SJ begins clearing largest encampment; all its residents to be prioritized for interim housing

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- The city of San Jose started clearing the encampment at Columbus Park on Monday, meaning the hundreds of people living there have to go.

The park has become overrun with RVs and nearly 400 unhoused residents, being the largest encampment in the city. Work to restore the park for public use is now underway.

It is a day many of the nearly 400 unhoused people who live there have been dreading.

"I don't know, I'm really mad right now, because they don't care," Fernando Alcantra said.

"I've been abated five or six times in the past two months and the city has just gotten less and less tolerant of our existence," Jessika said.

"I just want to say, this is cruel," Zanielle Jackson said. "And how they're doing code and heartless and just straight malicious."

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"A lot of people's mental health, their anxiety or depression, is really ramping up," Shaunn Cartwright of the Rapid Encampment Support Team said.

"I think I'm going to go to a hotel but I mean, that's not guaranteed," encampment resident Jerry Drawhorn said.

City leaders say the park has turned into an unsafe, unmanaged place.

A man was found dead in a RV Monday - the second death here in the past week.

The city says over the next four weeks, it will be opening nearly 400 beds, mostly in converted hotels in hopes of placing the people living at the encampment.

Though the notices for abatement went up 70 days ago, the cleanup will take until October.

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Starting Monday, those who have refused a space will get their RV's towed.

"We're putting out information on if your vehicle gets towed, and how the Law Foundation can help you," Cartwright said. "We're putting out 'know your rights information' in English and Spanish."

Sixty-eight-percent of the residents surveyed by outreach teams said they were ready to move out of this environment, including Juanita Macias.

She sold her RV through the city buyback program and was offered a spot in an interim hotel room.

"It's my first time," Macias said. "We had an apartment and my husband was working and then was laid off. It's hard, you know, it's hard. I want to leave - I do want to leave, I don't want to be here no more."

Over the next four weeks, 390 beds will be made available with 400 more by year's end.

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The 370 people who are being cleared out of Columbus Park are being prioritized for interim housing.

"I'm just hoping for the best and and just hope things go my way," Drawhorn said.

Some of the people were hoping to find a bed at the city's new navigation center near Watson Park, but construction has been delayed by vandalism so it won't be available until the end of the month.

"Today, 42 beds open and we will move the first 42 people into that housing," Mayor Matt Mahan said. "Folks who have been encamped in Columbus Park, are there today, are on the list and has said they want housing, will not be asked to leave the park until we have moved them into their interim housing."

Mahan says the work the city is doing should serve as a model. He is calling on the county and state for greater collaboration, especially for those with mental illness.

Work to revitalize the park back to its former glory is expected to begin next year.