San Jose has plans to transform a dilapidated park into a family-friendly area for sports, but will first clear the area of homeless residents.
The San Jose City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to revitalize Columbus Park, located at Asbury and Irene streets. Once a place where youth gathered in an under-resourced area, the new 9.4-acre park design will restore that function for the community. It will feature synthetic soccer fields, courts for horseshoe, futsal, basketball and pickleball, picnic areas and a play area for children. It’s estimated to cost $24 million.
The revitalization plan will be funded largely through Measure P, a $228 million bond passed by city voters in 2000. The bond has funded nearly 90 city projects, including renovations of parks and its bathrooms, community centers and sports fields. The city will clear Columbus Park of more than 50 lived-in vehicles by the end of the year. It’s uncertain where those homeless residents will go.
“We will do our best when we clear encampments. We always do outreach,” Mayor Matt Mahan told San José Spotlight. “The way that we manage the abatement of encampments is not to necessarily have a designated place for everyone to move to. This is a public park that needs to be restored to being a public park.”
At the council meeting, multiple councilmembers including David Cohen, Peter Ortiz, Pamela Campos and Bien Doan expressed concerns about sweeping the estimated 200 homeless people out of the park without having a place for them to go— ultimately pushing RVs into other neighborhoods.
“We are not in the business of moving people from one place to another,” Doan, whose District 7 has one of the highest numbers of lived-in vehicles, said at the meeting. “That impacts not only the residents, (but) the unsheltered residents and businesses. I think we should have a very clear plan where we can move our unsheltered residents.”
Mahan pushed back on the notion of having a bed for every homeless person before conducting a sweep.
“I’m getting concerned that we’re (taking) one step forward, one step back,” Mahan said at the meeting. “If we hold ourselves to an impossible standard that no other city in our county holds itself to, we will be left with the status quo, which means public parks and trails no one can access.”
Housing staff weren’t present at the meeting to answer councilmembers’ questions on where homeless people will be relocated to. Amanda Rodriguez, parks and recreation spokesperson, previously told San José Spotlight plans are still underway.
“We’re in the process of planning an abatement of Columbus Park, including coordinating with the Housing Department to provide resources for those who will need to leave the area,” Rodriguez told San José Spotlight.
Years ago, Columbus Park and its surrounding area was home to more than 200 homeless residents, with RVs and trailers parked on the streets, fields and basketball courts. The city cleared the sprawling homeless encampment in 2022, after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) threatened to withhold millions in federal funding because it sits under the flight path of San Jose Mineta International Airport. Dozens of homeless residents have returned since then, and more have been pushed into the park recently as the city instituted temporary RV bans on rotating streets.
Rodriguez said the city has kept the FAA-regulated area north of Columbus Park clear of homeless people with K-rails, which are concrete barriers.
“While Columbus Park isn’t airport land, it will be part of the revitalization project, and we plan to take a similar approach there once the area is abated,” she said.
Bringing back the past
Demolition of the site and construction are slated for the beginning of next year. The city expects the new park to be completed toward the end of 2027.
“It brings back something people have really missed for years,” Elizabeth Loretto, board president of the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy, said at a news conference before the vote. “Columbus Park was a place where neighbors gathered, kids played sports and school sports teams practiced together. We’re not just building a park, we’re bringing back memories and making space for new ones.”
Scott Largent, a homeless advocate who used to live in an RV near Columbus Park, said the encampment needs to go.
“I feel bad for everyone out there, but that place has to not exist,” Largent told San José Spotlight. “It’s literally like San Jose Skid Row. They’re so bad off now, and (to) allow somebody to exist like that, that’s not healthy for anybody. I just don’t know where all these people are going to go.”
San Jose is planning to add 1,000 beds or spaces for homeless residents this year, including tiny home communities like Via del Oro and Cherry Avenue, and the city’s first sanctioned sleeping site near Watson Park. However, these sites are largely reserved for those encamped in the immediate vicinity of where these sites will be built.
Mahan said the city is looking to lease more motels to house homeless people this year, bringing the total number of new beds up to 1,400. The city is also exploring the possibility of having safe parking at the motel sites for people who don’t want to give up their RVs.
Homeless resident Pauline Torres, 54, said she’s skeptical the city will move her into housing. She’s lived in Columbus Park with her sons for eight years and said outreach workers have never offered her housing. She’s been on the waitlist for a Section 8 housing voucher for years.
“This place is an abyss,” Torres told San José Spotlight. “I want something more.”
Story updated April 15 at 5:04 p.m. Original story published April 12 at 8:30 a.m.
Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X.
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