As state and local officials struggle to get homeless residents into permanent housing during the coronavirus pandemic, California jails and prisons are trying to reduce crowding by releasing thousands of inmates — some of whom are ending up on the street.

Among the mostly non-violent offenders that have been freed at an unprecedented rate in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19 behind bars, Bay Area activists and homeless service providers say some are ending up in shelters, encampments or sleeping in their cars. Those newly freed inmates are now adding to the homeless population as they’re shuffled from one setting where the virus can thrive to another.

“What we are seeing is that there’s a large population of people being released from jail rather suddenly, rather unexpectedly. People who weren’t expecting to get out,” said Bill Lee, executive director of San Jose-based Martha’s Kitchen, which provides food for homeless and low-income people. “A lot of them don’t have anywhere to go.”

Jails throughout the five-county Bay Area have cut their populations by more than 3,000 people since coronavirus began spreading in the region, both by releasing inmates and reducing new bookings. Another 87 have been freed from San Quentin State Prison.

When people are released, they’re likely returning to a society that looks much different than the one they left. The shelter-in-place orders that shuttered businesses and idled workers also have closed the doors of some programs that would help them.

To reach those people, Andy Gutierrez, a Santa Clara County deputy public defender, has been spending hours at a table outside the Elmwood Correctional Complex in Milpitas, handing out masks, hand sanitizer, snacks and information to people leaving the jail. Every day he’s there, Gutierrez, other activists and county Reentry Services staff meet newly released inmates who have nowhere to stay, he said.

It’s evidence of what he calls a “massive problem” at a time when the county has cut its jail population by nearly a third since the pandemic hit the Bay Area — a reduction of more than 1,000 people.

“The challenges we had with jail releases were pretty huge prior to the COVID-19 crisis,” said Gutierrez, who also serves on the homeless outreach team run by the public defender’s office. “Once the crisis hit, everything became magnified.”

Some half-way houses have closed. Many homeless shelters have stopped accepting new residents. Santa Clara County’s Reentry Resource Center in Gilroy is closed, and the one in San Jose is open only for limited services. Even the Department of Motor Vehicles is closed, meaning people coming out of jail or prison can’t get a driver’s license.

And forget about finding work — the job market has all but dried up.

Alameda County also cut its jail population by nearly a third, releasing pretrial defendants charged with nonviolent crimes and inmates nearing the end of their sentences. As of Friday, eight inmates in custody at Santa Rita Jail had confirmed cases of COVID-19. Another 25 had tested positive and either recovered or been released.

All the county’s reentry programs — including Operation My Home Town, which links inmates to housing and other support before they get out — are continuing through the pandemic, said Sgt. Ray Kelly. The sheriff’s office asks everyone leaving the jail whether they have housing, and tries to help those who don’t.

“If you would have told me six months ago that we would let 800 people out of our jail, that they’d just walk out of the door, I would have said you were crazy,” Kelly said. “There’s a lot of challenges. The county really is meeting the challenges. Maybe not as fast as we want to, maybe not as expedient as we want to, but none of this has ever been done before.”

It’s difficult to track how many people end up on the street once they are released from jails or prisons, but experts have long highlighted the connection between incarceration and homelessness. Before the coronavirus pandemic, only about 20 percent of people who registered at Santa Clara County’s Reentry Resource Center had permanent housing, according to the county.

To address the new releases, the county put together a team last month to go into jails and meet with inmates to assess their housing, health and other needs before they’re let out. But that effort quickly was suspended as concerns about in-person meetings intensified, and now people leaving custody are directed to call a new county housing hotline.

In the East Bay, one group is trying to open more housing for people leaving custody. Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency, which already runs a 15-bed home for formerly incarcerated people in East Oakland, is looking for funding to open four more sites — including a 120-unit single-room-occupancy hotel on San Pablo Avenue in West Oakland, said executive director Donald Frazier.

For some people lucky enough to get into Frazier’s existing facility — Hope Reentry Campus in East Oakland — the program has been a game-changer.

Luther Reed, 49, was released earlier this month from California State Prison, Solano in Vacaville. Reed was serving a two-year sentence for possession of a stolen vehicle, but had his time cut in half because he was working while inside. On April 6, he got out 15 days early, thanks to the pandemic.

Reed, who battled heroin addiction for years, intended to go into a sober living facility when he got out of prison. But his early release meant he hadn’t secured a bed yet.

“That was the first thing I was thinking: I got nowhere to go,” Reed said.

Then a parole officer picked him up and took him to the Hope house. Now Reed is free to focus on studying so he can fulfill his next goal: Becoming a commercial truck driver.

“I don’t have to go out there and try to hustle to get money to eat. I don’t have to hustle to find a place to stay,” he said. “I’m able to sit back and really look at myself and see what I need to go forward.”

The California prison system recently expedited the release of 3,500 non-violent inmates, and placed 1,200 of them on parole, which means they’re under state supervision. About a third of those parolees needed housing and were offered placements in reentry facilities, according to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terri Hardy.

The rest of the released inmates were placed on probation, meaning individual counties are responsible for finding them housing.

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When the coronavirus releases began last month, Rev. Peggy Bryan, who does outreach work at Elmwood, got several panicked calls from recently freed inmates. One was told to report to a reentry home, and when he got there, it was closed because of the virus, she said. Another was living in his car. A third landed on the street after his girlfriend kicked him out. Bryan found him a hotel, and then set him up in a rented room in Santa Clara.

“If you could have just seen the look on these guys’ faces when I met with them early on,” Bryan said. “They didn’t know what to do. That desperate look.”

Staff writer Annie Sciacca contributed reporting.