Red Cross volunteer Sharon Roth, center, tries to help an unhoused woman get connected to social services at the Red Cross emergency shelter at Seven Trees Community Center in San Jose, Calif., on Jan. 12, 2023. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
SAN JOSE — A once-in-a-decade storm that has battered the Bay Area for nearly two weeks has forced hundreds of homeless residents to abandon their tents and belongings near the city’s rivers and seek shelter indoors.
The city’s homeless population has largely avoided what officials feared could be widespread injury or even death as torrential rain flooded river streams, but the sudden