What is causing the trend-bucking homelessness problem in the area? In addition to the rising cost of housing and lack of adequately paying jobs, we found that mental illness and substance abuse are problems in the Valley's homeless community like elsewhere in the country. Forty percent of the country's homeless suffer from substance abuse or mental illness and though the National Alliance on Mental Illness calls California's mentally ill housing the "gold standard," the state cut its mental health budget by 21 percent from 2009 to 2012.
"It's a perfect storm of homelessness," San Jose's Housing 1000's Jennifer Loving told Business Insider referring to the budget cuts, lack of allocated housing, recession-era tax breaks in the county, a lack of adequately paying jobs, a growing wealth gap, and rising home prices for sales and rentals.
Barry Swenson Builders told Business Insider that Silicon Valley's residents can expect a 1,000-square-foot "tear down" home to sell for more than a million dollars. Then there's the rental market. A two-bedroom rental at the low end of the $1,800 to $4,800 market, can be tough to find. The apartments that do come to market often receive hundreds of applicants.
Barry Swenson Builders also said it had more than 600 applications for a 29-unit complex they were building in Mountain View, just south of Palo Alto. Rental prices went from an all-time 2009 low to the highest-priced market in the U.S. in 2013.
Business Insider spent a week in mid-July visiting the Valley, talking to government workers, volunteers, non-profits, and the homeless residents themselves. We also spent a day on San Francisco Bay with Larry Ellison's Team Oracle to see what a pair of $10 million sailboats can really do. The contrast was stark.
We looked more at the homeless issues in the South Bay compared to San Francisco, as the homeless problem in San Francisco proper is already a well-documented problem.
Author's note: In response to offers of assistance and requests for local information, contact Jennifer Loving at Housing 1000. The organization works closely with public and private agencies throughout the Santa Clara Valley.
The Santa Clara Valley in Northern California is home to some of the largest tech companies in the world ...
But not everyone in Silicon Valley benefits from the wealth of innovation and high-paying jobs here. Patricia lives in a homeless camp in San Jose with another woman.
While U.S. homelessness dropped nearly 17% over the past eight years, Silicon Valley's homeless population grew by 8% and no one we talked to expected that increase to slow anytime soon.
To have a home you have to be able to afford a home. The surge in tech hiring has caused home prices to rise out of most people's reach. Funds to Federal housing have also decreased dramatically in the region.
Then there's the quality of jobs available. Brian Greenberg, VP of Programs & Services at InnVision Shelter Network told us, "We're really good at getting people lousy jobs, but lousy at getting people good jobs."
In mid-July, Business Insider spent a week in Silicon Valley exploring its homeless camps including "The Jungle," the largest homeless camp in the U.S.
We met the people who live there, like Antonia who lives on Coyote Creek in San Jose. She was a caretaker who was kicked out by the son of the man she was caring for two years ago.
Many don't make it out. The person who lives here is a transsexual who had supposedly been burned over 90% of her body. But homelessness isn't restricted to those accustomed to a hard life on the streets.
Not everyone wants to give up their freedom to live in a shelter and follow a set of rules. Mama Red left a shelter to live on the streets years ago after losing her floral business.
If Mama Red wanted to stay at a shelter, she'd have a chance to stay somewhere like the Boccardo Reception Center. But unfortunately for men, to get a bed you need some luck as there's a nightly lottery.
But cooking outside with an open flame and building camp fires can have dire consequences. Fires that consume acres of land are common near homeless camp sites.
The risk of fire isn't the only concern for residents who have homes bordering camps, as the negative potential health effects of exposed sewage backing onto their land are a concern...
The medical team, made up of both doctors and nurses, schedule appointments out of this bus. The mission of the program is to be the "safety net for the safety net." They care for people who cannot or will not seek care in a conventional health care setting.
The homeless people trust the medical workers. But the team still knows they're fighting an uphill battle. Here they're visiting Dan, a resident of The Jungle.
The medical teams do what they can to keep people here from getting sick, but no amount of self-medication can solve all health concerns when you're homeless.
Coupons.com painted this mural at the InnVision shelter. They also donate a lot of time and professional experience as well as money to help combat the homeless problem in Silicon Valley.
Shelter networks like InnVision also provide personal hygiene items that could make all the difference to someone living on the streets without an income and only a food-stamp card.
Not when parolees from California's overcrowded prisons — like this man Dee — are left to make appointments without transportation vouchers and told to live in homeless camps.
The average cost of transportation here is $14,000. Given the size of Silicon Valley, even commuting on public transportation can leave marginal residents without enough cash to meet rising rents.
For those that can't get help, refuse help, or simply aren't in a position to take back their lives, they still find a way to make the best of their surroundings by crafting homemade "comforts" like a shower.
The homeless struggle to create as much normality as they can in their lives, scavenging and repairing things like old barbecue grills, radios, and bicycles, and even using old boards and fencing materials to give themselves a sense of home.
Public services can't change the fact that so many homeless people sleep on the M22 bus, during its endless overnight loop between San Jose and Palo Alto, that it's known as Hotel 22.
But maybe it's time more companies out here approached local homelessness like any practical problem they've solved in the past.
Robert Johnson for Business Insider
They could always pay more attention and devote more resources here in their own backyard in addition to creating technological innovations designed for the rest of the world.
Robert Johnson was Business Insider's senior correspondent and the originating editor of Business Insider's military-and-defense section.A former US Army noncommissioned officer, Johnson enlisted in the Army before 9/11, was injured, and spent his final two years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. It was his experience at Walter Reed in 2004 and 2005 that brought him to journalism.Johnson attended the University of Missouri and New York University.
