Three New County Homeless Shelters Open Monday

Santa Clara County will open three homeless shelters Monday evening that will provide 365 emergency beds each night through the end of March.

The shelters, in Gilroy, Sunnyvale and San Jose will open at 6 p.m., county officials said. Operated by the nonprofit EHC LifeBuilders, they served 2,693 people last year, 90 percent of whom were at the San Jose and Sunnyvale sites.

Beds are allocated on a first-come, first-serve basis. This year, however, officials are stepping up their efforts to help the long term chronically homeless, who make up 36 percent of the homeless population on any given night.

"Any individual can fall on hard times, but when we see the same people year after year in temporary cold weather shelters, it means that something is not working," said Ky Le, the director of Santa Clara county's homeless systems.

The county's Destination: Home/Housing 1000 initiative, a public/private effort that aims to house 1,000 chronically homeless individuals over the next two years. EHC and county officials will be working to register and prioritize homeless individuals based on their health and time on the street, and move the most urgent cases into permanent housing with support services.

A 2011 survey found 7,067 homeless people in Santa Clara County. Only 1,000 shelter beds are available countywide during the winter.

—Bay City News