SAN JOSE HAS begun temporarily banning RVs in designated areas across the city this week.
Under a $3.3 million pilot program, Oversized and Lived-In Vehicle Enforcement (OLIVE), the city has chosen 30 temporary tow-away zones to clear RVs for street sweeping and cleanup throughout this year. It will establish a new temporary tow-away zone every week. Chynoweth Avenue was the first site to temporarily ban RVs, effective last week, where there were 19 RVs and lived-in vehicles. This week will be Boynton Avenue from Underwood Drive to Blackwood Avenue, where there are four RVs parked. A temporary RV ban at Columbus Park, where approximately 55 vehicles are parked, is also scheduled.
“The neighbors and small business owners and people coming to the parks in these areas deserve some relief,” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said at the Thursday news conference held at Chynoweth Park.
After testing the program, the city will choose up to 10 sites where RVs and lived-in vehicles will be permanently banned.
Once a tow-away site is established, city workers will post signs and then begin enforcement one or two weeks later. Restrictions will remain in place for about a month in each location until all vehicles are moved and the street is cleaned. The city is also scheduled to open a safe parking site in Berryessa next month. Until then, individuals forced to move have no options. Those who have inoperable vehicles are at risk of getting towed once the city begins enforcing the temporary ban.
“It’s like a cat and mouse, you know?” Paul Peterson, who lives in an RV parked on Chynoweth Avenue, told San José Spotlight. “Now we’re gonna go … find (another) place to park.”
Too little space
The Berryessa safe parking site will be able to hold up to 85 vehicles, but people living in their RVs are worried there won’t be enough room for all of them once the city begins towing. There are an estimated 1,000 lived-in vehicles throughout the city.
“It is really deplorable when our city is abating RV unhoused folks to move with no place to go,” homeless advocate Gail Osmer told San José Spotlight. “They move back and forth, from one place to another and get kicked out of where they are. Each (council district) should have a safe RV site.”
The Berryessa safe parking site is part of the city’s plan to add 1,500 temporary beds for homeless residents in the next 18 months. That also includes expanding the city’s tiny home villages and converting hotels into temporary housing.
The city will target areas close to schools, waterways, tiny home sites and parks, as well as areas with large concentrations of lived-in vehicles.
“I think it’s a good thing,” Tami Simons, who lives across from Chynoweth Park and near the RV encampment, told San José Spotlight. “There’s been nothing but trash, debris, noise, lots of junk. I’m really pleased to see this happening.”
Contact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com or @joyce_speaks on X.
This story originally appeared in San Jose Spotlight.