SAN JOSE (KRON) — This is Hope Village — a homeless encampment housing mostly older women near the San Jose Airport. It’s fenced in and has bathrooms, showers and garbage service.
It’s operating on city owned land leased to the County of Santa Clara that is contracting with the Hope Village operators.
Those operators tell KRON4 it runs on donations only and after six months of housing about 20 people, the city needs to relocate the village, according to the FAA.
The proposed new site for Hope Village is in Willow Glen — and neighbors there are not happy about the idea.
“You are taking a problem, I’m sorry, they are taking a problem and they are putting it into our district,” Willow Glen resident Kathleen Almoslio.
Signs are posted on Willow Glen streets, alerting neighbors the encampment is coming soon.
“You can’t just come in and shove this down people’s throats. That’s not right,” said another Willow Glen resident Lori Marshall.
Neighbors here say the city never told them that this site — on Willow and Lelong Street — was even a possibility and that they want the chance to speak up.
“It’s not just the people living within the compound that is the concern. It’s when you sanction something like that, you also attract other homeless RVs and other vehicles,” said Willow Glen resident Mansour Nasser.
The city says they are nowhere near finalizing plans and are doing what they can to meet the needs of the homeless population in San Jose.
“The reality is, that homelessness impacts every part of our city and the solutions, housing and services, belong in every part of our city,” Ragan Henninger, a representative with the San Jose Housing Department.
There’s a Willow Glen community meeting on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Elks Lodge in San Jose and there is also a city meeting to discuss this on Monday.
There have been no votes and no final decision made just yet.
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