The city of San Jose wants to clear out Columbus Park to make room for a planned development.
On Wednesday, crews moved in to remove RV owners who hadn’t left on their own.
The city plans to build a 5-acre dog park there and that means the unhoused have to find a way to move, and right now, that means relocating right down the street.
Kimberly Williams owns a huge, but disabled, RV parked in the park, among many other vehicles on Asbury Street.
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Williams and the others were given notice to move out by Wednesday because the city wants to start building a dog park there.
This will be the fourth time she’s had to move and she says it’s a real hassle to move a disabled RV this size.
“It’s hard not to give up though, you know? It’s frustrating. You’re being rushed and pushed to do something that you have no way to do,” said Williams. “You don’t have the resources and you don’t have the help when you need it.”
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What unhoused advocates say is absurd is that the RV’s end up moving only a few hundred yards down the street just to stay ahead, or out of the way, of the 5-acre dog park construction.
Advocate Gail Osmer points out a planned city safe RV lot is months behind schedule and even when it’s ready, will only take seven RVs from Columbus Park.
“So only seven people now that’s behind these gates can go and the other people, they just have to spread out and go different places,” said Gail Osmer, an advocate for the unhoused.
Williams says it’s ironic that she’s a dog lover and likes the dog park plan, But she says she’d like to see some long-term solution plan because the shuffling around and all the uncertainty takes its toll.
“Your lifestyle just goes downhill the longer you’re out here as long as you don’t get help and you don’t find a way out of it. You just keep getting taken down with it. It kind of drains you,” said Williams.
The city of San Jose said it plans to help anyone who has trouble moving their vehicles and will continue to partner with the county and agencies to try to find them housing or other solutions.
Regardless, the city says construction of the dog park will begin this week and be ready by summer time.
