Not only are the homeless welcome in St. James Park in San Jose, they're also free to partake in some yoga classes.
One of San Jose's oldest parks, the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed green space near San Jose's downtown has "dozens" of homeless people sleeping in it every night, some of the city's 5,000 homeless people, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
The park is also the focus of a project called "Summer in St. James Park," but rather than a cleanup effort, it's an "activation" effort. So that means yoga classes, picnics, and other events – free of charge, and homeless people are welcome, the newspaper reported.
"This has been a homeless camp for years and it's going to stay one... what's the problem?" said Ray Reynaga, 53, whose thoughts appear to be held by others, too.
Yogi Sima Mehrbod told the newspaper that the park's inhabitants are generally "really nice people."
There's no one reason for why city leaders decided that it was wiser to leave the homeless be and include them in plans for St. James. The park does not have the same issues as other camps, like the city's notorious "Jungle" on Coyote Creek.
It could be that the park wasn't used much by people other than the homeless.
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"It has a lot of space and there wasn't much activity going on," said Ray Bramson, the city's homelessness response manager. .
