San Jose State College researchers unveiled new findings Wednesday that present poverty and inequality proceed to plague Silicon Valley.
This 12 months’s iteration of the Silicon Valley Ache Index, which offers greater than 200 statistics, goals to research “personal and community distress or suffering” in Santa Clara County. It was authored by a staff led by Anji Buckner-Capone, an assistant professor at San Jose State.
“The 2025 Silicon Valley Pain Index continues to show the pervasiveness of inequality in our communities,” she mentioned. “The central message is that the challenges we’re facing are rooted in systemic failures.”
At a press briefing following the report’s launch, audio system spoke about three key points highlighted throughout the report: housing, meals insecurity and training.
In keeping with the report, there are 10,394 unhoused residents in Santa Clara County, which incorporates 2,200 college students in San Jose alone. The report additionally discovered that San Jose would want to construct virtually 8,000 properties annually to succeed in its 2031 housing objectives, when probably the most properties it’s added in a single 12 months since 2019 was 1,710.
Buckner-Capone identified that whereas the 9 wealthiest Silicon Valley households earned $136 billion extra final 12 months than the 12 months earlier than, 100,000 Silicon Valley residents had nearly no internet belongings.
“The gap between the wealthiest and the lowest income residents is just exponential, and that is disheartening, and we don’t see a change in that,” she mentioned.
Briyana Costa, a graduate pupil who did analysis for the index, mentioned residents would want to make about $125,000 yearly to afford common lease in San Jose, which is $3,209 per 30 days, in accordance with Zillow.
“The high cost of living in the community is forcing people to make impossible choices,” she mentioned. “Families are doubling and tripling up in single apartments. People are working multiple jobs, sacrificing their health and well-being to just meet basic needs.”
In keeping with the report, 90% of fogeys surveyed by San Jose’s Second Harvest Meals Financial institution – which serves half 1,000,000 folks each month – fear that they gained’t be capable to present nutritious meals to their kids.
Leslie Bacho, CEO of the meals financial institution, mentioned that latest federal price range cuts specifically may show devastating to her meals financial institution’s capacity to function.
“Having to do things like skip meals and rely on less nutritious fast food has very real long-term health impacts,” she mentioned. “These massive reductions are going to push more of our neighbors into crisis, and all of the food banks in the nation can’t fill that gap.”
Bacho mentioned that given how rich and prosperous some had been in Silicon Valley, she hoped to see “real policy change” – one thing that state and native governments had not but supplied.
“[These problems] are the result of policy decisions,” she mentioned. “We have the power to make better ones in a region where billionaires and child hunger exist side by side. We have the opportunity to decide what kind of community we want to be. We have the resources here to do better for everyone.”
The index additionally reported stark disparities between faculties in several neighborhoods: Whereas public faculties in Palo Alto spent $26,000 per pupil in 2025, public faculties within the East Aspect Union Excessive Faculty District spent about $14,000.
“We’re seeing resources scale back as budgets are stretched, schools are closing, and we have high dropout rates and low academic gains, disproportionately affecting some communities,” Buckner-Capone mentioned.
Ruth Melton, an undergraduate pupil who did analysis for the index, mentioned the shortage of reasonably priced housing within the Bay Space led to the decreases in enrollment, which itself contributed to the upcoming closure of 14 faculties throughout three faculty districts on the east facet of San Jose.
“How will they get their child to school when their school is no longer walking distance and they don’t own a car?” she requested.
These challenges, Melton mentioned, would have a “domino effect.” The index reported that 1,028 Santa Clara County highschool college students had dropped out within the 2023-24 faculty 12 months. Melton, in the meantime, highlighted that 79.2% of residents within the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Faculty District had bachelor’s levels or larger, in comparison with simply 25% within the East Aspect Union District.
Jennifer Briscoe, the board chair of Filipino American advocacy group LEAD Filipino, criticized the shortage of psychological well being assist she mentioned Silicon Valley faculties had given to college students.
“The Trevor Project recently found in a survey of LGBTQ youth that AAPI – and specifically Filipino youth – reported among the highest rates of contemplating self-harm and suicidal ideation,” she mentioned. “When we see zero investment by the way of local San Jose schools to address student wellness and mental well-being, we are concerned.”
The report notes that some facets of life in Silicon Valley have modified for the higher up to now 12 months. Use of drive incidents involving the San Jose Police Division have continued to say no. Companies to stop homelessness and supportive housing help have expanded. And tree planting initiatives and reductions in carbon dioxide emissions have made the area extra environmentally sustainable.
Nonetheless, Michael Dao, the director of San Jose State’s Human Rights Institute, mentioned that “based on the data we’ve collected, [poverty and inequality] have gotten worse.”
Finally, Buckner-Capone mentioned she hoped the report would encourage motion from the federal government, but additionally from people residing in Silicon Valley.
“My hope is that people will kind of dial in on a few data points that they’re most struck by, and see where they can get involved to make a change in their communities,” she mentioned. “We do know that people have an incredible opportunity to advocate for changes, and we really need people to be a part of that effort.”
