The city of San Jose is facing an impending deadline to clear out one of its largest homeless encampments, and the process is already running into roadblocks.
The Federal Aviation Administration gave the city a deadline earlier this summer requiring the city to clean up the encampment occupied by some 200 people adjacent to the airport by April 2022.
The FAA ordered for the encampment to be cleared from the lot by the Mineta San Jose International Airport for safety reasons in July, after years of community members trying on their own to clean the area up.
Now, the latest issue the City Council is working to address is how to ensure that once one portion of the 40-acre parcel of land is cleared off of tents and RVs, no one will return.
City staff have been considering erecting an eight-foot tall fence around the area, but people have been quick to point out that in other parts of the city, similar fences haven’t really worked.
"The fencing gets cut, or in some way it gets traversed, and then we just have encampments on the other side," said Councilmember Raul Peralez. He and others on the council have instead proposed assigning staff to the area to guard the cleared off portions.
But even this is resulting in pushback. "I really have concerns about confrontations or violence if we have park rangers or even police out there," said fellow Councilmember Dev Davis. "I’m very worried about that."
While that issue is being debated, another challenge looms for the city – where to move all the people being displaced from the encampment to.
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