CLICK HERE if you are having a problem viewing the photos on a mobile device
For the first time in years, James M. is sleeping and eating well.
Once resigned to spending nights along a creek embankment, James, who did not want his last name used, has been living in Hope Village, a homeless encampment on Ruff Drive just south of Mineta San Jose International Airport. Established by several Catholic charity workers, Hope Village has offered more than a dozen residents tents, showers, toilets and other basic services that are hard to come by for most homeless people.
But now the encampment is facing eviction and its 16 residents fear they will be forced back onto the streets.
“I am really very concerned,” James said Tuesday morning as he stood outside the tall orange tent he calls home. The encampment was orderly and quiet, except for the occasional bark from his neighbor’s little dog, Lucky. “Where am I going to sleep in two weeks?”
At this point, no one has a clear answer, and residents aren’t relishing the upheaval creeping back into their lives.
“Stability’s gone,” said Charles Nelson, Lucky’s owner and one of the original inhabitants of the encampment, shrugging his shoulders in frustration.
The encampment — which has been at its current spot since September — is on land the county is leasing from San Jose and the lease is up at the end of the month. Plans, however, to relocate to a Santa Clara Valley Water District plot in Willow Glen fell through amid intense pushback from neighbors upset about the idea of homeless people living nearby and concerns that the proposed location — at Willow and Lelong streets just east of the Guadalupe River — is prone to flooding.
“It’s unused. It’s available,” James said. “But it does not appear to be happening.”
The water district has suggested extending the current lease. But the Federal Aviation Administration sent a letter to San Jose’s director of aviation in February saying the area is not suitable for residential use and warning that allowing the encampment to continue could jeopardize federal grant funding.
“There are no ongoing discussions with the FAA,” said Jeff Scott, a spokesman for the city’s Housing Department. “The FAA was clear in insisting that Hope Village must move.”
Marty Grimes, a spokesman for the water district, said the agency is open to exploring relocating the encampment to some of its other property. But so far, a spot in Milpitas has been rejected by Hope Village residents with the hope that a better location can be found.
“It’s important we find someplace to go,” said Edie Brodsky, a volunteer helping to manage Hope Village.
The group is exploring a variety of interim spots, Brodsky said, from churches to parking lots. But nothing has been secured yet and time is running out. It’s unclear exactly what would happen if residents refused to leave the current site, but there’s widespread agreement the Ruff Drive location is temporary.
The city and county are looking at giving Hope Village residents hotel vouchers and pairing them with case managers to help search for long-term housing.
Mayor Sam Liccardo said Tuesday that San Jose was open to working with the county to identify possible sites.
But Ky Le, the director of the county’s Office of Supportive Housing, said in an emailed statement, “The County Administration is now shifting to providing temporary and long-term assistance to the current participants of Hope Village.”
And even if Hope Village does find a new home, Liccardo also made clear he sees any such encampment as a stopgap at best.
“Fundamentally, we’ve got thousands of homeless on our streets and we’ve got to focus on permanent solutions,” Liccardo said. “Spinning our wheels and spending a lot of resources moving tents around is not going to get us to the solution that we all need.”
But San Jose and other surrounding cities have struggled to keep up with the demand for affordable housing and residents of Hope Village fear any progress will be too little too late for them.
“It’s the not in my backyard thing,” James said, “except this is society’s backyard.”
