Many of the tents lining Coyote Creek in San Jose’s Roosevelt Park have been there for years. The metropolis, below former Mayor Sam Liccardo, as soon as thought of creating sanctioned encampments — although it will definitely settled on offering inhabitants with fundamental wants like port-a-potties and trash bins.
Now, Mayor Matt Mahan needs to carry that plan again, particularly after seeing San Diego set up two such encampments.
“We had a member of our city staff go down and actually research what they’re doing and take a first hand look,” Mahan stated. “They just stood up a site with 400 tents. It looks beautiful. There are nice, neat rows. There’s basic on-site security and sanitation. It’s an alternative to the unsafe, unsanitary, unmanaged encampments we have on the streets.”
Some South Bay homeless advocates say they’ve supported the thought for a few years, so long as it isn’t seen as a everlasting resolution.
“I think it’s important that the mayor is pushing that harder than anybody else has,” Pastor Scott Wagers stated. “And I know he’s got a big plan to get people out of these encampments, which is good, but we’re worried about people getting stuck in the system and not going into permanent housing. But as a short-term interim plan, especially in the cold winter nights, desperately needed.”
Some unhoused folks at Roosevelt Park instructed NBC Bay Area that they assume many tent dwellers would agree.
“I think it’s a great idea. We make little communities anywhere. … I bounce around to all of them. I associate with all of them, so I think it’s a great idea,” John Navarez stated.
One of the largest challenges for the plan, in accordance to Mahan, is discovering websites.
“We’ll need to do an inventory of potential sites. We need to get buy-in from the council to do a pilot,” Mahan stated. “I firmly believe that if we treat this like the crisis that it is, we will move forward a pilot next year. It’s really just a matter of political will.”
Despite these hopes, the time to discover the acceptable web site together with the value to maintain sleeping websites protected means this mission will a long-term one.
Mahan plans to suggest the plan in his price range messages in March, which he stated means any precise building could be months later.
