For the last 10 years, Columbus Park in San Jose wasn’t a park at all. It was a home for hundreds of encampments and RVs. San Jose, though, has started Operation Cleanup Columbus, and now only a few tents remain.
A woman named Raquel, who only wanted to be identified by her first name, used to call Columbus Park home.
“Last time I saw this field like this was when I first became homeless in 2012,” she said.
She was one of the first to call this place home. It’s where she eventually raised her son before she was placed into a tiny home.
“I get down on myself about that sometimes because I told myself I would never be homeless with my son because I was when I was a kid,” she said.
As she looked at what was now an empty field, she was overwhelmed by a flood of memories.
“Seeing this field like this is woah,” she said. “It’s truly breathtaking. It’s a lot of memories here. A lot of friends passed away here.”
Raquel came back on Thursday night to help some of her friends still struggling to find housing.
“They had his name,” she said. “He was one of the first people out here and now they just dropped him. It’s like they don’t really care. They act like they care but they really don’t.”
According to San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, more than 150 people have been housed as Operation Cleanup Columbus enters its third week, with 65% of those agreeing to move into temporary housing. Those who are not from Santa Clara County have been referred to their home county for services.
She hopes this will help some of her former neighbors stay off the streets for good but also knows this isn’t a solution for everyone.
“For some people, they’ve been out here so long that it’s hard to be in four walls,” she said. “So, they will be back out here. Maybe not here at this spot but back out on the streets, unfortunately. But for some people, this is the step they need to push them forward and get them a little bit closer to living a normal life or getting back on track in life.”
