Valley Water funds San Jose police to enforce homeless encampment bans on its land

Santa Clara County’s largest water agency can’t cite or arrest homeless people creating pollution or trespassing on its property — but the police unit it contracts with can.

It’s part of Valley Water’s Stream Stewardship Law Enforcement program, where San Jose Police Department officers from the street crimes unit go out to homeless encampments along Coyote Creek, Guadalupe River and other waterways every other week to serve warrants, write citations and make arrests. Since 2023, police have issued at least 120 citations and made more than 100 arrests under the program, according to SJPD data. Valley Water has spent more than $760,000 on the program since it first contracted with SJPD in 2019, a water agency spokesperson said.