Valley Water land sees reduction in San Jose homeless camps

As efforts to clean up trash and clear homeless residents from local waterways continue, officials are working to make sure people don’t just move from one location to the next due to lack of housing.

Valley Water has removed 462 homeless encampments from its land since implementing a no camping policy at the end of last year, according to spokesperson Matt Keller. The policy is meant to protect the 333 miles of waterways managed by Santa Clara County’s largest water supplier. Prior to the policy, more than 450 people lived along the waterways, predominantly concentrated in San Jose and sections of Coyote, Upper Penitencia and Lower Silver creeks and Guadalupe River. Based on Valley Water’s latest count, conducted in February, there are 224 people on the agency’s property.

Keller said the agency has seen some successes since the policy took effect.

“We have already begun to see environmental recovery in Water Resources Protection Zones areas,” Keller told San José Spotlight. “Valley Water staff are experiencing fewer interactions with dangerous individuals on Valley Water lands.”

Once lined with tents, the Guadalupe River along Cherry Avenue now runs quietly along the trail. A Water Resources Protection Zone sign is posted, signaling anyone who sets up camp will be subject to citation or arrest.

Keller said the biggest challenge in implementing the policy has been people who continue to re-encamp, which affects the waterways. Workers have removed more than 1.2 million pounds of trash, debris and hazardous materials from waterways since the start of the year.

“We observe that many unsheltered individuals living within Valley Water’s jurisdiction sometimes do not qualify for housing due to violence or other behavioral issues,” Keller said.

Mark Bilski, an assistant officer with Valley Water, said the agency is in talks with Santa Clara County about services it can offer people with severe mental illness.

“We’re trying to figure out what resources are available to them to get them into a different system,” Bilski told San José Spotlight.

Ground rules

Valley Water doesn’t have the ability to cite or arrest people who camp on its land, so it contracts with the San Jose Police Department to do so. Officers go out to homeless encampments along the waterways to serve warrants, write citations and make arrests as part of Valley Water’s Stream Stewardship Law Enforcement program.

Since 2023, police have issued at least 120 citations and made more than 100 arrests under the program, according to SJPD data. Valley Water has spent more than $760,000 on the program since it first contracted with SJPD in 2019, a water agency spokesperson said.

Areas with large concentrations of homeless encampments contributing to environmental pollution are deemed “high priority” and immediately addressed by Valley Water workers, Bilski said Tuesday at a joint meeting between the Valley Water board of directors and San Jose City Council. Low-priority areas are largely left alone for the time being as long as people abide by the agency’s ground rules, including keeping pets leashed, not possessing drugs and not disposing trash in the waterways.

Bilski said re-encampment will remain persistent as long as there’s not enough housing.

There’s only one shelter bed available for every three homeless people, according to an exclusive data compilation by San José Spotlight. There are 10,711 homeless people in Santa Clara County, according to a point-in-time count conducted in January. But there are only 3,454 beds across 38 temporary shelters and programs countywide to help homeless people move through an uninterrupted path toward permanent housing.

San Jose is working to add more than 1,000 new beds by the end of the year, some which have already come online, including 150 beds at the Via Del Oro tiny home site. More are coming this fall, including the Rue Ferrari tiny home expansion, which would add 144 beds and the Cherry Avenue tiny home site, which would add 136 beds.

Valley Water coordinates with the city to conduct outreach before a sweep occurs, a spokesperson said. Bilski points to one successful coordination with San Jose in the clearing of the Cherry Avenue encampment. People living there were promised housing at the unopened Cherry Avenue tiny home site. Instead, San Jose was able to move some of those people into the Via Del Oro tiny home site, which opened in April.

Homeless advocate Gail Osmer said some people staying along the Guadalupe River moved to Columbus Park. Homeless encampments at the park are being cleared by San Jose, and some residents have been offered housing at one of the city’s new temporary housing sites.
At the meeting, District 8 Councilmember Domingo Candelas expressed concern about people moving into other waterways as a result of Valley Water’s sweeps.

“One of the things that I’ve seen, especially along Thompson Creek that’s adjacent to the Coyote Creek area, is folks moving upstream (into) other parts of the city,” Candelas said at the meeting.

Jon Cicirelli, director of parks, recreation and neighborhood services, said workers will post no camping notices in other nearby waterways when it looks like people are moving there.

“But the further you get away from the actual abatement, the less we’re going to do that,” Cicirelli said at the meeting. “We’re not going to cover the whole city.”

Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X.