Getting everyone currently living on the street into housing in the next nine months may sound like a reach for places such as San Francisco or, which have wrestled with the issue for decades and where tens of thousands of people are unhoused.
It’s unclear how well the San Mateo County plan could be replicated in denser urban areas. L.A. County’s last homeless count, conducted in 2020, reported that 66,436 people were experiencing homelessness. It’s so expensive that in some pockets there are “four or five families living in a home just to try and pay the rent,” said Laura Bent, chief operating officer of, a nonprofit that provides services and resources to thousands of low-income and homeless San Mateo County residents.
The county’s Human Services Agency uploaded a video in late February titled “Our Year of Working Together to End Homelessness.” In it, Callagy called this the highest priority for himself and the Board of Supervisors.last year to end family homelessness by 2025 — a more modest goal in a county with about 10,000 unhoused people.
After receiving $33 million in Homekey funding in November, 2020, the county purchased the Pacific Inn in Redwood City as a temporary shelter for people experiencing homelessness and the TownePlace Suites Hotel in Redwood Shores for permanent senior housing.