One year after Columbus Park sweep, former residents remain stuck in temporary housing

WHEN SAN JOSE DISMANTLED its largest homeless encampment last summer, Mayor Matt Mahan praised moving hundreds of people out of Columbus Park into housing. However, residents said their experience in temporary housing has pulled them backward, not forward.

One year after the city swept the 370 RVs that had congregated in Columbus Park, many people are still languishing in temporary housing with little prospects for a permanent place to live. About 200 people accepted placements in one of the five motels the city had just converted into temporary shelters. Yet former park residents said the stringent rules and treatment at the motels — and subsequent placement into tiny homes — have stripped them of their freedoms, causing them to spiral into depression.