Santa Clara County’s largest water agency has begun banning homeless encampments on its property, reversing a commitment to let nonprofits and advocates do outreach prior to enforcing its new policy.
Although Valley Water planned to start training nonprofit groups to provide information to homeless residents prior to enforcing an encampment ban on Jan. 2, that hasn’t happened. Instead, the agency has begun sweeping the waterways ahead of securing contracts with nonprofits and advocates who were to speak with individuals and make them aware of the new policy and its ramifications.
“These operations were planned independently of the Water Resources Protection Zones Ordinance due to public safety and criminal activity impacts to the surrounding community and environmental risk factors,” Mark Bilski, assistant officer in the Valley Water maintenance division, told San José Spotlight. “No amount of outreach would have allowed the people to stay there. We did give several weeks of notice before each of our encampment sweeps this year.”
So far this year, Valley Water has removed encampments in San Jose along Upper Penitencia Creek between North Jackson Avenue and Interstate 680, and at Los Gatos Creek between Leigh and Meridian avenues. It also swept the creek between Hamilton and Bascom avenues in Campbell, according to a Valley Water spokesperson. “No encampment” zones have been set up in those areas.
Last November, the Valley Water board passed a policy that barred homeless people from living along 333 miles of agency-owned waterways. People caught camping on the property could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to $500 in fines.
Bilski said he’s not aware of any citations given to homeless people.
But homeless advocates say Valley Water has gone back on its word to do widespread outreach first before removing encampments. Agape Silicon Valley Executive Director Todd Langton was one of five nonprofit groups in the process of getting contracted to do outreach with Valley Water, but decided to pull out.
“We knew that sweeps were going on and no training had started,” Langton told San José Spotlight. “It wasn’t in our best interest to work with them.”
Langton said there was a lot of back and forth between his group and Valley Water when it came to submitting all the paperwork needed for the contract. One worker emailed him asking for certain documentation. He sent it over, and then another worker emailed him for the same thing. He wasn’t sure when Valley Water was going to train them to do outreach and thought the whole process was disorganized.
“It just feels like they don’t know what they’re doing, and they’re just flying by the seat of their pants,” he said. “(If) we are dealing with this much dysfunction now, how is it going to be later?”
Tony Estremera, chair of the Valley Water board of directors, did not respond to a request for comment.
There are more than 700 people encamped along Valley Water property — a number that has risen since the pandemic. Over the last three years, the agency has spent $8 million cleaning homeless camps and removed nearly 6 million pounds of trash and debris. Some workers have also faced attacks from homeless people while doing their jobs.
“Valley Water has an obligation to protect against activities that negatively impact water quality and ecological resources,” Valley Water spokesperson Matt Keller told San José Spotlight. “Valley Water also has an obligation to protect its field staff whose work is critical to meeting regulatory requirements and maintaining flood protection and water supply infrastructure.”
Valley Water’s protocols include notifying city and county agencies before a sweep occurs to coordinate services. If the sweep occurs in San Jose, then workers notify the city’s housing department — and if it happens elsewhere in the county, Valley Water notifies the county office of supportive housing. While a spokesperson for San Jose’s housing department said they have had no contract with Valley Water to provide services for homeless people getting swept, the water agency has a county contract to provide services to unhoused residents.
“Valley Water has coordinated with the county of Santa Clara and other outreach providers regarding the abatements they have conducted, and the county has a contract with Valley Water to provide outreach services at Valley Water sites,” Hilary Armstrong, deputy director of the Santa Clara County Office of Supportive Housing, told San José Spotlight. “These services include assessments for housing programs and connections to shelter resources.”
However, with most shelters and temporary housing sites full, there will be no place to put the hundreds of people living on Valley Water’s land until San Jose’s safe sleeping sites materialize or more emergency interim housing is built.
Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X.
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