MUSICAL
CHAIRS
Homelessness in Silicon Valley by Annie Hua
P
eople all around the world experience homelessness, unfortunately, especially in the US with California in the lead. The Public Policy Institute of California found that “as of 2022, 30% of all people in the United States experiencing homelessness resided in California.” Ironically, in the most privileged places we can see the most impoverished. In a place like Silicon Valley where living costs are pricey, it is incredibly difficult to find financial stability, resulting in higher concentrations of the homeless population in urban areas. Society incriminates the homeless and stigmatizes them as “bad people”, where in reality, it’s us– we’re the problem. The anti-homeless stigma circulates around society which fuels more negativity in the government’s attitude towards homelessness. Anti-homeless infrastructure and policies have been on a rise, and our tax dollars are funding them. The National Homelessness Law Center reports that “[anti-homeless] laws in 187 cities and city-wide bans on camping have increased by 92%... [and] a 1,300% growth of homeless encampments have been reported in all 50 states.” However, many people think that reallocating funding to rehabilitating the homeless would prove to be useless. Many believe that the unhoused dealing with drug abuse will only return back to their bad habits. What can we do to change? Is eradicating homelessness possible?
Manager at LifeMoves* homeless shelter, says, “what I’ve seen here [at LifeMoves] is mostly a lot of females, a lot of families, single parents, a lot of people who are elderly as well.” Why is it that Silicon Valley sees more of these types of people? While there are countless factors, we can boil it down to the lack of affordable housing and the absence of government aid. The lack of affordable housing is a common problem for many places with a high number of unsheltered people, however Silicon Valley’s housing market only exacerbates the problem. The market is outrageous, with an average single family residence costing a staggering 1.97 million dollars (Pope-Handy 21). The article “The Obvious Answer to Homelessness’’ by Jerusalem Demsas discusses the main factors of homelessness. Demsas acknowledges that many unhoused people may be a result of their lack of competency for the modern world, poor decisions, or disabilities, but pushes the idea that homelessness is mainly caused by lack of housing.
HOMELESSNESS IN SILICON VALLEY AND WHY
I
n Silicon Valley alone, we see a disproportionate amount of homeless compared to other urban areas. Sarah Gonzalez, the Case
Above, A homeless man sleeping on an anti-homeless bench, the arm-rests are purposely too close together for comfort.
* LifeMoves is a homeless shelter that has multiple locations, including some in Silicon Valley.