S.J. votes for more time to clear camp
Council expands rules guiding homeless people
San Jose needs more time to complete its federally mandated closure of one of the Bay Area's largest homeless encampments, officials acknowledged, highlighting the immense challenge of eliminating homelessness while grappling with a limited housing supply.
The city last year was ordered to remove an estimated 200 people camped on a 40-acre area near San Jose International Airport, or face the potential loss of millions of dollars in federal funding. The City Council now wants to push its original June 30 deadline to Sept. 30 while also expanding policies that dictate where homeless people can and can't camp in the city.
The city and nonprofit Homefirst have housed 71 people from the airport camp between September 2021 and February, and have cleared large sections of the property. But 131 people remain in the camp.
“To us, that is great progress, particularly given the fact that there are very little housing options available for people,” said Ragan Henninger, deputy director of the city's homelessness response. “But to others it's not so fast. Especially for the people who are living outside and suffering every day. We are not moving fast enough.”
To address homelessness
in other areas of the city, San Jose has joined other Bay Area localities in making certain areas off-limits for encampments. Under a policy the City Council voted to continue and expand, San Jose bars camps that are within 150 feet of a school or are blocking sidewalks, streets or access to libraries, fire stations, hospitals and other infrastructure, or that pose a fire danger or other health or safety hazard. In areas that are not off-limits, homeless people are asked to keep their tents and belongings within a 12-foot-by-12-foot area.
The city already has removed 72 encampments between October 2021 and January as it tested out the new management policy — mostly focusing on camps near schools. On May 3, the council added the area around the Children's Discovery Museum to this list of no-camping zones.
Other local cities have passed similar rules.
Oakland passed a controversial policy in 2020 that makes some areas near schools, homes and businesses off-limits. San Rafael, Novato and Santa Cruz approved similar ordinances and Los Angeles passed a law that allows City Council members to ban camping in certain areas.
Such policies attempt to adopt a more rational framework for clearing encampments, rather than removing them haphazardly on a case-bycase basis. But enforcing them is challenging when beds and other resources are limited. Oakland's encampment management policy didn't prevent fires near homeless camps from damaging two nonprofits last year. In August, a community group sued the city over its alleged failure to enforce its encampment policy.
In San Jose, much of the city's time, resources, housing and shelter beds are focused on the massive
encampment near the city's airport. The camp — bordered by West Hedding Street, Coleman Avenue and the Guadalupe River Park — is on land San Jose bought using federal funds to serve as a buffer between the airport and the community in case of a plane crash. The camp grew dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic and now the city is removing between 15 and 20 tons of trash there each week, according to a city report.
Last year, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered San Jose to close the camp or risk losing federal funding for its airport. After initially promising to clear the camp by June 30, the city on May 3 voted to inform the FAA it needs more time. The FAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Several activists and community members spoke out against clearing the encampment, arguing it would disrupt
and endanger the lives of the camp's vulnerable residents.
“When people are swept, it makes my job harder to find them, and often I don't find them,” said Jackie Newton, a primary care doctor who treats residents of the camp. “We are not only breaking up people's homes, but we're also breaking up their medical care and their health.”
The city and Santa Clara County are working together to place the remaining 131 camp residents in various types of housing. Officials have a plan for all but 27 of them, according to city housing staff. The effort will cost the city $1.5 million, some of which is expected to come from the Measure E property tax passed in 2020.
The city also is working on setting up safe parking sites for people living in RVS.
Council members debated whether to include an encampment at Columbus Park in the abatement
and housing plan. The park is next to the airport, but wasn't included in the FAA mandate. As a compromise, the council agreed to consider tackling the park once the rest of the site is cleared.
In other areas of the city, the very existence of an “encampment management” plan means the city is acknowledging that because there isn't enough housing for everyone, encampments will continue to exist.
But the city is making strides to improve conditions at those camps, staff said this week. By the end of the month, trash service at the roughly 200 camps the city serves will increase from every other week to every week, said Andrea Flores Shelton, deputy director of San Jose Parks, Recreation & Neighborhood Services.
“By the end of the summer,” she said, “you should see improvements in cleanliness throughout the city.”