A small group of residents including Christine Li, right, who live near the proposed RV site in San Jose’s Berryessa neighborhood, protest against the project in front of City Hall in San Jose, Calif., on June 6, 2023. San Jose’s Berryessa neighborhood could end up serving as the city’s largest-ever sanctioned parking site for RV dwellers, with up to 85 vehicles legally allowed to park in a highly industrialized spot along Coyote Creek as part of a larger strategy to reduce homelessness. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
San Jose’s Berryessa neighborhood will be the site of a massive RV parking lot after city councilmembers approved an $18.9 million lease on Tuesday for the project as part of a strategy to offer faster, interim options to combat the homelessness crisis.
The site — which will host up to 85 vehicles — will be the largest of its kind in the city and is located along Coyote Creek at 1300 Berryessa Road, allowing RV dwellers to legally park with no maximum stay in an area mostly surrounded by industrial buildings.
In a unanimous vote, councilmembers approved a 10-year lease for the 6.3-acre parcel — and the city expects that all expenses for the site, including services, will amount to over $24 million over a five-year period. The project — about a mile from the nearby Berryessa BART station — currently doesn’t have an opening date.
The city will lease the Berryessa site from Terreno Realty, which bought it in 2021 for $23 million. RV dwellers on the border of Districts 3 and 4 — the North San Jose areas where the project is located — will be given priority. The city is considering whether to initiate “no-parking zones” on streets where RV dwellers once parked and after the vehicles have transitioned onto the new site.
The city’s first safe parking RV site offering long-term stays will come online this summer at the Santa Teresa light rail station in south San Jose with room for about 45 vehicles. Currently, at least 400 people live in RVs across San Jose, according to the city.
Despite a couple of dozen neighbors who spoke out against the safe parking site, Mayor Matt Mahan rallied for the proposal.
“When we get someone into a stable environment, it generally works,” said Mahan, an advocate for interim housing options, at Tuesday’s council meeting. “I understand that there are folks who will oppose it. That is inevitable…The reality is that solving this problem is a societal imperative.”
The project is part of a wider push by the city to rapidly house individuals who live in encampments and into safe parking sites, tiny home-type shelters and hotel rooms. The homeless encampments have long sparked public safety concerns and frustrated residents who have beseeched the city to close them down.
According to figures provided by the city, out of 1,395 homeless residents who have received these interim services over the last three years, 50% entered permanent housing and another 19% found another temporary option. Nine percent returned to homelessness and the city didn’t have information on the outcomes for 22% of the residents.
“It gets them out of the encampments,” said Jacky Morales-Ferrand, the city’s director of housing, during Tuesday’s meeting. “And the goal is to get them back into a permanent facility.”
Those with concerns about the safe parking site included Christine Li, who lives in the area where the project is being planned.
“I’m not opposed to the RV parking site,” said Li in an interview. “It is just the location.”
Li and about a half-dozen other residents protested outside of San Jose City Hall on Tuesday morning, holding up signs that said “Keep our children safe” and “No RV parking in Berryessa.” Lee said many families and children live just a couple blocks north.
City officials counter by saying numerous offerings at the site — which include substance abuse treatment and mental health and transportation services — will keep the parking site safe for nearby residents. The project will also have 24/7 security.
Thomas Knight, who spoke during the council meeting’s public comment period, said he’s supportive of the project.
“These are crucial initiatives addressing the homelessness issue,” said Knight. But he added that he’s concerned about the “no-parking zone” idea from the city, specifically that it could end up pushing certain RV dwellers to other encampments or streets and worsen the crisis.
Knight said he is also worried about too many Measure E dollars being used for the project. The use of funding from Measure E, which was passed by voters in 2020 to help provide housing to low-income and homeless individuals, is currently being debated among San Jose councilmembers. Mayor Mahan is proposing shifting some Measure E funding toward interim housing options, while permanent housing advocates argue the city should keep a majority of the funding for their projects.
Late last month, an estimate from the city’s budget director found that while interim housing sites may be affordable in the short term, San Jose could end up being on the hook for tens of millions of dollars by 2030. On June 13, councilmembers will vote on next year’s budget and how Measure E funding is spent.
Originally published at Gabriel Greschler