San Jose is sweeping dozens of RVs and tents off the Alviso-Milpitas Road parallel to Highway 237, leaving the homeless people with no place to go.
Some of the unhoused individuals left once they learned a sweep was eminent, but more than a dozen people with no options remained Monday afternoon. Those with inoperable vehicles were given a 72-hour warning before vehicles were impounded. The encampment, which sits on the Milpitas – San Jose border, is located on the San Jose side next to the future home of a Microsoft data center site. The tech giant purchased the 65-acre site in 2017 for $73 million. It’s protected by a fence.
Many of the unhoused like Lynn Shipman came from Milpitas three years ago, after the city swept where she parked and painted the curb red. Others from Milpitas joined after the city restricted sleeping in public areas in 2022, Shipman said. Then, Fremont made it illegal for people to camp in public spaces in February, bringing more people to the area. Shipman said what started out as a few vehicles parked on a side street behind the highway sound wall ballooned to about 70 people at its peak.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said the city shouldn’t bear the weight of taking on homeless people from other areas.
“I’ve asked our city attorney to explore legal action against cities enacting punitive policies that displace their unhoused residents into San Jose without providing shelter, which strains our resources and pushes vulnerable people further into crisis,” Mayor Matt Mahan told San José Spotlight.
Shipman found housing last year, but has returned to the camp frequently to help. She’s been towing the inoperable RVs and trailers with her truck to a nearby parking lot in Milpitas so the vehicles don’t get impounded during the sweep.
One man has been calling the safe parking site in Mountain View, but his calls have gone unanswered. Another man with an inoperable car tried to make repairs so he could move his vehicle. Others were packing belongings before the city cleared the area. This is the first time in three years the city has swept the area, homeless people said.
“People are fearful. They don’t know where else to go,” Shipman, 60, told San José Spotlight.
There’s not enough places for people to park their vehicles without fear of getting swept. San Jose’s two safe parking sites, one on Berryessa Road and the other at the Santa Teresa VTA light rail station, are full. The Berryessa site, which opened last month, can hold 86 RVs and the Santa Teresa site can hold 42 RVs. But there are an estimated 1,000 lived-in vehicles throughout the city.
“It’s unfortunate that we are unable to provide enough safe parking sites at this time to accommodate everyone that must be relocated,” District 4 Councilmember David Cohen, whose district includes the encampment, told San José Spotlight. “As difficult and heartbreaking as this situation is, the city of San Jose cannot legally deny a private property owner access to their land.”
Advocates said the city is clearing the encampment for the giant tech company’s plans to construct its data centers. A Microsoft spokesperson said the data centers are necessary for the growing demand of cloud storage services.
“We understand the cities are taking steps necessary to ensure safety and are working with the impacted individuals,” a Microsoft spokesperson told San José Spotlight.
As San Jose continues to sweep other parts of the city and implement temporary RV bans, people funnel into other neighborhoods and areas, including Columbus Park.
The city 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.
San Jose 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 exploring the possibility of having safe parking at the motel sites for people who don’t want to give up their RVs.
“San Jose is one of the few cities in the Bay Area dramatically expanding its shelter and interim housing system, but we won’t carry the burden for the entire region,” Mahan said.
Jerry Drawhorn, 59, said they have not been offered any housing resources. Outreach workers from nonprofit Abode Services came out last week, but only took down their names, he said.
Housing department spokesperson Jeff Scott said outreach teams visited the encampment twice before the sweep. Workers informed residents of the upcoming sweep, made sure individuals were entered in the city’s system that tracks homeless people and encouraged the individuals to contact the shelter hotline, Scott said.
Advocates like Yolie Garcia, an organizer for Milpitas group Hope for the Unhoused, have taken it upon themselves to help people find housing, provide food, pay for storage and motel stays and connect people to resources. Garcia said San Jose should’ve provided more resources to help with the move.
“I don’t have a problem with them moving them out,” Garcia told San José Spotlight. “But come out here and look at your community, see what’s needed, so that this can go in a smooth way—not this way. It’s inhumane.”
Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X.
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