Revitalization of Columbus Park will lead to clearing out San Jose’s largest encampment

With Columbus Park partly resembling the third world and scenes from an apocalyptic movie San Jose leaders have called for the city s largest homeless encampment to be disbanded as it pushes forward with plans to reclaim the space and build new sports amenities Despite intentions to revitalize Columbus Park stretching back several years homeless encampments and RVs plenty of of which are inoperable have overtaken the recreational area including the fields that once hosted baseball games But on Tuesday the City Council unanimously approved a new plan to fill the park with soccer fields horseshoe pits pickleball futsal and basketball courts up and running by the third quarter of This is supposed to be a residents park a shared space for families kids and seniors but you wouldn t know it by looking at it in contemporary times San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan stated Years ago Columbus Park was a hub for youth sports a rare source of outdoor recreation and a historically underserved area Restoring it is about equity ensuring that working families in this part of the city have access to the same quality of inhabitants space as anywhere else this day The San Jose City Council has targeted the park s revitalization since when it approved making it the last project funded by Measure P the million parks infrastructure measure passed by voters in To date the city has completed of the projects planned and will make a million capital in Columbus Park Before Tuesday s approval the city attributed project delays to the site s complexity lack of staffing agency coordination and the homelessness dilemma A meager years ago the city went through the abatement process as it looked to move forward with park improvements but failed to adequately secure the site leading to unhoused residents moving back in Underscoring the rapid deterioration of the site and safety concerns Mahan disclosed the encampment has generated priority one calls over the past three years including in the first quarter of leading him and several unhoused residents living there to believe that Columbus Park was not safe for them or the surrounding district My mother was involved in society maturation in Africa and in fact those were better conditions than here because over there people cook communally they work together to try to make things better collect firewood and housing if you want commented Richard Lynch an unhoused resident who has made Columbus Park his home for the past year Here you can t do anything and the drugs make people insane and violent and so it s really a very tough situation Parks and recreation enthusiasts also championed the decision as more than an resources in a constituents project but also a first step to realizing the vision for a grander park Columbus Park was a place where neighbors gathered kids played sports and school sports teams practiced together Guadalupe River Park Conservancy Board President Elizabeth Loretto noted This project will help us bring back that spirit We re not just building a park We re bringing back memories and making space for new ones But while the city has targeted construction to start in early questions remain about what will happen to the hundreds of unhoused residents that the city will force out Homeless advocate Shaunn Cartwright left heckles San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan during a press conference on April at Columbus Park where city leaders called for the decommissioning of encampments Devan Patel Bay Area News Group Homeless advocate Gail Osmer lambasted the City Council for allowing the conditions to deteriorate and for what she considered was a lack of a plan for the residents in the present living there What human rights do people have now in Columbus Osmer commented It s a third-world country and the city has allowed that Mahan explained the city intends to offer outreach similar to the way it did when it rolled out its oversized and lived-in van enforcement scheme where it will post notifications weeks in advance and offer to connect people living there with services In noting that San Jose could add interim housing placements over the coming year when factoring in hotel and motel conversions with the tiny homes safe sleeping and safe parking sites Mahan acknowledged there could be certain spillover into neighborhoods when the city begins the abatement process later his year After multiple councilmembers expressed concerns about moving hundreds of people without an adequate plan Mahan pushed back on the city halting its own progress We do abatements every single day in the city without a place for people to go and if we hold ourselves to a standard of saying we have to have a shelter bed much less or even more a permanent housing placement for folks before we can abate a community park we are deciding that we will leave encampments in residents parks he revealed Related Articles Letters San Jose s threats are no help to the homeless San Jose breaks ground on safe sleeping site near Watson Park Authors with Bay Area ties from left and right lay blame for Golden State s woes Brentwood updates camping ordinance to manage homelessness City leaders advocates say San Jose s newest safe parking site offers hope For unhoused residents like Lynch he still holds out hope that he will be able to find several other form of housing but given his latest experience skepticism is starting to mount I m hoping to figure out selected type of affordable housing before they do that but I m not really confident Lynch disclosed I ve applied to every housing organization and homeless rehabilitation type of thing and gotten nothing