Homelessness

Homelessness

San Jose RV dwellers fear displacement

As county leaders push plans to revitalize the barren Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, dozens of RV dwellers could soon be pushed out. Tenant Pam Eisenbarth said staff from the nonprofit running the RV park, Fairgrounds Management Corporation, told her and husband Joe Rodriguez in December 2019 that the park would soon close. The corporation was...

Will South Bay keep expanded homeless housing post-pandemic?

Santa Clara County made strides in housing its unsheltered residents during the pandemic. Now county officials want to make sure it doesn’t backslide as the region prepares for a post-pandemic future. With the help of emergency federal and state funding, the county’s Office of Supportive Housing provided shelter to more than 5,500 households over the last year. COVID-19...

Alum Rock schools face lingering encampments amid reopening

Alum Rock Union Elementary School District trustees set a tentative reopening date of Monday for its campuses across East San Jose. However, there remains no concrete solution for addressing the homeless encampments growing along some of the district’s schools. “With less eyes from the community and schools having been shut down, all of a sudden...

San Jose homeless sweeps create a revolving door

Drivers plunge down freeway ramps until shooting past the entrance into an endless stream of vehicles, some undoubtedly pushing past speed limits. Freeway ramps were made to be launch pads for cars – but for Joe Martinez they’re a place to sleep when he’s looking for more privacy and security. He lived off Highway 87...

‘Nasty as hell’: Affordable housing site in East San Jose has mildew, drugs, tenants say

While the lobby of Renascent Place, a 160-unit affordable housing complex in San Jose is white-glove clean, a few steps inside residents’ living quarters the smell of mildew becomes almost overpowering. “It’s nasty as hell,” said Jina Monarch, a resident at Renascent Place. She’s lived at the complex since it opened in February 2020. By her estimate,...