San Jose

Enclaves Are Often Only Affordable Residential Choice for Bay Area Artists

An artist in the South Bay said he's lived in several artists' collectives around San Jose, which are similar to the one in Oakland that called the site of a deadly fire home.

Benny O'Hara said while living in those conditions, he feared for his safety. He also said it's very common for artists in the Bay Area to live in such conditions because that's all many can afford.

"It's totally devastating," O'Hara said about the fire at the so-called Ghost Ship, a converted warehouse in Oakland where 36 people perished Friday night.

For O'Hara, whose work is displayed at a downtown San Jose coffee shop, the tragedy in Oakland hits close to home.

"Places like Ghost Ship are places that mean so much to so many people," he said.

O'Hara would not get specific about places where he's lived, but offered some eerie details about one experience.

"When getting electricity fixed, you talk to the electrician, and they say, 'This whole place could burn down at any time; you really should get this fixed.' And it's like, you can't go to the landlord with that because they'll raise your rent and then what?" O'Hara said. "You just don't live there at all."

O'Hara said for many local artists, living in converted warehouses is simply a way of life because they can't afford anything else.

"There are definitely warehouses in San Jose where people live and make art and have events and use the space to come together," he said.

He stopped short of saying they weren't up to code but admitted they weren't always safe.

"I know for a lot of people, we don't get to always look at things like safety when we're choosing where we want to live because that's a much smaller issue compared to the safety issues of living in a car or living on the street," he said.

Editor's note: A previous version of this story said Benny O'Hara has lived in numerous converted warehouses in San Jose.

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