Homelessness in San Bruno Declining, County Survey Finds

Very few homeless people live in San Bruno. But a recent survey released in May by the San Mateo County Human Services Agency found that they do exist in the city.

Of the 2,149 homeless people who were identified in the county, only 20 were found in San Bruno. Of those 20 people, 14 were living in the streets.

The survey was designed to identify the homeless and understand their current situation to end their homelessness, according to the county’s Human Services Agency. 

Wendy Goldberg, the manager of the agency’s Center on Homelessness said the high unemployment figures in a number of cities throughout the county were the most likely cause.

As of April, San Bruno had an unemployment rate of 7.1 percent, or 1,500 people who were out of work, according to state figures. That rate is slightly lower than the county average of 8.2 percent and the rate of 10 percent in South San Francisco, but higher than the unemployment rate in Millbrae of 4.3 percent.

“Almost all of them want to work, but they don’t have the money, clothes or home to get started,” said Supervisor Don Horsley. He and Board of Supervisors President Carole Groom are the chairs of Housing Our People Effectively, or HOPE, the inter-agency council that combines the efforts of many housing non-profits.

The typical homeless person in San Mateo County is an unsheltered single white man with at least one disability. He is unemployed and his primary barriers to employment are a lack of an address and the disability, Goldberg said.

In San Bruno, the number of homeless people not living in shelters has dropped from 34 in 2009 to 14 this year. In 2007, the count was at 31.

Twelve percent of the homeless in the county are veterans. That percentage has gone down steadily, from 27 percent in 2007 to 14 percent in 2009, according to the report.

Unlike the U.S. Census, which sends neatly packaged forms to your doorstep, counting the homeless is an entirely more complex process.

At 6 a.m. on Jan. 26, 217 volunteers along with county officials were combing every street in San Mateo County to count the number of homeless people on the streets, in vehicles and various encampments. The snapshot was used to estimate a larger annual number of 6,737 people who will at one point be homeless this year. 

Because the homeless are transient, their home city is marked as the one that the shelter or bedding is located in. However, because many live on private property like storage sheds or garages, it is difficult to explicitly identify if people are living in a certain location, Goldberg said. There are also many people who temporarily reside in friends’ or family’s homes.

Despite the increase in homelessness, Goldberg said there was a decrease in chronically homeless people. The number of those living on the street has gone down and the census counters only identified two homeless families living on the streets.

Intervention to End Homelessness

Supervisors Groom and Horsley started the HOPE inter-agency council to combine the efforts of numerous housing organizations that work to help house the homeless.

“Housing, housing, housing,” Wendy Goldberg says. The supervisors agree that the primary way to end homelessness is to provide a variety of affordable housing options.

HOPE and its partner organizations work to see that veterans and disabled residents are receiving the benefits they’re entitled to. Of the disabled, only 13 percent were receiving Supplemental Security Income or Social Security Disability Insurance benefits and only 14 percent were receiving Medi-Cal or Medicare.

“We want to end homelessness amongst veterans in the next five years,” Horsley said. The county is working closely with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The agency works intensely with non-profits whose clients have very high levels of homelessness, or are chronically homeless, by working with alcohol and drug treatment and the criminal justice system.

Every year, the county receives about $5.7 million from the federal government to address homeless issues, Goldberg estimated.

The total amount the county spends annually could not be immediately determined because multiple departments like Human Services, Mental Health and Veterans Affairs all contribute to homeless services.

Groom called attention to projects like the Vendome Hotel in San Mateo that allots units for homeless people.

“It helps people like Michelle, who was living in the parking lot of Draeger’s. At first she was absolutely petrified because she had never had a room before and hadn’t bathed in a real bathroom in years,” Groom said. “It took good old-fashioned social work to help her.”

“These people are our citizens,” Horsley said. “They are long-time residents of the county and we want to assist them.”

San Bruno Patch Editor Martin Ricard contributed to this report.