#santa-clara-county

#santa-clara-county

A startling trend has hit Santa Clara County over the past two years - more people have fallen into homeless for the first time and can't find a way out. Santa Clara County's 2025 point-in-time count found 4,650 people have been homeless for a year or longer, known as chronic homelessness. That's a 21% increase from 2023, when there were 3,833 chronically homeless residents county-wide.

The U.S. Department of Justice through the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) provides grant funding to combat human trafficking, but the monies expired last month. Applications to renew funding are not available presently. The grant covered funding for advocates, training for trauma-informed interviewing and overtime, hampers the county's ability to fund operations during the sporting events, according to attorney Bryan Slater, who oversees human trafficking prosecutors in the District Attorney's office.

Developers are attempting to use a legal escape hatch to push new housing into South County open space. But county leaders have found a loophole of their own. The Santa Clara County Planning Commission on Thursday voted 5-2 against appeals for two different projects under the same developer. To push the projects through, the developer has tried to invoke a state law known as builder's remedy - which allows developments to ignore restrictions on building height and density when local governments lack state approval for their housing plans. The county missed its original deadline two years ago, which opened the door, until receiving state approval in January. But county planners have rejected the plans based on technicalities of missed application deadlines and incomplete information.

Two prominent gun-rights groups and a handful of Santa Clara County residents have sued the sheriff's office in federal court over its methods for issuing concealed-carry weapons permits, saying high fees along with required psychological exams and political contribution disclosures are violations of the Second Amendment. The lawsuit, filed with the Northern District of California on Monday, represents the California Rifle & Pistol Association, the Second Amendment Foundation based in Washington State,

SANTA CLARA COUNTY A small plane reportedly crashed Friday afternoon about 10 miles northeast of Mount Hamilton in Santa Clara County, according to authorities. The crash was initially reported around 2:30 p.m. seven miles east of Mount Hamilton, but Cal Fire crews later discovered the site was actually in the Arroyo del Valle area, Division Chief Ed Orre said. As of 4 p.m., crews were still figuring out how to access the site, according to Orrey.

"All of a sudden, nothing was working," Matteson said. "This whole thing is so serious - it's as serious as a heart attack."

AACI honored state Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens with the Gordon N. Chan Leadership Award for his unwavering advocacy and leadership advancing equity and access for underserved communities.

The report revealed that Santa Clara County's child welfare agency has consistently failed to fulfill its commitments to improve care for older youth, indicating serious leadership doubts.

Obdulia Banuelos-Esparza, former director of events and marketing at Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, admitted to receiving kickbacks from a security company patrolling the venue.

The summer program is only open to high school juniors and combines 60 hours of classroom instruction, 24 hours of lab time and 100 hours of clinical training.

Santa Clara Valley Medical Center's Rehabilitation Center is ranked seventh best in the nation, according to the 2025-26 U.S. News & World Report, evaluated more than 4,400 hospitals.

Public hospitals train 50% of new doctors across California, despite comprising only 6% of the state's total hospitals, indicating their critical role in physician education.

There is a dangerous myth that drug addiction only has a single victim - the drug addict. Sadly, today's new case and new charges demonstrate there are many victims, including those who never intentionally ingest an opioid.

A semi-truck and a train collided north of Gilroy early Monday morning. Emergency personnel were dispatched to the site at 7:03 a.m.

San Jose is the largest city in the Bay Area and third largest in California. Santa Clara County is home to 2 million people and has the sixth-highest GDP in the nation.

"They don't want to live in fear," Hobbs told San José Spotlight. "People ask, 'Am I safe?' People are not going to the store to get the food they need."

The body found in Anderson Lake Bridge has been identified as missing 18-year-old Marissa DiNapoli. She had been missing since Saturday.