Updated: San Jose’s homeless and sensitive creek environment – can they both be saved?
While our San Jose City Council continues to enable the Housing Department to misspend hundreds of millions of SJ taxpayer dollars every year, real people are left to live in San Jose’s creek and riverbeds. Dean Hotop, a concerned citizen of San Jose, outlines the steps ordinary citizens can take to compel city government to deliver results regarding our homelessness and environmental crisis, rather than just writing big checks to nonprofits that do little to solve problems. This article originally published as an email from Hotop to a concerned citizen email list.
If you can stomach the reality of your fellow humans suffering, and the ensuing environmental disaster it causes, take a bicycle ride along Coyote Creek trail from Williams Park in downtown, all the way south to Capitol. The City of San Jose is fully responsible for keeping this section of the creek clean, which includes not allowing illegal encampments. The Santa Clara Valley Water District is responsible for the rest of the creek’s length and does a commendable job of protecting that fragile environment. Ditto for Guadalupe River. Kudos to the Valley Water District.
The City of San Jose was provided federal grants, via the EPA, starting around 2011 to clear the creeks and keep them clean with an objective to have ‘zero trash in the creeks by 2022’. See here:
City of San Jose Fail #1.
In 2016, the City of San Jose was forced to settle a lawsuit for $100M with BayKeeper, over the City’s violations of the federal Clean Water Act as it related to the City’s storm water discharge system. Part of the settlement required the City to keep the City’s waterways clean for the next 10 years. See here:
City of San Jose Fail #2.
I have personally spoken with a SCC Valley Water District representative who states that Valley Water has offered cleanup resources, personnel, equipment, etc. to the City of San Jose to assist in creek cleanup efforts. The City of San Jose has declined to utilize those resources, which are made available through taxpayer-funded, voter-approved Measure S. These resources would be available at no additional cost to San Jose taxpayers
[Update] Valley Water has reached out to the author of this article to further clarify the City of San Jose's response to Valley Water's clean up resources.
Here is their response: “Valley Water and CSJ conduct joint cleanup efforts up to 10 days per month. Valley Water funds labor and equipment, while CSJ funds outreach, SJPD support and disposal. The City of San Jose has not declined any assistance but does select which cleanup sites on its land to prioritize for any particular joint cleanup effort.”
Based on Valley Water's response, we need to push for the City of San Jose to prioritize the clean up of our creeks, when conducting these joint operations with Valley Water.”
City of San Jose Fail #3.
What can people do?
Clearly, we have department heads at the City of San Jose who are incapable of leading their organizations in a way to effectively produce results. Those department heads report to the City Manager. The City Manager reports to the City Council. And the City Council reports to US!
If you care about the environmental damage being done by illegal encampments in San Jose and if you care about the human suffering allowed to continue while billions of dollars are wasted with no results, please can consider taking the following actions:
⦁ Write, call and email your councilmember and demand that they use their powers to force our City departments to accomplish the requirements of the federal grant, its lawsuit settlement, accept Valley Water District’s help and the City’s obligations under the federal Clean Water Act.
⦁ File a formal complaint with the EPA for the City’s ongoing violations of the Clean Water Act here:
⦁ Contact Baykeeper to let them know the City is not honoring its obligations under the settlement of the 2016 lawsuit by contacting them here:
⦁ Section 505(b) of the Clean Water Act not only allows, but encourages, ordinary citizen lawsuits against the EPA and any other gov’t agency which allows water pollution to continue. Earthjustice is a nonprofit public interest environmental law organization, which has extensive experience filing these types of suits, which starts with filing a formal, 60-day notice of intent to sue. They can be reached here:
⦁ Ask the San Jose City Council to allocate 100% of Measure E funds to addressing the homeless crisis. Measure E brought in $50M last year, its first full year. It will bring in $90M this year and is projected at $65M/year thereafter. That can be used to make a sizeable dent in addressing the desperate needs of those living on the streets in San Jose. It was never intended to be yet another slush fund for the SJ Housing Department. The City Council should honor our vote and take control of these funds to produce real results in the homeless crisis.
I don’t normally like to conflate two issues into one, but here in San Jose, we have an environmental disaster unfolding after years of our City leaders allowing a human disaster to unfold. The two are inextricably linked. The City has failed to adequately address the homeless issue and now uses that as an excuse as to why it has to allow this environmental disaster to unfold in our creeks.
Residents of San Jose have provided the funds to address this issue. Our elected leaders have failed to muster up the will to make this THE top priority. A recent survey of 1,227 adult San Jose residents shows that homelessness is the number one issue on everyone’s mind. (See below, survey results here:)
Citizens can take action by spending a few minutes clicking on the links above, contacting these organizations and letting your councilmember know how you feel.
To learn more, contact Dean Hotop at: SJisbroken@gmail.com
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