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Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Wednesday, Oct. 2, and I’m writing from Los Angeles. We talk a lot about the enormity of the homelessness crisis in California, and the seeming intractability of an issue fueled by such a complex web of factors. But what about the small things that can make a tangible difference in people’s lives as they get back on their feet? They may not make for sweeping narratives or answers-with-a-capital-A, but they’re worth celebrating and replicating when done well. Here’s an example out of San Jose. The most basic fact of homelessness — not having a place to live — also means that most people experiencing homelessness have no consistent mailing address. Amid all the other basic needs to be met, having a place to receive mail may seem like a minor detail. But it’s often essential to receiving continued social services, to say nothing of trying to apply for a job or remain enrolled in school. “If you apply for, let’s say, affordable housing and you’re on a wait list, there’s no way to get back to you if you’re living in a car or if you’re in a shelter or if you’re living in the doorway of some merchant,” said Sharon Miller, director of cathedral social ministries at Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County. “You need a mailing address to know if it’s time to check in because your affordable housing is available.” “The Window” offers a safe place in San Jose for people experiencing homelessness and those recently released from incarceration to receive mail while in transition and rebuilding their lives. The program has been in operation since the late 1980s, but Miller said that the number of individuals they serve “escalated fairly exponentially” over the last five years, as broader homelessness numbers surged in San Jose. The city’s 2019 point-in-time count recorded a 42% increase from 2017. Miller said 920 individuals are registered to receive mail there, and the staff sees about 150 people a day. Clients can drop by from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. to pick up their mail and grab a sandwich or some toiletries while they’re there. [See also: “How an unassuming window in San Jose fills a crucial need for the homeless” in the Mercury News] All of this exists alongside access to broader services — there is an adjoining free healthcare clinic, and the Window itself is staffed by “service navigators” and volunteers who can direct individuals toward other stabilizing resources. “From the unemployment office to what bus they need to take, to how to just navigate their life,” Miller said. “Because it can be pretty complex if all of a sudden you’re homeless one day and you really don’t know what to do or where to go.” That’s how the Window, which is a joint project of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph and Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County, got its name. “Social workers, the business community, the police department, they would say, ‘Go to the window right next to the church. They’ll help you, they’ll tell you what you need to do,’” Miller recalled. The project is no longer in the same location next to St. Joseph (it is now housed in Catholic Charities’ John XXIII Multi-Service Center on East San Fernando Street) but the name and message stuck. And in the heart of Silicon Valley, where so much focus is placed on disruptive innovation, the Window provides a decidedly low-tech solution to a concrete need.