The Santa Clara County coroner's office confirmed four people died of hypothermia-related causes Thursday night as temperatures plunged below freezing.
Sources say that three of the people died of exposure in three separate homeless encampments while a fourth person died in a garage during the cold snap.
The coroner's office declined further comment early Friday afternoon. The Santa Clara County Office of Emergency Services referred questions to a county spokesperson, who did not immediately return phone calls.
"I'm just angry," said Jenny Niklaus, the CEO of EHC LifeBuilders, a provider of homeless services. "We have to solve this problem. Even with our cold-weather shelters open, there are still people out there. This is what happens when we allow homelessness to happen. People die."
A line forms outside the National Guard Armory, Sunnyvale, one of the cold-weather shelters that opened this week; 2009 photograph. (Josie Lepe, Mercury News)
Temperatures throughout the greater San Jose area reached a low in the mid-20s in the overnight hours, according to the National Weather Service. The low at Mineta San Jose International Airport was 30 degrees, breaking the previous Dec. 6 record of 32 degrees in 1931.
More freezing weather is expected later this weekend.
Santa Clara County Supervisor Mike Wasserman, who has been an advocate of funding programs that help get chronically homeless into permanent housing, said the deaths are just the latest example of the seriousness of the problem.
"People are dying out there, and it's just wrong," Wasserman said. "I hope to god this never happens again. You have to understand that every single person in these encampments is somebody's son or daughter, brother or sister, mother or father. And yet they've been just abandoned."
EHC LifeBuilders opened up its county-funded Cold Weather Shelter Program last Monday night with 275 emergency beds at three sites in advance of the cold snap. After these deaths, an additional 200 to 300 temporary beds were being added. Also, the shelters will remain open for additional two hours in the morning.
Outreach workers from the agency as well as other local nonprofits InnVision Shelter Network, the Bill Wilson Center and Downtown Streets Team spent Friday combing the encampments, parks and streets as they handed out blankets and encouraged people to go to the shelters.
"We've got a cold weekend ahead of us and our goal is make sure nobody has to be outdoors," Niklaus said. "But the fact is there are more people outside than we have beds. We're doing what we can, and I don't want to lose any more people. This is a crisis."
San Jose/Santa Clara County has the fifth-largest homeless population in the country behind only New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle and San Diego, according to a recent U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development report.
Of the 7,631 homeless, who were counted in January as part of a nationwide census, 74 percent were listed as "unsheltered" -- meaning they have no place suitable for human habitation to stay. It has been estimated that on any given night, there are 5,000 people outside in the county.
Evening temperatures in San Jose were expected to warm up Friday night and then drop back to around 30 degrees on Saturday night, according to the National Weather Service.
"The question we have to ask ourselves is how many people have to do die?" said Jennifer Loving, executive director of the nonprofit Destination: Home. "It's cold outside and people can't survive when it's freezing. That's just a fact. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone."
The deaths are a sad reminder of just how dangerous it is to be homeless. On Dec. 19, EHC LifeBuilders will hold its annual memorial ceremony remembering those who have died on the streets over the past year. Niklaus believes the total will be more than 40 this year.