One week after warning residents to move their RVs, the city has cleared a stretch of Chynoweth Avenue that was once littered with the oversized vehicles, trash and human waste as it looks to expand a new program aimed at limiting the public safety and health impacts the encampments.
But some homeless residents and advocates say the city’s hardline approach lacks compassion and it creates an endless loop of sweeping the problem around the city rather than offering solutions to the ongoing homelessness crisis.
“It’s been a nightmare, to tell you the truth,” said Paul Peterson, who lived in an RV on Chynoweth before searching the city for another place to temporarily park his vehicle. “Basically, everyone that has moved has nowhere to go.”
With RV encampments proving a continuous challenge throughout the city, San Jose leaders pledged to provide some respite to local neighborhoods and businesses that pleaded for the city to take action.
After completing an inventory of oversized or lived-in vehicles on public streets that identified more than 2,000 — nearly half of which were lived-in RVs — the city created a program that would establish new zone towaway zones on a rolling basis near the larger congregations of RVs or sensitive areas like schools, parks or waterways.
After each zone is officially created, the city is providing a grace period to move their vehicles before abatement proceeds. City officials have committed $1.5 million in initial funding and $1.8 million to cover the program’s ongoing costs.
San Jose successfully tested a similar program last year at Shirakawa Elementary School, KIPP San Jose Collegiate, and the Challenger School-Berryessa — schools where students, teachers, and parents have reported a drop in crime and generally feeling safer around their campuses.
Last week, city officials made a stretch of roadway near Chynoweth Park the first of 30 temporary towaway zones it will create throughout the coming year — 10 of the zones created could also become permanent.
As city workers posted signs last week, they documented 32 vehicles, including 21 RVs and trailers, in the zone, but despite objectionable conditions, residents said the neighborhood had witnessed even worse at different points over the past two years.
Yogi Sahu, a resident near Chynoweth Park who had organized with his neighbors to pressure City Hall to act, recalled RV dwellers dumping human excrement into the trains, hanging underwear on trees, playing loud music and stealing packages.
While he offered sympathy to the plight of local homeless residents, Sahu questioned the fairness to his neighborhood for continuously enduring these issues that weren’t present when they moved into the area.
“I do understand the human part of it and letting them live there, but we are also humans and what about our quality of life?” Sahu told The Mercury News.
Colin Heyne, a public information officer with the city’s Department of Transportation, said that while 18 vehicles remained in the tow zone as of Thursday morning, 11 voluntarily left, prompting the city to remove the remaining five RVs and two cars.
Heyne said the city’s Beautify San Jose program is removing any biowaste, trash, or debris left behind before city crews sweep the street, which could take a couple of weeks.
“The temporary tow zone will remain as long as the clean-up work continues and staff will check in on the area to monitor any potential repopulation of oversized/lived-in vehicles,” Heyne told The Mercury News.
Jeff Scott, the public information manager for the San Jose housing department, said that while the city does not track where residents go once they leave a towaway zone, the city’s outreach team responded to the Chynoweth neighborhood 54 times in 2024 to offer to connect homeless residents with services.
However, for many people living in RVs who have or will be displaced, there is still uncertainty on where to go.
Over the next year, San Jose will nearly triple its interim housing solutions by building more tiny homes, safe parking and safe sleeping sites. The city also awarded a $2.8 million contract this week to WeHOPE to operate the 6.3-acre safe parking site that will go online in the coming months at 1300 Berryessa Road, but the site can only accommodate 85 vehicles.
“It’s a tragedy what the city is doing to people living in RVs that can’t afford to rent an apartment,” said advocate Gail Osmer, who was brought to tears Thursday as the city towed the remaining vehicles. “It’s musical chairs and nobody seems to understand it. We’re spending so much money and for what? There’s no answer for it.”
Peterson said a friend drove him around for two and a half hours looking for a suitable location before finding a street behind a car dealership that could temporarily fit his RV.
City parking rules limit how long a vehicle can sit idle on public streets, so in 72 hours, Peterson was resigned to having to find another place to move, perpetuating a cycle with no end in sight.
“It’s been a hell of a week,” he said.