Absent a few pockets of trash here and there, Chynoweth Avenue looks vastly different than it did two weeks ago when a stretch near the park was lined with dozens of RVs and cars.
San Jose is trying to live up to its promise of protecting neighborhoods that take on homelessness solutions as well as parks, schools, and waterways that vehicle encampments have negatively impacted by creating a program to establish 30 temporary towaway zones throughout the city over the coming year.
While city officials saw the abatement of the vehicle encampment on Chynoweth Avenue as a success, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said he is committed to holding City Hall accountable and more work needs to be done since one of the byproducts of the program so far has been some RVs dispersing onto side streets, creating temporary headaches in nearby neighborhoods.
“The majority of vehicles complied with the temporary towaway zone by moving their vehicle before the end of the two-week period, which is the primary goal, as I’ve said all along,” Mahan told The Mercury News. “We cannot accept permanent encampments in public space, whether they are tent or vehicle encampments …I think it’s been pretty successful thus far, but we have many more sites, and obviously, many of these vehicles have moved to other locations.”
San Jose begins enforcement of a program impacting RVs and lived-in vehicles with tow away zones at 30 locations throughout the city including one near Chynoweth Park, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
With the city set to nearly triple its shelter capacity over the coming year, San Jose has taken a firmer stance against oversized and lived-in vehicle encampments in an effort to provide a respite to neighborhoods and businesses that have felt the effects from the city’s struggle to get a handle on the homelessness crisis.
An inventory completed by the city last year found more than 2,000 oversized or lived-in vehicles along public streets, with occupied RVs constituting about half.
The city has begun establishing temporary towaway zones on a rolling basis, with Chynoweth Avenue being the first test case. Once the city posts signs, it will provide a one-week grace period to allow RVs and lived-in vehicles to move before enforcement begins.
On the day the city posted signs on Chynoweth, 32 vehicles, including 21 RVs, sat idle on the street. One week later, 18 remained. Then 11 voluntarily later moved before the city towed the remaining seven vehicles.
A truck and trailer parked along Edenvale Avenue on Monday, Jan. 27, 2025, in San Jose, Calif. New parking restrictions have lowered the number of vehicles left for long periods of time along the nearby Chynoweth Avenue roadway. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
However, several RVs and campers once parked on Chynoweth have moved onto side streets, temporarily muting the respite residents had hoped for.
Yogi Sahu, a nearby resident who had pleaded with the city to address the Chynoweth encampment, noted that two RVs and campers that were among the biggest nuisances merely moved around the corner to spots near Hayes Mansion and on Birch Grove Drive.
Among Sahu’s observations were fights and drinking on the streets, “mountains of trash,” and tens of people coming and going every night.
Other neighborhoods in the city, such as Vista Park, have also attributed the abatements on Chynoweth to the increase in RVs in their neighborhoods recently, likening the city’s approach to “whack-a-mole” in posts on Nextdoor that have already gained hundreds of comments.
“It’s not fair that they moved the RVs from Chynoweth and let them relocate to our neighborhood,” Mircine Lahlouh posted on the neighborhood app. “They are beat up RVs, with trash around them, buckets of God knows what’s in them (and) some are on floor jacks. They add nothing to the neighborhood except disturb us from enjoying our homes.”
While acknowledging the impacts of the abatement, Mahan said that although vehicles can legally park for 72 hours in one spot, more enforcement of existing parking rules is needed to help the city circulate the RVs and identify abandoned and inoperable vehicles as well as those involved in the commission of crimes.
A warning notice on the windshield of a truck parked along Edenvale Avenue on Monday, Jan. 27, 2025, in San Jose, Calif. New parking restrictions have lowered the number of vehicles left for long periods of time along the nearby Chynoweth Avenue roadway. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Last month, San Jose police recovered two firearms, methamphetamine, oxycodone pills, marijuana and over $26,000 in cash after searching an RV downtown because of a code violation.
Mahan also noted he has consistently advocated for San Jose to protect neighborhoods that have taken on homelessness solutions, including in South San Jose, which has taken on more than its fair share of the new interim housing units set to come online in the next year.
“I think there has to be a trade with the community that if we’re asking you to take on part of the solution of homelessness, your neighborhood should be clearly visibly better off as a result,” Mahan said. “We have to hold ourselves accountable for delivering that outcome. We have not yet done that, but I’m committed to holding City Hall accountable for delivering on that promise.”
But some residents have struggled to understand the city’s endgame for the program when those living in RVs have only limited options. Homeless advocate Gail Osmer said the city should pause RV abatements until a plan is in place on where to move them.
Osmer noted that while the city is close to opening a safe parking lot on a 6.3-acre parcel at 1300 Berryessa Road, the site can only accommodate 85 oversized vehicles and another safe parking location in Santa Teresa is also limited.
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Otherwise, the RVs will continue moving around the city with no end in sight, she said.
“In 72 hours, if people can’t find a place, they’re going to take their homes away,” Osmer said. “When the RVs went to other places like Vista Park, all the people in the neighborhood were complaining to get those RVs moved. I don’t understand what the mayor and City Council were thinking, and nobody understands this merry-go-round.”
