Affordable Housing Network in Santa Clara County Hold Open Meeting in San Jose, CA December 2, 2015

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 1, 2015 - PRLog -- A year after the closing of the Jungle, is the City Council finally ready to act?

By Housing for All Alliance

Nearly a year and half ago we met with SJ Housing's Homeless Response Team to protest their plan to close the Jungle. We pointed out that without first planning where residents would go, chaos would ensue and people would suffer. This week we prepare to remember the anniversary of the closing (12/4/14) and reflect back and realize that all our concerns were validated. The Jungle provided a sense of stability, a place for campers to avoid harassment from authorities, case managers who need to work with people to help them find a house, a job or services, the SCCounty Homeless Healthcare staff to bind wounds and save lives and people to connect and care for each other. It was a powerful manifestation of community and a place of belonging.

The next meeting of Affordable Housing Network will be at 5:30 pm on Wed. December 2 at the Somos Mayfair Office, 370 B South King Road in San Jose. Please join in!

The alternative which has been in place for the last year - being swept from small encampments monthly or even weekly in many cases, has created less stability, disconnection from services and greater suffering. All of our predictions have come through including that fear and uncertainty from housed residents when camps have surfaced in their neighborhoods.

In June we proposed a two-step process that called for 1) moratorium on sweeps and 2) establishment of sanctioned encampments. We acknowledged SJ Housing Dept's effort to build more long term housing to the unhoused but no plans to lessen the suffering in the short term. Since that proposal was introduced, the numbers of sweeps have increased drastically, close to 20 in an average week. The sight of the unsheltered living in parks, street corners, storefronts and railroads has is the visual manifestation of the failure of our community to care for some of our most vulnerable. San Jose has not made any real effort for to create a place where people can live - until now!

The Housing Dept is bringing a plan to City Council this Tuesday December 1st that we hope will result in a huge leap toward fixing the mess created by closing the Jungle too soon. It urges collaboration with the county to establish a safe, sanitary, and secure encampment in San Jose which can be a model for more to be built in the future.

http://sanjose.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=&event_id=1475&meta_id=544288

We believe that now is the time for San Jose to act! Show up at meeting of Affordable Housing Network will be at 5:30 pm on Wed. December 2 at the Somos Mayfair Office, 370 B South King Road in San Jose. Please join in!