Luis Melecio-Zambrano, San Jose Mercury News

PUBLISHED: August 24, 2025 at 4:00 AM PDT

At the southernmost edge of the Bay Area, Gilroy sits nestled between the tree-covered Santa Cruz Mountains and the rolling golden hills of the Diablo Range. The city of some 60,000 people is surrounded by fields and orchards, and on summer nights the smell of garlic hangs in the air — reminders of its deep agricultural roots and its world-famous festival.

But behind that agrarian beauty lies a sobering statistic: Gilroy has one of the largest homeless populations in the entire region.

By Luis Melecio Zambrano | lmeleciozambrano@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group

Silicon Valley isn’t just grappling with food insecurity — it’s wrestling with the crushing costs of everyday life. Housing, childcare, and transportation prices consume so much of household budgets that many families have hardly anything left for food. A recent study by Drew Starbird with local partners maps the likelihood of food insecurity by ZIP code across Santa Clara County, showing neighborhoods in East San Jose facing nearly 30% risk, Gilroy around 23%, while more affluent areas hover near 12%. Even higher-income ZIP codes aren’t immune. Despite huge economic output and high regional wages, the minimum wage still falls short of meeting basic living needs — forcing many to choose between rent, medicine, or groceries — revealing that counting numbers alone won’t show the full reality of what people are going through.