Roughly 150 unhoused people living along Coyote Creek in San Jose were packing up this weekend as they prepared to be forced out of their campsites on Monday.
They were warned they can no longer live along a 4-mile stretch of the creek because the city plans to begin a flood protection project. Many said they have no idea where to go next.
"I’m ready to go myself, but I don’t know where," Giovanni Aguilera said. "There's nowhere really to go. Anywhere you go, they just come and harass you and try to move you."
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For Stacy Levy Martinez, the area has been home for more than 20 years.
"It is my community," she said. "It’s really sad, really sad. Where are we gonna go? This was our last resort. We're here because there's nowhere to go."
Some said they plan to move out into nearby commercial parking lots and surrounding streets, sparking concerns among both business owners and neighbors.
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Last month, the Santa Clara Valley Water District finalized an agreement with the city council giving San Jose $4.8 million to remove people from the creek and connect them with shelter and services so the district can start building flood walls as early as June. The district began planning the project after a devastating flood in San Jose in 2017.
While some people are on wait lists for tiny homes, homeless advocates said the efforts to help people find housing have fallen short.
"These people are just going to be scattered to the wind or they're going to get on the merry-go-round that's tiny homes," said Shaun Cartwright with Unhoused Response Group. "You get on the tiny home merry-go-round, you go into a tiny home for six months and then you're shot right back out onto the streets because there aren't permanent supportive housing to go into."
Mayor Matt Mahan said he is pushing the city to build housing more quickly.
