While the city of San Jose has started clearing about 1,000 homeless residents in the biggest encampment at Columbus Park, the residents are resisting it. This, to me, is crazy! Why are they rejecting to be housed, instead of camping in the park?

I watched the morning news on television Monday while taking my breakfast with Mayor Matt Mahan appealing to residents to accept the proposal of the city to relocate them to a housing community, to a safe indoors instead of the streets!

The homeless residents went to the streets, instead and heeded to city hall to protest opposing the project because they claim that homelessness is not a crime because they are just trying to survive with their tents and RVs at the Columbus Park.

The homeless residents living in Columbus Park claimed that next Monday’s encampment sweep will displace hundreds of people, as per article written by Joyce Chu titled “San Jose homeless residents rally against looming sweep. “

More than four dozen community activists and unhoused residents marched from St. James Park in downtown to City Hall on Tuesday, chanting “community engagement not abatement” and “homelessness is not a crime, folks are trying to survive.” They carried signs with slogans such as “Offer us housing.” Columbus Park residents, including an older adult, an individual with a disability and another from the LBGTQ+ community spoke at City Hall about the challenges they’ll face from the impending sweep.” – (https://sanjosespotlight.com/san-jose-homeless-residents-rally-against-looming-sweep/)

Looking for a better solution may not be a problem but its implementation seems to be a problem. The city is now facing resistance from some of the homeless residents who are refusing to accept the city’s proposal.

I think this is absurd and crazy because while the city has the best of intentions, the recipients are not receptive to the proposal. The city spent much money to pave the way for a more descent home for them but apparently, they are not seeing the benefits and advantages of the proposal.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan on Friday toured a motel that’s expected to start taking in some of the people who have been cleared out of the city’s largest homeless encampment, according to NBC Bay area staff reporter Robert Handa.

On Monday, crews began removing trash, tents and vehicles from the grounds around Columbus Park. San Jose says in a matter of weeks people in tents and RVs at Columbus Park will be cleared out in what might be the city’s biggest homeless encampment sweep in 10 years.

Advocates, however,  said more than 300 people face uncertainty because the city does not yet have adequate temporary housing available. The first of five motels opened Monday, but it only provides about 40 beds. The other three motels are expected to open before the end of next month.

Many people at the encampment say they don’t know where to go.

“At this point I don’t even have a plan,” Eugene Blackwell said. “I’m just kind of playing it by ear, waiting for the city and county to give us what options we have besides hotel rooms, and they haven’t really come up with too much yet. Blackwell continued.” – (https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-jose-homeless-encampment-columbus-park-2/3927810/)

The abatement at Columbus Park reminds many of the sweep of “The Jungle” 10 years ago. The site became a national symbol of the homeless crisis. Robert Aguirre, a former inhabitant and advocate from that time, said the situations are too familiar.

“I told the mayor at the time when they were getting ready to close ‘The Jungle’ it’s a big mistake because what’s going to happen is these people are going to scatter, and that’s exactly what happened,” Aguirre said. “So, the complaints started going up all over the city because now all of a sudden there were a bunch of people that were camping out in front of their homes and on their streets and so forth,” Aguirre concluded. (https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-jose-homeless-encampment-columbus-park-2/3927810/)

Mayor Matt Mahan said the city is generating temporary housing and shelter at a record rate, adding the Columbus Park sweep is a carefully calculated operation. “We are decommissioning the largest encampment since the jungle – restoring Columbus Park while offering every person living there a safe space indoors,” Mahan opined.

The Columbus clean-up is the biggest clean-up operation since clearing the Jungle – Operation Clean-up Columbus.

The city prepared the residents to ensure that the homeless residents are ready to make the transition from the streets to safety.

Of the 309 current encampment residents, Mahan said 50% have said yes to coming indoors. We want to get to 100% and we have the shelter capacity to do so.

At this point in time, while the abatement is going on and there is resistance from the homeless residents despite the fact that Columbus is unsafe for the people living there, unusable for the wider community, and untenable situation for emergency respondents, the city is taking action to push the project.

Mayor Mahan said “Over the next 8 weeks, we will clear the area, offering housing to every person who is currently there, and prohibit re-encampment of the site so we can restore the park to what it always should havbe been – a shared public space for everyone to enjoy,”

Mayor Mahan, continue with your call for 100% for the 309 encampment residents to coming indoors and hoping the recipients will respond positively to the call.

We need to transition from the streets to safety… a safe space indoors!