Amid the throng of RVs lined up round San Jose’s Columbus Park, brown paper indicators draped on autos alongside Asbury Avenue learn “Where do we go” and “Where will we go?”
The questions are in style refrains among the many tons of of unhoused residents who will proceed to name the park house for the subsequent few weeks earlier than town of San Jose strikes ahead with clearing the huge encampment simply south of the airport on Aug. 18 as a part of its plans to revitalize it in early 2026, after years of degradation.
For a lot of residents on the park, the looming sweep comes with dread, frustration and emotions of resentment over damaged guarantees. They worry being forgotten as they keep in mind town’s final try and clear the park.
“The last time they had the sweep was two years ago and they just watched the RV vehicles get crushed,” mentioned 58-year-old Katherine Davis, who has lived in Columbus Park for the previous six years and is taken into account by many there to be its unofficial mayor. “We need a solution and we need help with everything we are going through right now. We need housing.”
Katherine Davis speaks close to Columbus Park in San Jose on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
In April, public officers introduced plans to fill a big part of the park with soccer fields, horseshoe pits and pickleball, futsal and basketball courts, restoring it to its supposed function as a supply of recreation.
On the time, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan additionally famous the general public security impacts from the encampment, which had generated 400 priority-one 911 calls over three years, together with 30 within the first quarter of 2025.
These well being and public security issues solely grew worse within the following weeks when the park noticed quite a few fires, together with a 20-acre blaze that got here inside about 20 yards of the encampment.
Between July 1, 2024, and June 1, 2025, the zone encompassing Columbus Park, simply north of Taylor Avenue, noticed 44 non-medical requires incidents like vegetation, trash and automobile fires, hazardous supplies responses and smoke investigations, in accordance with Jake Pisani, a public info supervisor on the San Jose Fireplace Division. Over the identical interval, Pisani mentioned the realm south of Taylor Avenue noticed 145 of these sorts of calls.
Autos at Columbus Park in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
An RV is parked alongside Asbury Avenue close to Columbus Park in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
An RV is parked alongside Asbury Avenue close to Columbus Park in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
An RV is parked alongside Asbury Avenue close to Columbus Park in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
RV’s are parked alongside Asbury Avenue subsequent to Columbus Park in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
Katherine Davis rides her bike alongside Asbury Avenue close to Columbus Park in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
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Autos at Columbus Park in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
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In its final try and clear the encampment, San Jose did not safe the positioning, resulting in unhoused residents and RVs overrunning the fields and basketball courts as soon as once more.
Parks, Recreation, and Neighborhood Providers spokesperson Amanda Rodriguez mentioned this time, town will create a no-encampment zone on the park after the abatement is full — estimated to be across the finish of October — and set up concrete k-rail and fencing to permit the pre-construction actions to start and maintain the general public secure.
Questions stay, nonetheless, about what is going to occur to the folks dwelling there.
Rodriguez mentioned that as of July 1, roughly 265 folks — an estimate Davis and homeless advocates scoffed at, calling it an undercount — have been dwelling at Columbus Park.
Rodriguez mentioned town is prioritizing beds on the new Taylor Avenue Navigation Hub, which is able to open 56 tents this month, together with models in transformed motels and different shelter websites for people and households.
“For months, city-contracted outreach teams have been visiting Columbus Park to build trust, connect people to services, and enroll individuals and families in the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS),” Rodriguez mentioned.
However many residents dwelling on the park and homeless advocates doubt the town’s plan will work due to prior poor experiences.
Danielle Jackson speaks to The Mercury Information close to Columbus Park in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
Danielle, 38, mentioned she was compelled to depart interim housing and had her service animals taken from her regardless of being legally blind. Tearing up, Jackson mentioned it sowed such a deep degree of mistrust that she wouldn’t settle for a proposal of housing even when provided.
“I can’t trust none of these organizations that are supposed to be out here to help me, because they’re not helping me, so I might as well just stay out here and just continue to help myself like this, because it hurts,” Jackson mentioned.
Robert Gilman, a 38-year-old who has lived at Columbus Park for the previous yr and a half, additionally famous a disconnect between the outreach provided and the wants expressed by unhoused residents.
Like the numerous members of the LGBTQ group who’re presently on the park, he mentioned he’s involved about discovering a spot away from the threats and harassment he has beforehand been compelled to endure.
“There’s no safe space for LGBTQ members, and there needs to be safer places where we can be, where we know our neighbors and know our community,” Gilman mentioned. “Those of us who are part of the LGBTQ community out here know each other, and we support each other and we find little ways to help each other, but we need more support from the organizations that are actually supposed to be there for us. We see very little outreach and it’s sad.”
San Jose has touted the potential so as to add as much as 1,400 placements in its shelter system via resort and motel conversions, secure parking and secure sleeping websites and tiny house communities. However homeless advocate Shaunn Cartwright argues that town ought to delay its sweeps till extra of these models come on-line, noting that dispersing the unhoused will make it more difficult to attach them with providers sooner or later.
Shaunn Cartwright, left, with the Unhoused Response Group, speaks with Robert Gilman at Columbus Park in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Space Information Group)
“This makes no sense, and doing it intentionally when sites aren’t open, you are intentionally being cruel and could make the situation worse,” Cartwright mentioned.
Cartwright envisions a state of affairs just like when San Jose started abating RVs on public streets in January and created extra mini-encampments in neighborhoods — which residents likened to a whack-a-mole sport.
In anticipation of that occurring, Rodriguez mentioned town was exploring a voluntary RV buyback program to cut back the variety of autos which will relocate into surrounding areas and would monitor areas the place folks relocated up to now and proactively forestall new congregations of RVs from forming within the surrounding neighborhoods.
Whereas many residents at Columbus Park don’t really feel supported by town, a coalition of homeless advocacy organizations has helped them kind their very own group group, Guadalupe Residents Advocating for Neighborhood Engagement (GRACE), to safe higher circumstances and shield their rights when the sweep ultimately comes this month.
“The city of San Francisco settled a lawsuit for $2.8 million over rights violations of unhoused individuals who are in an encampment that got cleared … and we’re anticipating that similar things could happen here,” mentioned John Froggatt, an legal professional with the Regulation Basis of Silicon Valley.
