‘Where do I go?’: San Jose homeless residents living along creeks dread uncertain future

BUTCH LARSON HAS been homeless for more than a decade. He’s set up camp across from Hampton Inn on Cherry Avenue near the Guadalupe River in San Jose, a spot he’s called home for three years that will be swept sooner than later.

His makeshift home is a large tarp held up by sticks, his floor covered with rugs and packed with dirt. Larson, 50, sits on a torn up couch and eats a plate of salmon over rice that a volunteer has left him. It’s not an ideal situation, but it’s the best he can manage at the moment. He’s been on the housing waitlist for three years, he said. He came to San Jose in 2011 for vacation, but ended up spending a year in jail. His life hasn’t been normal since.