SAN JOSE, Calif. (KCBS RADIO) – It was once one of the largest homeless encampments in the Bay Area. Now, San Jose is entering the final months of a lengthy process to clear it out.
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The city's clearing effort continues in earnest this week, but many residents are still putting up a fight against leaving.
Many vehicles and trailers have been towed away already, but others who are working with the city to find housing will be allowed to stay – at least for a few more months.
One such resident is Sean Benak, who for the time being has moved his broken-down car up the road to get it out of a work area.
But it's not clear how long he'll be allowed to stay in his new spot either, and in the meantime, he’s going through his options with friends and advocates.
For now, Benak is parked just outside a baseball field in Columbus Park along with several dozen others, many of whom fled here in September as the city finished clearing out a much larger encampment that once covered a 40-acre field just south of the city’s airport.
Since the encampment sweep first kicked off more than a year ago, the city has been working to connect residents with housing options and services.
So far there has been moderate success, according to city spokesperson Jeffrey Scott. Around 200 to 300 people in the area have been offered housing.
"There are a number of agencies collaborating on this," he said. "We're all in this together."
"We are on the side of people who have been living in the encampments in Columbus Park," said Scott.
But Homeless advocates suspect that figure overstates the city's progress, especially as many of those who have made it into transitional housing didn't stay for long.
"I see all the same people," said Scott Largent, a formerly unhoused resident of the site. "So I really don't believe that this is happening."
"I don't believe these numbers right here," he said. "I know a lot of people got placed in hotels, tiny homes, they were back out there in a week."
One reason for this is that some unhoused residents didn't like the rules they were asked to follow to stay in transitional housing, such as limits on guests and personal possessions.
The current options just don’t appear to fit everyone's needs, although a new safe parking site for RV dwellers is opening in the coming months, which could help.
Despite this, advocates have wondered why it's taken so long to set it up. According to Largent, while unhoused residents wait, some are just being pushed out to other parts of the city.
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