Are the RV dwellers counted as homeless in the tally? If yes, then the MV city council is mostly to blame for the 4x increase. For instructing the police not to enforce the law, for voting against even studying the problem, and for providing free services at taxpayers' expense to make it attractive for more RV's to come to MV.

Some RVs are quite expensive; the dwellers should probably not be counted among the homeless.

I've read that some of the RV "homes" are rented - I guess it's a business!

[Post removed due to disrespectful comment or offensive language]

This article combines a strange clash of well-done and glass-half-empty statements.

On the one hand, Simitian's office and the shelter advocates he backed did a superb outreach job to the community last year, successfully explaining why the new shelter was (a) needed here and (b) informed by experience with earlier county shelter programs, so unlikely to repeat their mistakes that included problems for the surrounding community.

By all accounts it worked as promised, so congratulations are due! 80% is a pretty full glass; Simitian mentioned here that word is still getting out, and that a slow start and low April demand explain that incomplete usage.

Why then is Andrea Urton of HomeFirst quoted suddenly sounding as if the December-April timing was a big defect? It's how the program was proposed all along. Where was that concern last year during the hearings and informational meetings? Where's her acknowledgment of an innovative mission largely accomplished as planned? Also, while she implies here that April-15 closing was a shortcoming, the article also says demand fell way off in April (i.e., need for the shelter is, sure enough, significantly seasonal). I can't tell if the article's mixed messages show conflicting conclusions from the quoted leaders, or if that's just from juxtaposing statements with different contexts.

Finally: 416 divided by 136 is 3.06, not 4. A three-fold, not "four-fold," population increase. (I thought numerical-intuition gaffes in the Voice were over when DeBolt left -- they were a signature of his writing.)

Ok, so a good follow up article would include where we can contribute to making the shelter year round and what would be involved. Is there willingness to provide a year-round shelter? Can Mountain View residents and businesses make it happen?