San Jose will create temporary tow-away zones to remove RV encampments
San Jose residents said parked RVs people live in have packed certain streets, and now, a new program aims to remove the RVs by turning the areas into temporary tow-away zones.
Omar Solares said Chynoweth Street in San Jose has been overrun by RVs. He lives in the neighborhood across the street and encounters about 20 parked daily.
"In front of my home, there is one RV, has seven cars that they leave junk in front of, that my neighbors and I literally walk out every morning, and we pick up all of their junk," Solares said.
Chynoweth is the center of a new pilot program from the mayor's office focused on removing and re-housing people who live in RVs. The program, nicknamed OLIVE, will take 30 locations with a high volume of RV parking and convert them into temporary tow-away zones.
Chynoweth is the first zone to be selected for the project. Solares is hoping it will make a difference.
"We are tired of this. We have children, and we are tired of it," Solares told CBS News Bay Area.
A spokesperson for the mayor said the tow-away process will happen in three steps over a six-week period. The first step is to establish streets as temporary zones, the next one will communicate with the people who live in RVs, and the final step will tow them away.
Everyone will be offered a safe parking site or information on housing before the last step happens.
Lori Smith who also lives near Chynoweth, said the program sounded good on paper, but she was worried about execution.
"From a cosmetic perspective, yay. But if the folks living there don't take advantage of those services and just find another place to park, it's not very successful program," Smith said.
The next safe parking site will be located on Berryessa and is said to hold up to 85 parking spots.
