services Agency on January 31, 2024. It included more than 45 volunteers, service providers, county staff, and officers from the San Benito County Office of the Sheriff and the Hollister Police Department. Besides counting them, the teams surveyed 74 homeless individuals.
The census also found that:
Two-thirds of the surveyed homeless (67%) said that their main obstacle to obtaining permanent housing was that they can’t afford rent.
Out of the 621 homeless counted, 80% live on the streets and 20% in shelters.
22% reported that it was their first time experiencing homelessness.
68% reported being homeless for a year or more.
44% answered that the primary condition that led to homelessness was alcohol and drug abuse, followed by financial issues (34%), fights/conflicts (34%), legal issues (32%), and mental health issues (23%).
18% had some sort of employment.
50% reported having at least one disabling condition.
The U.S. The Department of Housing and Urban Development requires that Continuum of Care Programs such as the San Benito County Health and Human Services Agency conduct a count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness. The count is done by jurisdictions that seek federal funding for homeless programs, help those in need, and strategize an end to homelessness.
After listening to the findings, District 4 Supervisor Angela Curro questioned why the number of homeless in 2019 (283) was so low compared to the previous and following years. The Coalition counted 651 in 2015, 527 in 2017, 283 in 2019, 357 in 2022, and 621 in 2024.
Enrique Arreola, Deputy Director of the San Benito County Community Services and Workforce Development Department, explained that this might be because the day the count was done in 2019 was raining. “It rained a lot. They were harder to reach. My assumption is that they moved to protect themselves from the rain.”
The next count will be done in January 2026.
“This data helps us to evaluate the effectiveness of existing interventions and identify gaps,” CHSP’s McKenzie said. “These counts provide crucial information for policymakers to make decisions about homeless prevention and intervention strategies.”
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