Nearly two months after San Jose received more than 100 trailers from the state to house homeless residents especially vulnerable to coronavirus, the units are still sitting vacant.
But by Thursday, the city is expected to finally put some of the trailers to use on a city-owned parking lot at the intersection of Story Road and Remillard Court, adjacent to Happy Hollow Park.
The San Jose City Council unanimously voted on Tuesday to allocate nearly $730,000 to operate 90 trailers that will be used to isolate homeless individuals with confirmed or presumed cases of COVID-19 or who have pre-existing conditions and are at a high risk of contracting the disease.
“During COVID-19, this administration is doing everything we can to increase the shelter opportunities to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to save the lives of our homeless residents who are vulnerable to this disease,” San Jose housing director Jacky Morales-Ferrand said during the meeting.
Nearly 6,200 people in San Jose don’t have a place to call home and county health officials have already identified that at least 2,500 of them are at high risk of infection due to underlying conditions, according to Ferrand-Morales. The majority of the city’s homeless population identify as Hispanic or African American — two segments of the population that are being hit the hardest by COVID-19 deaths within the city.
Just days after California went under a statewide shelter-in-place order, authorities in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Office of Emergency Services delivered 104 emergency trailers to San Jose. But after the city inspected them and completed necessary repairs, city staff discovered many were riddled with defects and decided that only 90 of them were habitable.
Many of the trailers were missing sinks and countertops,and had damaged vents and inadequate electrical, water and sewage hookups, according to city staff.
“These trailers, although some of them are quite beautiful and in great condition, there were a significant number of them — because they were in storage for a long period of time — that had been broken into,” Morales-Ferrand said.
The city entered a contract with Abode Services to operate the trailers at their current site on the Happy Hollow parking lot until the end of October. A clause in the agreement will allow the city to break the contract sooner or extend the deadline further, given the state of the pandemic and public health guidelines.
Amy Pizarro, executive director for the Happy Hollow Foundation, said the trailers were a symbol of the city’s “whatever-it-takes attitude to save lives.” But, she said, when county health guidance allows the zoo to fully reopen, the plan for getting the trailers off the parking lot must kick into gear quickly.
“There’s a lot of speculation about the level of gathering people will be comfortable with in the months to come, but one thing is clear — they will want to go outside and Happy Hollow can serve an important role,” Pizarro said. “…We must preserve this and give it back to our community as soon as it is safe to do so.”
The zoo borders Coyote Creek — near a popular place where homeless residents tend to seek refuge.
San Jose resident Kathy Imamura called the plan to add more homeless residents to the area a “major health concern” for anyone near the site, as well as the zoo’s animals. “What if a homeless person with COVID-19 climbs over the fence and infects our animals?” she asked council members.
The city plans to use a phased approach to welcome homeless residents to the site — utilizing just 30 of the trailers to begin with in order to make sure the plan is “working properly,” city staff said. A temporary fence with a single entryway was installed around the trailers to secure the site and a private security firm, First Alarm, has been hired to monitor the site.
No guests will be allowed to enter the site and residents will receive daily temperature and wellness checks, according to city staff.
When Happy Hollow is ready to return to full capacity, Deputy City Manager Jim Ortbal said the city will have three options — seek a new site for the trailers to add shelter capacity, put them in storage for future emergency needs or return them to the state.
Since the pandemic began, the city has added more than 400 temporary shelter beds within its borders, including at two large facilities on the downtown convention center grounds, the city’s tiny homes community for homeless individuals, the Plaza Hotel and Casa de Novo.