SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) — Homeless individuals are residing inside greater than 1,000 automobiles scattered round San Jose, new metropolis information reveals. On Thursday, the mayor stated tow vehicles will start hauling lived-in automobiles away from closely impacted neighborhoods.
Mayor Matt Mahan described the numbers as “overwhelming.” About 960 of the lived-in automobiles are outsized, and an extra 1,014 outsized automobiles usually are not occupied, in line with metropolis information.
On Thursday, Mahan and officers with the Division of Transportation launched the Outsized and Lived-in Car Enforcement (OLIVE) program and launched an inventory of 30 websites that may quickly be enforced as tow-away zones.
One web site shall be prioritized per week, beginning with 20 outsized automobiles parked on Chynoweth Avenue.
“With the new year comes a new plan for getting a handle on the overwhelming number of oversized and lived-in vehicles on city streets,” Mahan stated. “Compassion without accountability will not create the change neighbors across San Jose need and deserve. We’ll also be requiring that people come indoors by establishing no encampment zones and no parking zones in select areas.”
Metropolis crews took a list of San Jose inside the final two months and mapped out which areas are most impacted by outsized automobiles. Thirty tow away zones have been picked based mostly on “site conditions and proximity to sensitive areas such as streets and locations near schools, waterways, and around the city’s interim housing facilities,” the mayor’s workplace wrote.
The tow away blitz goals to handle neighborhoods’ humanitarian, environmental, and public security considerations, stated Metropolis Supervisor Jennifer Maguire.
“No parking” indicators shall be posted two weeks prematurely of enforcement, the mayor’s workplace stated.
“During the active enforcement period, any vehicle parked within the temporary tow-away zone will be required to relocate. Enforcement will apply to all vehicles parked in the restricted zone, whether lived-in or not,” the mayor’s workplace wrote.
A listing of San Jose’s 30 OLIVE areas and timelines is under:
Town is spending $3.3 million on this system. Ten websites will turn out to be everlasting tow-away zones, whereas 20 websites shall be short-term, the mayor’s workplace stated.
Engagement efforts will embody distributing informational flyers offering car occupants and homeowners with basic details about the OLIVE program, learn how to comply to keep away from towing, and what to do if their car is towed. In coordination with the Housing Division, info on supportive parking websites, alternate shelter, and potential upcoming shelter or housing placements shall be shared.
(Photograph by Hans Gutknecht /MediaNews Group /by way of Getty Photos)
This yr, town plans to open its second and largest protected parking web site — the Berryessa Secure Parking Web site — on a 6.3-acre lot in District 4 which may take as much as 85 automobiles off metropolis streets.
Metropolis officers stated a smaller tow-away program enforced round three faculties in 2023 helped college students and households really feel safer, in addition to scale back crime.
San Jose is dwelling to about 6,340 unsheltered folks, and has the fourth highest variety of homeless folks per capita within the U.S., a 2024 survey discovered.
