San Jose begins clearing massive homeless encampment
By Emmett Berg SAN JOSE (Reuters) - San Jose on Thursday began dismantling a huge homeless encampment known locally as "The Jungle" that has persisted at the southern edge of the Silicon Valley city for more than a decade, at one point claiming some 200 inhabitants. The process of taking down tents, make-shift shacks and in-ground bunkers built on the 68-acre site follows 18 months of placing residents into homes or shelters, a process that has housed 144 people so far, said Ray Bramson, San Jose's homelessness response manager. "It was a change in approach," Bramson said. "Historically we'd come in and clean the site and people would come back and repopulate it. We realized that we needed to deal with the underlying issue creating the encampment, which is homelessness." Dismantling the camp itself is "Phase Two" of the $4 million project and crews were expected to work another two weeks taking down the often rickety, unsafe structures built by occupants in a dense wooded area next to Coyote Creek. Among those structures was a large tree house that once included solar panels, topped by an American flag. Workers removed mattresses, clothing, dolls, pet carriers, bike parts and other items as inhabitants tried to push shopping carts full of their belongings through mud left behind by a recent rainstorm. As crews in bulldozers worked behind her, former occupant Yolanda Gutierrez, 40, waved a sign reading "The Jungle is One Big Family" at passing motorists. Most of the Jungle's denizens were peaceful and lived there only because they had nowhere else to go, Gutierrez said. She believes that recent outbursts of gang violence led authorities to dismantle the site. "The cops were actually laughing as they delivered the three-day notice to vacate," Gutierrez told Reuters. "I was not having a good day, but still, there was no dignity. I (have) been here two years." A 26-year-old man who identified himself only as Matt said he had lived in the Jungle for a few years with a stint of prison time in between. "Just imagine you were us and you woke up like this today," Matt said, motioning toward an overflowing grocery cart piled with possessions. "And now think of how you woke up today." Bramson said so no arrests had been made. Once the camp was completely cleared, he said, the city intended to keep it from being repopulated using patrols by park rangers. (Reporting by Emmett Berg in San Jose and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Sandra Maler)
