San Jose is on the verge of sweeping its largest homeless encampment, but that undertaking, which is expected to impact hundreds of unhoused residents, comes as the state is poised to pass a budget that would cut tens of millions of dollars from the city's homeless budget.
The homeless encampment at Columbus Park off Taylor Street is filled with new arrivals. Many people came to the encampment, often reluctantly, from other smaller encampments that were swept.
Watch NBC Bay Area News free wherever you are
WATCH HERE"This place is really a rat dump, sorry to say," Kevin Husted said. "I don’t like it here. My kids don’t like it here. People are different. Seems to be a lot of violence."
The Columbus Park abatement could take from the end of July to the end of October.
Mayor Matt Mahan said 600 units of housing will be made available during that time, but he said without help from the county and state, it probably won’t be enough.
"We abate encampments for public safety reasons all the time," he said. "We can’t always offer housing or shelter. We do our best to coordinate large abatements with offers of shelter and other services and we’re pushing really hard to get our county and state to help us expand the number of places where people can be."
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news with the Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
SIGN UP 