RVs are parked at Columbus Park on Nov. 17, 2022, in San Jose, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
Standing in front of a dozen tarp-covered RVs along Education Park Drive in East San Jose, Mayor Matt Mahan and Councilmember Peter Ortiz proposed new rules on Thursday to prohibit homeless encampments and vehicle dwellings within 150 feet of a school or daycare in the city.
The new ordinance, which would also include preschools, is the first time the mayor has officially proposed limitations on where the city’s homeless can reside — and is in line with suggestions he voiced earlier this year on stricter rules surrounding encampments and RVs.
The latest proposal is similar to a set of guidelines passed by the city council in 2021 — but this time would codify the rules — almost certainly allowing law enforcement increased latitude when it comes to making abatements. Pressure ramped up this year after students at KIPP San Jose Collegiate, a high school in East San Jose, claim homeless residents who have settled around the area are breaking into the school’s buildings and leaving needles on lunch tables.
“We have to do better for our kids,” said Mahan on Thursday, flanked by half a dozen KIPP students. “Our students should not have to face the ramifications of our failure on homelessness. They deserve a quality education free from fear and disruption.”
Thursday’s announcement also stood as a moment of bipartisanship among the city council, with the mayor and Ortiz, often at opposite ends of policy debates, agreeing on rules for an issue usually marked by political infighting across the Bay Area.
“I do still consider myself a progressive,” said Ortiz when asked about his support of the proposed new law. “There are many situations where I don’t agree with the mayor. This is one area where we do agree. Kids should be safe as they navigate to and from home. This isn’t whether it’s a progressive issue or a conservative issue. This is an area where we all should agree.”
The mayor and Ortiz said they worked with KIPP students to draft the new ordinance which will head to the city’s rules committee next week for consideration. According to city officials, the proposal will take three to four months at minimum to come before the city council for a vote.
“We have had many break-ins,” said KIPP senior Alfredo Hernandez Jr. in an interview. “We have had athletic vans being stolen and our gas tanks being stolen. But also uniforms being stolen from athletic sheds.”
Another KIPP senior, Fernanda Morales-Soto, said she had been followed by one of the nearby RV residents after school last year.
“I stand here today fortunate to say the individual left me alone after walking a couple of blocks,” said Morales-Soto, who is also an intern for the mayor, at Thursday’s press conference. “But the fact I had to experience this is unacceptable.”
The proposal drew immediate backlash from the Silicon Valley Law Foundation, an advocacy group that has challenged previous efforts by local governments in court over rules surrounding where homeless residents can reside.
“This is a misguided approach to homelessness that has failed in other communities to reduce the number of people living outside,” said Silicon Valley Law Foundation attorney Tristia Bauman in an interview. “The proposal risks violating the legal rights of unhoused people in terms of subjecting them to enforcement that may be unconstitutional.”
In announcing the proposed city law, the mayor insists that his continued efforts to build out interim housing options — which include tiny-home shelters and safe parking sites — serves as a justification for the stricter stance on encampments and unsanctioned vehicle dwellings.
In May, a political battle erupted over how much funding should go toward the mayor’s interim strategy. The council eventually shifted some money toward Mahan’s interim options, but not as much as he had originally proposed after permanent affordable housing advocates protested. The mayor’s goal is to create 1,000 new interim housing spots by the end of the year. In June, councilmembers approved a nearly $19 million lease for what will ultimately become the city’s largest safe parking site located in the Berryessa neighborhood.
The mayor and Ortiz’s proposal also comes just weeks after the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals let stand a decision overturning no-camping laws in Oregon.
In the ruling, conservative justices in the minority blamed their liberal counterparts for making it nearly impossible for local governments across the western U.S. to take action against people sleeping in public. The court’s majority disagreed with the criticism, stating that the law did allow for some wiggle room on abatements.
In San Jose, the city has faced lawsuits over its efforts to clear out an encampment in Columbus Park near San Jose Mineta International Airport, with a judge halting the sweep until the city proved it had adequate shelter for the camp inhabitants. In Mountain View, a lawsuit forced the city to soften its rules around RV parking last year after plaintiffs argued restrictions were “unconstitutional” and “inhumane.”
Originally published at Gabriel Greschler