San Jose approves sanctioned encampment plan for 500 homeless near waterways

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan looks at a homeless encampment as he leads a walk along the Guadalupe River near Coleman Avenue in San Jose, Calif., Monday, June 17, 2024. (Dai Sugano /Bay Area News Group)

The San Jose City Council has agreed to an ambitious plan to move about 500 homeless people living along waterways to permitted encampment sites across the city by the middle of next year – but Community members have already been reluctant about the choice of location.

Led by state regulators pushing the city to clean up its streams and rivers, council members voted unanimously this week to continue evaluating eight properties as potential locations for the managed camps, dubbed “sites “Safe Sleeping Sites” or “Basic Needs Sites”. The number of final locations has not yet been determined.

The sites, which could accommodate approximately 100 to 150 people each, could provide individual tents, food, toilets, showers, laundry and case management services, with at least limited security or monitoring of the site . Once the city gathers more feedback from local neighborhoods and identifies final locations, it can begin building the sites and hiring service providers to manage them.

The city will have to act quickly. Under an agreement with state water officials, 500 campsites are expected to be available by June 2025.

“This is not an easy task,” Mayor Matt Mahan said before Tuesday’s vote.

Locations being considered by the city include an area in Kelley Park near Senter Road, an empty lot at 14020 Almaden Road in South San Jose and a property near the 101 Freeway at 1157 East Taylor St., where squatters have took over a house last owned by the city. year. The sites are a mix of properties owned by San Jose, Santa Clara County and the Santa Clara Valley Water District.

At Tuesday's council meeting, about a dozen residents urged the council to remove a Kelley Park parking lot from the list of possible sites. The land is close to a popular Frisbee golf course and the local History Park museum.

“This site is about more than the loss of 270 parking spaces, it’s about the viability of the function of the place,” said Mike Sodergren of the Preservation Action Council of San Jose. “There’s nowhere to park.”

Ultimately, the council agreed to remove parking from the list and work to identify another location in the park. It also decided to remove a site in South Coyote Valley, in part because it is too far from where most homeless people camp, along the city's waterways.

Mariena Acosta moved to an encampment on the Guadalupe River after leaving another encampment in Columbus Park, where local health officials recently identified an outbreak of a highly contagious bacterial infection. She said rats began infesting the riverside tent camp and some people living there became ill after washing in the water.

Acosta said she would prefer to get help moving into housing, but if necessary, she would likely accept a place in a sanctioned camp. “Wow, another tent to move to,” she said sarcastically. “You got so many people off the streets, but you can’t get us off the streets?

The state agency forcing the city to act is the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, which has recently increased pressure on area cities to keep water away. camps on sensitive waterways.

After three rejections, the Water Board recently approved the city's plan to significantly reduce the amount of waste and pollution flowing into its 140 miles of streams and rivers. If local officials fail to meet their commitments to clean up waterways by June 2025, the agency could fine the city tens of thousands of dollars per day.

The city estimates about 1,000 homeless people live in the areas the Water Board has identified for cleaning. In addition to establishing permitted encampments, officials are working to erect hundreds of additional tiny homes and establish secure overnight parking spaces so people far from waterways have somewhere to go.

In total, San Jose has about 6,340 homeless residents, about 4,400 of whom live in encampments, vehicles or other places not intended for habitation. The others remain in shelters.

San Jose wouldn't be the first city to try permitted encampments. Local officials have cited as a model for success a camp run in San Diego, which provides individual tents as well as basic security and sanitation. However, a sanctioned camp that offers few services is under threat after the local prosecutor called the site a public health risk and sued the city to shut it down.

There is also legal uncertainty over whether sanctioned encampments constitute the “adequate refuge” that cities are supposed to provide before removing unmanaged camps. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, has indicated it may overturn the requirement in a ruling expected this month.

According to preliminary estimates, setting up the managed camps in San Jose could cost between $18,000 and $40,000 per tent. For 500 tent sites, that's about $9 million to $20 million. Operational costs could be between $22,000 and $33,000 per person per year.