San Jose sweep homeless people from Columbus Park

By Joyce Chu

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KION-TV) - Over the years, Columbus Park has become a refuge for homeless LGBTQ+ people seeking safety in the community. As San Jose gears up to sweep its largest homeless encampment, members of this population have limited options where they don't fear being harassed.

Diva came to Columbus Park two years ago, drawn to the growing LGBTQ+ population. As a transgender woman, she doesn't feel safe in congregate shelters. During one of her shelter stays, she said she was attacked due to her gender.

Diva, who asked to only use her first name, has tried to get into New Haven Inn, a 20-bed facility and the only LGBTQ+ adult shelter in Santa Clara County, but pets are not allowed. The county has one other LGBTQ+ specific housing site, a transitional living program with six beds for youth ages 18 to 24 run by the Bill Wilson Center.

"They should invest (in more shelters), because it is a big part of the population of the homeless people out here who have nowhere to go," Diva told San Jose Spotlight.

New Haven Inn opened in 2019 and is run by nonprofit LifeMoves. The shelter allows residents to stay for up to 120 days, with a possibility of receiving a 30-day extension if they are working toward a housing plan. There's a current waitlist of 30 people.

People get shelter referrals through the Here4You Hotline. Since shelters are usually full, a hotline worker will contact the resident once an opening is available. If the person doesn't respond after three attempts, which includes calling their emergency contact or through other avenues, they are removed from the waitlist, according to a spokesperson for Bill Wilson Center which manages the hotline.

But most homeless people don't have a phone, making it difficult to know when openings are available.

"The waitlist is outrageous for New Haven," Robert, another Columbus Park resident who only wanted to use his first name, told San Jose Spotlight.

Robert estimates half of the people who live at the park are LGBTQ+. City officials said there are 26 people who identify as LGBTQ+, based on a city census of Columbus Park taken last week. But Diva said that is an undercount.

There are some people in the LGBTQ+ community who have been offered shelter in the past, but he said it either doesn't work out or they feel unsafe and return to Columbus Park. But refusing or leaving shelters can lead to arrest for people who repeatedly turn down shelter services, due a new San Jose policy.

"We're getting labeled as housing resistant and it's becoming almost scary, because with everything that's going on with the law now and being homeless, it's almost as if we're going to be targeted just because we don't feel comfortable under the roof that they offer us," he said.

Though Robert moved to the park to have a community around him, living at Columbus Park can be dangerous. He said he faces harassment from non-LGBTQ+ people on a daily basis. The other day, one of his friends was attacked due to his sexual orientation, he said.

Gabrielle Antolovich, board president of the Billy DeFrank LGBTQ+ Center, said there needs to be more than one shelter to fit the different needs of the population, including a transgender specific shelter.

"Even if there is one (shelter) that's specific for the LGBTQs, it doesn't mean that every LGBTQ (person) would be comfortable or fit into that particular one service, and that's why you need multiple services for different people," Antolovich told San Jose Spotlight.

Kathryn Kaminski, acting director of the Santa Clara County Office of Supportive Housing, said the county provides training to its nonprofit providers on how to support LGBTQ+ residents. In addition, the county Office of LGBTQ Affairs trains housing nonprofits to ensure their shelter workers are sensitive to the needs of the population.

"We take these concerns seriously and have provided training and technical assistance to community-based organizations to help address them," Kaminski told San Jose Spotlight. "The county does not currently have plans to open a new shelter focused on serving the LGBTQ+ community, but will continue to look for funding opportunities."

With San Jose set to sweep Columbus Park on Monday, much of the housing that was promised to the area's hundreds of homeless residents won't be ready, leaving people worried where they'll go.

Only one of the city's five motels planned to be converted to homeless housing will be open Monday, city spokesperson Carolina Camarena said. The other four will open in the next month. The city is considering setting aside one of the hotels specifically for the LGBTQ+ population.

"The city has crafted a strategy centered on providing resources to our unhoused residents, meant to help immediately house them with limited 'red tape,'" Camarena told San Jose Spotlight. "This includes our efforts at Taylor Street (safe sleeping) to get them indoors and help them figure out their next steps, and five motels."

The clearing of Columbus Park will happen in phases starting Monday, and the park is expected to be fully cleared by the end of October. According to the city website, the city will not displace people who have accepted shelter, and will help them transition into housing once it becomes ready.

Until then, the community built in Columbus Park by people such as Robert and Diva will inevitably be scattered. Diva and her friends have been planning where they can go next, but options are limited with RV bans happening throughout the city. Diva said she's received an offer of shelter in a hotel.

"We're trying to see what we could do without having to separate too much from the people that we feel comfortable with," Diva said. "It just makes it safer for me to be here around people who are the same as me. We're always there for each other. If we're hungry, we feed each other. This is just a support system that you don't normally get."