San Jose began clearing a part of one among its largest and most dangerous homeless encampments on Tuesday, moving about 40 tents, vehicles and makeshift shelters out of the flight path of San Jose Mineta International Airport.
In recent years, authorities have repeatedly evicted homeless people from the Columbus Park area in downtown San Jose, but with a scarcity of emergency shelters or overnight parking, the town has been unable to search out a everlasting solution.
City officials said they were clearing the two-block area on the north side of Asbury Street on the direction of the Federal Aviation Administration. The concern, officials said, is that smoke from campfires could obscure pilots' visibility and that birds drawn to the trash within the camp could fly into the engines of planes landing on the airport.
Before the eviction, the town said it had worked with its nonprofit service provider, HomeFirst, to supply housing to anyone who could be forcibly faraway from the camp. However, officials couldn’t say how many individuals had accepted the offer. It was unclear where those remaining within the camp might find yourself next.
The move to clear the camp got here after San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan urged the town to crack down on the encampments while also organising small emergency shelters, secure parking and approved camping sites for the roughly 6,300 homeless people.
In a press release, Mahan said dismantling a part of the encampment in Columbus Park was obligatory to make sure the protection of residents. The city didn’t have an estimate of how many individuals will should be relocated or what number of will remain within the encampment overall.
“There are certain cases where a warehouse is so unsafe and violates so many laws that we cannot wait until our solutions are scalable,” Mahan said.
Camp residents say drug use and the usage of firearms are commonplace on the premises, which apparently houses about 100 people. In February, two people were charged in reference to a fight that resulted in a fatal stabbing on the camp.
On Tuesday afternoon, yellow police tape cordoned off a part of the camp while work crews filled green dumpsters with trash and debris. A handful of social staff offered food and water to camp residents. Local authorities had not ordered anyone to depart the realm, although some residents had driven their RVs and vans onto a cross street that was not scheduled to be cleared. Officials said most vehicles had voluntarily left the sweeping area throughout the day.
A resident of the camp who said her name was Raelene sat outside her sun-bleached RV, clutching a dark glass pipe and a red Bic lighter. After authorities taped a cease-and-desist order dated Aug. 29 to the side of her RV, she and her boyfriend at the moment are considering moving to Merced, where she has family.
She said she was uninterested in the shooting and “thefts” within the camp. “Not tasty, not my favorite,” she said.
Raelene, who said she couldn't remember her last name, wasn't sure if officers had offered her a bed within the shelter or a secure place to park. Homeless people sometimes turn down shelter for a wide range of personal reasons, from health and safety concerns to an unwillingness to obey curfews.
The raid follows Gov. Gavin Newsom's executive order last month directing state agencies to work with cities to shut encampments, then threatening to chop funding to local governments that fail to get more people off the streets. In June, a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling gave cities broad authority to clear encampments without first offering homeless people shelter.
Another camp resident, who calls himself Termite, said he has been evicted from the realm about five times since becoming homeless seven years ago. He said the eviction of the camp might be traumatic for homeless people, as their vehicles are sometimes towed or their belongings thrown out. He added that there is usually a rise in violence within the camps after evictions.
“It just lowers morale,” he said, “and it causes a lot of friction between people.”
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