Students Against Sweeps, a San Jose State student-run campaign, held a news conference Friday morning at Columbus Park to protest against the city’s plans to build a dog park at the corner of Asbury and Spring streets.
The news conference took place in front of 62 cardboard tombstones representing the 62 unhoused people who have died in Santa Clara County this year.
“As of today, 62 unhoused individuals have been recorded dead at the hands of the city, which is on target to surpass the number of deaths this time last year,” said Angela Ramirez, a sociology senior and Students Against Sweeps member. “The reason that I say that it was at the hands of the city is because people pass away because of an inability to get proper shelter and or medical care.”
Part of the issue is the city removing unhoused people from encampments.
“The unhoused people that live in this community here, right where we stand, are being forced out to build a dog park,” Ramirez said. “A dog park. Seriously?”
San Jose approved the building of a 5.5 acre dog park in February 2022 as part of a plan to remove unhoused residents from the flightpath of San Jose International Airport, according to a Feb. 8, 2022 San Jose Spotlight article.
Angela Smith, sociology junior and Students Against Sweeps member, said these sweeps send a negative message to the community.
“The message that this sends to us . . . is that they are at less liberty to take up space in this area than the dogs of the homeowners who might live nearby,” Smith said.
The city has been removing unhoused residents from the park in a process known as “sweeps.”
CL, no last name given, is currently an unhoused resident of Columbus Park.
He said after he lost his ID and license during a sweep, he was set on getting housing.
“These sweeps, they don't help us out at all and we try to get that across to [the city],” CL said.
He said the city should partner with unhoused people to figure out a solution to the problem.
“How much more money are you going to spend on shuffling us around when that money can go towards something useful? Like housing us,” CL said. “Instead of shuffling us around, and pushing us here, pushing us over there and pushing us out . . . that's not gonna solve the problem because we're gonna be here regardless.”
San Jose spent $4.9 million on sweeping encampments in 2019, according to a 2020 report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Scott Largent, an advocate for the unhoused and previous resident in the Spring street encampment, said he spent years waiting for the services that would help him get out of his situation.
“All the hundreds of people that you see over here,” he said. “[Who] I would consider my roommates and friends, have been waiting and waiting, and they were not waiting for a dog park.”
The city spent $870,000 on outreach – including case management, engaging encampment residents and housing navigation services – according to the same report.
Largent said the county has put up signs preventing RVs from being parked off side streets, so everyone comes down to the airport.
“These people are not going to go anywhere over here right now,” he said. “It's at the end of the line. There is no place for people to go right now.”
Largent said many unhoused residents are waiting for a safe place to park, which has not materialized anywhere in the city.
“The city knows how to put up a fence for a dog park. They know how to put up k-rails but they cannot create, like, a KOA-style campground where people need to go,” he said.
San Jose’s City Council unanimously approved creating two temporary housing sites at two VTA locations, according to a Nov. 29, 2022 San Jose Spotlight article.
Largent said the city could secure a nearby staging lot for people to park in until they can move to the VTA site.
“All I see our mayor doing right now is getting out for golden shovel day in his dress shoes with a shovel that doesn't even look like it's even been used,” Largent said. “And it's just, it's pathetic. It's all a show.”
