California's first homelessness prevention strategy will build on Santa Clara County's eviction-help model

A homelessness prevention approach that began as a small Santa Clara County experiment is about to shape statewide policy.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1924 last month, directing the California Interagency Council on Homelessness to write the state's first homelessness prevention strategy, San José Spotlight reported Tuesday. The council has until July 1, 2028, to set prevention targets that can be measured, draft a plan to meet them, identify the local efforts that work best and recommend how to pay for them.

The law itself carries no funding because of state budget limits, so cities and counties could end up covering the cost of prevention programs.

Where the model came from

The county's effort grew out of a 2017 pilot by the nonprofit Destination: Home, which offered rental help, case management and legal aid to families close to eviction, with backing from private donors. Santa Clara County folded the program into its own prevention strategy in 2024 and expanded it across the county.

County officials say the program keeps more than 2,600 families housed each year and has helped about 44,000 residents in all avoid homelessness. A randomized trial by the University of Notre Dame's Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities found that 90% of people who got the help still had a place to live after two years, according to the Spotlight.

A Destination: Home spokesperson said the local system rests on four parts: a shared screening tool, fast response, flexible money and case managers built into the process.

Kathryn Kaminski, who directs the county Office of Supportive Housing, told the Spotlight the county is "eager to share the success of our local program" with the state.

The scale of the problem

Santa Clara County counted more than 10,700 homeless people last year, its highest total, and almost 60% of those surveyed in the 2025 point-in-time count said it was their first time without a home. The county houses about one person for every two who become homeless; statewide the ratio is one housed for every three, the Spotlight reported.

Statewide, close to 190,000 people a year lose housing who had never been homeless before.

Michael Feuer, a senior policy adviser at Inner City Law Center, which co-sponsored the bill, said prevention costs less than serving people once they are on the street. "We're never going to make meaningful progress on homelessness unless we prevent the inflow into homelessness in the first place," he told the Spotlight.

Destination: Home is also testing the model elsewhere. It has partnered with 10 organizations across the country, from Alaska to North Carolina, putting at least $5 million into each community with a goal of reaching 1,500 households over five years.

Sources

sanjosespotlight.com