Clients and Data
Our Clients: Unhoused Residents, Homeless Service Providers, and Public Parks
Through thousands of hours of cleaning alongside our unhoused residents, gathering input, and conducting research both locally and nationally, we understand our park-focused, community-based homeless work and outreach model to be a magnet for the following reasons.
#1: Our model meets unhoused residents where they are. By meeting highly at-risk (and often chronically homeless) individuals on their turf with an empowering, dignified, and no-barrier-to-entry cleaning opportunity, we provide step one for unhoused residents to start their journey back to housing and stable living.
#2: Through a human-centered approach to program design, we prioritize the needs of unhoused residents based on their lived realities. This primarily entails removing bureaucratic barriers and designing for convenience. Why is this important? Example 1: Many unhoused residents lack basic prerequisites for employment: an address, phone number, ID, bank account, etc. Going from unsheltered homelessness to a 40-year/week job simply isn't realistic for much of San Jose's unhoused population. This population needs an initial offering (or step one, as mentioned above).
Example 2: If a tent is your place of residence, the longer you leave, the greater the chance your belongings will get stolen! Unhoused neighbors need convenience more than anyone, which the highly disconnected brick-and-mortar homeless service landscape in San Jose does not offer.
#3: We provide a unique opportunity for inclusion for a population that often suffers from extreme social isolation. Humans are neurologically hard-wired for connection and need positive socialization to thrive. When humans don't get positive socialization, we turn to substance use to cope with our loneliness. For this reason our model engages both unhoused and housed neighbors (our founder and members of our board clean alongside our unhoused participants on a weekly basis) to take part in a dignified, community-serving activity in a made-for-fun space. This eliminates the awkward (and often self-esteem crushing) social dynamics that exist in many charitable service offerings, helps break down very real social barriers that unhoused people experience while living on the streets, and provides a comfortable opportunity for relationship formation: which is very much a two-way street, as any of our volunteers will testify!
#4: Our model is rooted in the demographics of homelessness and landscaping. 70% of unhoused individuals nationally are single men. Landscaping is a male-dominated industry requiring very low levels of education. Hygiene—a major barrier to securing and maintaining most forms of employment for unhoused people—isn’t an issue.
Demographic Data from our Unhoused Clients:
Gender
#1: Our model meets unhoused residents where they are. By meeting highly at-risk (and often chronically homeless) individuals on their turf with an empowering, dignified, and no-barrier-to-entry cleaning opportunity, we provide step one for unhoused residents to start their journey back to housing and stable living.
#2: Through a human-centered approach to program design, we prioritize the needs of unhoused residents based on their lived realities. This primarily entails removing bureaucratic barriers and designing for convenience. Why is this important? Example 1: Many unhoused residents lack basic prerequisites for employment: an address, phone number, ID, bank account, etc. Going from unsheltered homelessness to a 40-year/week job simply isn't realistic for much of San Jose's unhoused population. This population needs an initial offering (or step one, as mentioned above).
Example 2: If a tent is your place of residence, the longer you leave, the greater the chance your belongings will get stolen! Unhoused neighbors need convenience more than anyone, which the highly disconnected brick-and-mortar homeless service landscape in San Jose does not offer.
#3: We provide a unique opportunity for inclusion for a population that often suffers from extreme social isolation. Humans are neurologically hard-wired for connection and need positive socialization to thrive. When humans don't get positive socialization, we turn to substance use to cope with our loneliness. For this reason our model engages both unhoused and housed neighbors (our founder and members of our board clean alongside our unhoused participants on a weekly basis) to take part in a dignified, community-serving activity in a made-for-fun space. This eliminates the awkward (and often self-esteem crushing) social dynamics that exist in many charitable service offerings, helps break down very real social barriers that unhoused people experience while living on the streets, and provides a comfortable opportunity for relationship formation: which is very much a two-way street, as any of our volunteers will testify!
#4: Our model is rooted in the demographics of homelessness and landscaping. 70% of unhoused individuals nationally are single men. Landscaping is a male-dominated industry requiring very low levels of education. Hygiene—a major barrier to securing and maintaining most forms of employment for unhoused people—isn’t an issue.
Demographic Data from our Unhoused Clients:
Gender
- Male: 87%
- Female: 12%
- Prefer not to state: 1%
- Latino: 56%
- Caucasian: 26%
- African American: 10%
- Native American: 3%
- Other: 5%
- 18 to 29: 3%
- 30 to 45: 32%
- 46 to 60: 37%
- 61+: 28%
- Tent: 35%
- Car/RV: 21%
- Completely unsheltered: 19%
- Temporary housing/apartment situation: 14%
- Shelter: 10%
- Hotel room until housing: 1%
The Benefit for Homeless Service Providers: Highly Efficient Access to Unhoused Clients
Standard homeless outreach methods which aim to reach the most highly at-risk individuals (those who are completely unsheltered) have a very tall order: approach potential clients on foot or vehicle and try to convince them to learn more about XYZ service offering, which usually exists miles away from the conversation being had. Regretfully, this method of outreach is not terribly helpful for unhoused residents -- whose lived realities are rarely conducive to traveling from A to B to C to Z to get the myriad services they need -- and is an inefficient allocation of limited resources, given the salaries involved with staffing such outreach.
By attracting large numbers of unhoused residents to a positive community environment at a predictable time every week, our model offers extremely efficient access for two key stakeholder groups -- homeless services and unhoused residents -- to connect in a comfortable space.
By attracting large numbers of unhoused residents to a positive community environment at a predictable time every week, our model offers extremely efficient access for two key stakeholder groups -- homeless services and unhoused residents -- to connect in a comfortable space.
The Benefit for Public Parks: A Community Solution to Funding Shortages
Significant reductions in funding for city parks have been a national trend since the Great Recession. With the exception of the one-time COVID stimulus, this trend has been exacerbated by the pandemic and disproportionately affects low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.
As a result, the City of San Jose’s Parks, Recreation, and Neighborhood Services Department has specifically highlighted community solutions in their ActivateSJ Strategic Plan (2020 - 2040) as a way to meet anticipated budget shortages over the coming decades. We believe Neighborhood Hands can be one of these community solutions.
As a result, the City of San Jose’s Parks, Recreation, and Neighborhood Services Department has specifically highlighted community solutions in their ActivateSJ Strategic Plan (2020 - 2040) as a way to meet anticipated budget shortages over the coming decades. We believe Neighborhood Hands can be one of these community solutions.
Additional Survey Data from our Unhoused Clients:
- Stipends, "it feels good to clean the park," and positive community are the top three reasons unhoused residents attend our program.
- 39% are willing to travel over one hour to attend our humble pilot program.
- 77% have attended our program more than ten times.
- 81% are willing to provide a testimonial about the impact our pilot program has had on their lives.