San Jose homeless advocates create support network

As San Jose turns up the heat on abolishing homeless encampments, advocates have organized to prevent unhoused residents from losing what little they have.

The Rapid Engagement Support Team (REST) works to assist homeless residents caught up in sweeps. REST aids with recovering a person’s property after a sweep, providing information on how to get back towed vehicles and educating individuals on their rights. The grassroots group helps file requests to extend a disabled person’s time in an encampment, provides meals and supplies, works to find people housing and more. REST is modeled after the Rapid Response Network, a network of volunteers providing information and assistance during U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) raids.

It’s comprised of supporters and partners including the Unhoused Response Group, Community Seva,  Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, Helping Hands Silicon Valley, Hello Angels, Lighthouse Food Rescue and Distribution, Showing up for Racial Justice and more. REST is working to secure funding to create a hotline where homeless residents can dial in during a sweep and advocates can report police activity.

“The mayor has essentially declared war on homeless people, and it is important for unhoused people to be supported quickly by us first responders who can bring them what they need,” Shaunn Cartwright of Unhoused Response Group and lead organizer of REST told San José Spotlight.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is rolling out a policy to arrest homeless people who refuse shelter, and wants to create a police unit and outreach team to track and handle these cases. The city is also upping the ante on sweeps, clearing out encampments by the waterways and installing concrete K-rails to prevent re-encampment. Starting Aug. 18, the city will begin tackling the RV encampment at Columbus Park, where more than 80 vehicles have crammed into the park area and along Asbury, Irene and Spring streets. Clean up is expected to last until October.

Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services spokesperson Amanda Rodriguez said the area has become increasingly unsafe. She said outreach teams will be at the park daily as the sweep date nears.

“Between now and then, outreach workers will continue engaging with individuals in the area to help them connect with shelter, services and resources,” Rodriguez told San José Spotlight.

As San Jose is working to clear encampments near the park by the Guadalupe River from West Taylor Street to Interstate 880, advocates have been on the Guadalupe River Trail offering assistance. Helping Hands Silicon Valley has put multiple veterans into a hotel using money they received from Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Otto Lee’s office.
Cartwright assisted several transgender women on the Guadalupe River Trail who had nowhere to go and were afraid of moving into an unfamiliar area. She is trying to get one of them into New Haven Inn, an adult LGBTQ+ shelter.

“It’s also shameful that for a city and county that has so many unhoused LGBTQ people that there’s only space for 18 people in the whole county,” Cartwright said.

Assistance and intervention

Intervention is often the difference between life and death for the homeless population, as many have health conditions. Last year, nearly 200 homeless people died in the county, 50 who had cardiovascular disease and 68 who had high blood pressure, according to the coroner’s data.

Being unsheltered also exposes people to the extreme heat or cold. Last October, San Jose logged its hottest week ever recorded as temperatures spiked above 100 degrees. There were 10 documented heat-related deaths countywide — compared to zero in 2023. The Columbus Park sweep will happen during the hottest part of the year.