From 2023 to late 2025, Cupertino has seen an alarming 110% increase in its unhoused population, according to San Jose Spotlight. With the city’s dense residential environment, issues like litter, hygiene and even safety could continue to interrupt the everyday lives of residents.
Having grown up around Cupertino, I have noticed the city struggle to implement an effective approach toward removing homeless encampments for as long as I can remember. With these issues disrupting the daily lives of residents, the city’s homelessness policies must be overhauled.
While some claim it is difficult to do, San Francisco, an urban city with nearly twice Cupertino’s population, has begun successfully doing so. By taking note of their current measures, Cupertino can develop its own plan to support its unhoused community while resolving residents’ concerns.
Most prominently, to improve housing conditions, San Francisco has allocated funds from local business taxes toward improving emergency shelter conditions, according to KQED. By installing thousands of new beds, San Francisco’s initiatives have expanded short-term housing availability for people in need, according to the City of San Francisco.
As a result of this sweeping action, San Francisco’s homeless tent numbers dropped by 85% since 2024, according to the City of San Francisco. If initiatives like these were enforced city-wide in Cupertino, not only would public concerns subside, but unhoused individuals would gain greater overall support.
Currently, homeless shelters are primarily run by nonprofits that are backed by the city, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. But while the city cannot make direct financial contributions to them, according to the Institute for Local Government, it can meaningfully support them through awareness campaigns.
By giving these shelters more exposure through simply putting up physical and digital flyers listing specific instructions, resources and shelter locations, the city can streamline the process of getting unhoused individuals back on their feet.
Additionally, since most local nonprofits are directly responsible for operating shelters, donating or volunteering for these groups on any level can help fund their resources and expand their impact.
By working together, residents can also push for broader improvement through city action. Lobbying officials to fund shelter improvements through petitions and meetings can further shift the city’s focus to these issues and lead to better resolutions.
Through both personal and collective efforts like these, residents can provide stability and satisfaction for unhoused and housed community members alike. While homelessness will never have an end-all solution, applying parts of other cities’ policies to Cupertino can spark its return to the excellence I fondly remember.
