After being kicked out of their homes by San Jose, a group of tenants is receiving relocation payments from their former landlord, as well as temporary housing from the county. The owners of a cluster of un-permitted mobile homes near Spina Farms in South San Jose paid $30,000 to two households made homeless on July 15 after San...
Mountain View RV ban another blow to South Bay vehicle dwellers
A legal battle brewing in Mountain View highlights the increasingly desperate struggle among RV dwellers to find safe places to live in the South Bay. Last week, the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Disability Rights Advocates filed a class action lawsuit against Mountain View opposing a recent parking...
‘We’re losing everything’: The fight to keep San Jose homeless camp
Federal officials are demanding a 40-acre homeless encampment outside San Jose’s airport be dismantled. Protesters fought back at a rally Tuesday, urging the city to keep the encampment open. But the Mineta San Jose International Airport could stand to lose tens of millions of dollars if it doesn’t clear the homeless camp. Residents are pleading with city...
San Jose boots tenants but offers no help
A lawyer contacted San Jose about several clients living in substandard housing conditions. City officials dragged their feet, allowing the tenants to live in squalor for more than a month — before abruptly kicking them out. San Jose code enforcement officers on Thursday forced 15 to 20 people, including several children, to leave several mobile...
San Jose’s largest emergency homeless shelter closes
Homeless advocates say dozens of people are left without a roof over their heads after South Hall, one of San Jose’s largest temporary COVID-19 shelters, shut down Thursday. City officials have vowed to help find shelter for all the residents through a nonprofit partner. “Some people went to tiny homes,” homeless advocate Shaunn Cartwright told...
San Jose backs off plan to evict homeless residents
A flyer threatening to criminally prosecute nearly 200 homeless people living in Columbus Park sent many longtime residents scrambling—but the city says it was all a misunderstanding. Living in the crash zone of an airport flight path has its downsides, like constant threat of eviction—but the unhoused residents of the 40-acre plot of land in San Jose say the...
Could housing vouchers help Santa Clara County homeless?
Washington, D.C.—California was front and center during a virtual congressional hearing last week over whether expanding federal housing vouchers could help the growing homelessness crisis. The vouchers are part of a federal program to assist low-income families, elderly and disabled residents with affording housing. “Wages for those below the median income have not kept pace...
San Jose’s largest temporary emergency shelter to close
COVID-19 restrictions in the region are winding down, and so is San Jose’s largest temporary emergency shelter. South Hall, an 80,000-square foot space at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in downtown, will shutter its emergency COVID-19 shelter by July 15. It will be cleaned and turned over to Team San Jose, the city’s visitor and...
Why San Jose killed sanctioned homeless encampments
The idea of creating legal tent cities for San Jose’s homeless people — or sanctioned encampments as they’re called — once again died inside the City Council chambers earlier this year. It isn’t the first time San Jose lawmakers flirted with the idea. In 2015, then-Councilmember Don Rocha led the charge to create encampments a...
San Jose rejects sanctioned homeless encampments
The San Jose City Council won’t be authorizing sanctioned encampments like advocates had hoped for. Councilmembers voted unanimously Tuesday to reject a sanctioned homeless encampment plan. Sanctioned encampments are designated places where homeless people could live and gather without fear of being cleared out. The city would provide sanitation and hygiene services such as portable...