The City of San Jose on Monday is launching a clean-up and other abatement activities along the eastern bank of Coyote Creek next week, primarily focusing on trash and debris removal.
San Jose's homeless coordinator Ray Bramson said the clean-up will primarily focus on trash and debris removal, impacting very few homeless individuals.
Bramson said the city is also planning to install a gate and several boulders near the dirt lot off of Story Road to reduce uncoordinated actions and illegal dumping occurring in that area.
Bramson said the city has communicated its plans to key homeless service partners and will continue to provide access to all organizations working with the city's Homelessness Response Team.
Homeless advocates protested the fencing off of the area, called "Top of the Jungle," on Sunday. Protesters said it will keep people from helping the homeless.
"If the city fences this area off, then people that come and provide food for all the homeless people here will not be able to come in," one of the advocates said. "Most people, however, agree that the illegal dumping needs to be stopped."
"This is a back-handed way of accomplishing the same thing," another homeless advocate Robert Aguirre said. "By putting a fence around here, those people have no way to have access to this area, and then, they cannot feed the people that are down below. At the same time, the people down below won't be able to get fed. They're forced to go elsewhere to get fed."
Editors Note - Correction: This article corrects an earlier version which erroneously reported the city will be clearing out the homeless encampment camp "The Jungle."
