Santa Clara County’s Latino population has faced devastating health disparities in recent years, with Latino residents experiencing higher rates of gun violence, obesity and deaths from diabetes and heart disease than the county averages, according to a new report.
For Santa Clara County Supervisor Sylvia Arenas — the highest-ranking Latina elected official in the county — the county’s recently released Latino Health Assessment is “clear proof and validation of the public health crisis our community has been bearing.”
“Here in this county we are disproportionately impacted by violence, poverty, overcrowded housing, mental health challenges and systemic barriers,” Arenas said at a press conference on Monday morning. “And too often, our communities are invisible in the data and forgotten in the funding.”
Latinos make up one in four residents in Santa Clara County — or roughly 25% of the population — and often face worse health outcomes than their white and Asian counterparts, all while earning lower wages on average and having lower rates of health insurance.
Between 2017 and 2021, 58% of nonfatal emergency department visits related to firearms in the county were Latino residents. Between 2019 and 2023, 48% of homicide victims were Latino.
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The county’s Latino population is largely concentrated in East San Jose — where in 2023, the density of tobacco retailers was more than double the rest of the county — and South County, where the distance residents need to travel to get to a grocery store is nearly three times farther than it is for other county residents.
The 157-page health assessment will be discussed by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday afternoon, and county officials have recommended responding to the results in several ways — including creating a cultural facility in South County for Latino residents, increasing investments in early childhood programs like FIRST 5 and enhancing existing health care service.
Santa Clara County District 1 Supervisor Sylvia Arenas speaks during a press conference at the Santa Clara County building in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, August 21, 2024. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)Arenas said she plans to propose some additional ideas of her own, including the creation of a promotoras/community health worker program in East San Jose and South County.
The report provides an extensive look at issues impacting the Latino community from maternal care and early education to housing, mental health and access to health care.
San Jose Councilmember Peter Ortiz, who represents East San Jose on the City Council, said that the families he serves “are profoundly impacted by challenges deeply rooted in discrimination, disinvestment” and poverty.
The report, he said, “allows us to connect living with these challenges to direct, negative impacts” on physical and mental health and shows a “cycle of poverty where our children grow up without the sufficient resources they need to be successful.”
The report found that fewer Latino students are ready for kindergarten, meet third-grade math proficiency standards, graduate high school and complete a bachelors degree compared with county residents overall.
Santa Clara County Executive James Williams said that the data in the report “should cause extraordinary alarm for every resident” in the county.
Maria Teresa Esquivel, second from left, get COVID-19 test by Gardner Health Services nurse Rosalba Quinonez, left, as her children Abril, 8, Ana, 9 months, Jason, 11, Gabriela 16, and brother Juan Carlos, 5, of San Jose, look on during a free COVID-19 testing offered by the School of Arts and Culture at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)“As a county organization, we’re the safety net service provider for the most vulnerable in our community, and that emphatically includes, as the data in this report makes clear, our Latino community,” he said. “But it’s not just on the part of our county organization, which can and must act with vigor and urgency, but every resident in Santa Clara County should similarly be moved with urgency and vigor to ensure that our entire community is supported for success in this special place that we call home.”
Despite the numerous and sometimes alarming issues revealed in the report, community leaders said it is a positive step that can lead to solutions.
“This report brings us hope,” said Dolores Alvarado, who is the CEO of Community Health Partnership and worked on the report. “The Latino Health Assessment report recommends programming that will result in fair treatment of our residents… better education for children and a more comprehensive health care system that builds on the current one.”
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