The city of San Jose held a public meeting Wednesday to discuss a proposed recreational vehicle safe parking program at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority's Santa Teresa light-rail station parking lot.
City officials said they are already in the process of signing a four- or five-year lease with VTA to start the program. At least 120 San Jose residents and community members attended the meeting, and many expressed their support or concerns over the program.
The city said that San Jose remains in an evolving housing crisis. The estimated number of homeless people in 2022 is 6,739, an 11 percent increase compared to 6,097 in 2019. One of the reasons the program was proposed for RV parking, Beretta said, was that over 80 percent of calls and concerns her team received over the last two and a half years were about RVs being parked on residential streets and in business areas.
City officials said they evaluated many potential locations before deciding to move forward with this site. Some key criteria included the size of the area, availability of the parking lot during evening hours and accessible space for dumpsters and portable toilets to be installed, and the property owner's willingness.
Kelly Hemphill, homelessness response manager with the city of San Jose, responded that the city, VTA and LifeMoves will further discuss how to enforce the boundaries and maintain the safety of surrounding areas. Hemphill said the safe parking program is one of the city's strategies to grapple with homelessness and will serve as a temporary solution to help people transition into stable placements.
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