SAN JOSE — As a Federal Aviation Administration deadline approaches for San Jose to clear one of the Bay Area’s largest and most entrenched homeless encampments, nearly 100 people remain on the dusty, vacant lot near the city’s airport.
The city recently announced it will start removing the people still living at the camp Sept. 1. The news sent a wave of anxiety through the remaining campers, many of whom still have nowhere else to go, though the city says it’s working hard to find beds for everyone. Once the removal process begins, San Jose will have one month to completely clear the camp or risk losing millions of dollars in funding from the FAA. It’s a tall order for a site with dozens of tents, RVs, cars and make-shift shacks – and piles of people’s belongings – strewn across the property.
The city and its nonprofit partners have moved 143 people from the camp into permanent housing or transitional shelters since September, said Omar Passons, San Jose’s new deputy city manager. A dozen service providers, including nonprofit HomeFirst, held a resource fair at the encampment Thursday, inviting residents to stop by their booths for help with housing and other issues.
“We are responding to an FAA directive,” Passons said, “and it’s frustrating to people, and we are aware of that and trying to work with people and come up with solutions that will meet their needs.”
Last summer, the FAA demanded that the city shut down the massive homeless camp near Mineta San Jose International Airport. The camp is on a 40-acre parcel San Jose bought with federal funds to serve as a buffer between the airport and the community in case of a plane crash — and people aren’t allowed to live there. The original deadline to clear the camp was June 30, but the FAA agreed to let the city extend it until the end of September.
The city already has cleared two-thirds of the camp. The last third is a vacant parcel bordered by Spring, West Hedding and Asbury streets on three sides, and abutting the Guadalupe River trail on the other. Once the site is cleared, the city wants to transform the area with a dog park, disc golf course and public garden.
The city estimates 90 people still live on the lot, down from about 200 last year. It appears everyone who has been living there since March 31 of this year has been connected to housing resources or is in the process of getting connected, Passons said. While city officials believe they will have a bed to offer each of those people before the FAA’s Sept. 30 deadline, Passons wouldn’t go so far as to guarantee it. Some people have cases with extenuating circumstances that might make placements hard, he said. For example, some people have RVs or vehicles that aren’t operable, but that the person doesn’t want to part with in order to move into a shelter or temporary tiny home.
“We have to figure some of these things out in great detail,” he said.
Complicating matters, even as the city works to house people, more people keep coming to the camp. Passons estimates about 70 of the 90 people currently living there have arrived since March 31. The city will do what it can to house them as well, he said.
Robert Campbell, who has been living in a trailer at the encampment for the past year, just connected with a caseworker and got assessed for housing about a month ago. Campbell said his caseworker has gone above and beyond for him, even driving him to replace his Social Security card and to the doctor to get a physical.
On Thursday, the 45-year-old said he was on his way to fill out paperwork to get a housing voucher that would pay a portion of his rent once he found an apartment. Campbell said his caseworker told him he could stay in a pre-paid hotel until his voucher comes through – but he’s still waiting for that to be approved.
Campbell can’t wait to get a home where he can have his grandchildren – 4-year-old triplets – over to visit. Once he’s housed, he plans to get counseling to unlearn the unhealthy habits he picked up on the street. And he plans to go back to work as a mechanic – being homeless made it too difficult to make it to his shifts on time.
But waiting for it to happen is making him anxious, and he continues to worry he won’t have a place to live before the city clears his encampment.
“It’s like, do dreams come true, you know? That’s where I’m at right now,” he said.
Those the city can’t house, or who don’t want to take the shelter options offered, can move for the time being to an area on the other side of Columbus Park that’s outside the FAA’s clearance area, Passons said.
Despite what the city says about having housing plans for everyone, Gail Osmer, an advocate who helps camp residents access resources, worries many people will just end up relocating to the street come Sept. 30. People will scatter throughout nearby neighborhoods – breaking up the community they’ve built at the encampment – and neighbors will complain, she said.
“Everybody, all they want to do is be safe and get inside,” Osmer said. “They want to know where they can go.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com