Valley Water to consider ban on encampments along South Bay waterways

Citing an increase in safety threats and environmental hazards, the primary water resource agency for Santa Clara County will consider an ordinance Tuesday that aims to reduce homeless encampments along county waterways.

Homeless advocates, however, have called the proposed law inhumane and criticized it for criminalizing those experiencing homelessness.

On Tuesday, the Santa Clara Valley Water District Board of Directors will review and decide whether to approve an ordinance that prohibits encampments, public nuisances like radios or fireworks, and activities that could create a hazard to Valley Water employees or the public.

Valley Water officials said there had been an increase in armed threats of violence, verbal assaults, physical altercations, vicious dog encounters and fire-related occurrences that have threatened the safety of Valley Water staff who primarily work along creeks, waterways and water supply facilities.

Valley Water spokesperson Matt Keller explained that many of the district's flood protection projects are being damaged by the encampments.

"The damage being done to our creeks is a big issue and then also the fact that sometimes our workers are facing safety issues when they go into the creeks, and they can't do their work," Keller said.

A report from Valley Water further stated that threats or safety concerns require an investigation, assessment and application of mitigation measures, which can often take days to complete, "possibly suspending or delaying mission-critical work at that immediate location."

While opponents to the ordinance say they understand the need to clean up the waterways, many have expressed concerns with how encampment cleanups will displace vulnerable populations with nowhere else to turn.

A letter signed by leaders of nonprofit organizations PitStop Outreach, St. Joseph's Family Center, South County Compassion Center, Carry the Vision, Law Foundation of Silicon Valley and MADDAD said in the absence of sufficient housing and shelter, the creeks offer the "best of the bad options available."

"Especially now, in the midst of a life-threatening heatwave, it seems inconceivable to contemplate barring sick and elderly people from sleeping in any cool spot they can find. However, Valley Water is considering just that," the letter stated.

"If people are now driven off Valley Water properties, they will have no other refuge and are likely to shelter in downtown doorways and behind local businesses," the letter continued. "They will have no consistent location, place to store medications and papers needed for housing, and will not be easy to find by caseworkers, mental health teams, and outreach teams."

Todd Langton, executive director of San Jose nonprofit Agape Silicon Valley -- which provides people living outdoors with clothing, food and water -- called it inhumane to abate people without offering a place for them to go. He said Silicon Valley's whack-a-mole method to addressing homelessness just kicks the can down the road and often results in redundancies and wasted money and resources.

"I just wish that all of our agencies and nonprofits could work together," Langton said. "The city and the county and Caltrans and then also Valley Water, they don't work together, which is part of the problem. And all these big nonprofits, they're not working together either. So just the way of dealing with homelessness here in Silicon Valley is extremely dysfunctional."

Valley Water's meeting is set for 1 p.m. Tuesday at 5750 Almaden Expressway in San Jose. The meeting can be viewed online on the agency's website.