San Jose approves plan to revamp Columbus Park, sweep homeless encampments
SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- With a unanimous vote Tuesday night, the San Jose City Council approved a multi-million dollar overhaul of Columbus Park.
The park has been shut down for years and has become the site of San Jose's largest homeless encampment.
In preparation for the revamp, the San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan says all of those people currently living there will need to go.
"I do think this is progress. It isn't perfect, but we're doing our best to balance many different needs in our community," Mahan said.
MORE: San Jose opens its largest interim housing community
Mahan says he wants the park to once again be a space for families as well as a hub for youth sports here in the South Bay.
However, many homeless advocates have come out against the city's plan and blasted the council for allowing conditions at the park to deteriorate so badly.
"The city doesn't care. The city just wants to make all these unhoused people disappear in time for the World Cup and Super Bowl," said Shaunn Cartwright.
Cartwright is a local homeless advocate.
She believes the city has shown itself to be a bad partner to unhoused people in Columbus Park and says it doesn't have any alternative housing to offer to those who will be displaced.
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"You're not going to have new beds by then. There isn't going to be new safe parking by then. And you're saying that you have 400 people here at a minimum," Cartwright said.
San Jose officials say the city could add as many as 1,400 interim housing placements over the coming year.
Despite that though, the mayor acknowledged spillover into other neighborhoods could happen once the park sweeps begin.
"The mayor keeps making it smaller and smaller and smaller areas that they're allowed to even exist in. And they don't have any places to move encampments to," said Cartwright.
The renovated Columbus Park is set to open sometime in 2027.
