San Jose ramps up funding to enforce ‘no return zones’

San Jose is set to pay for more employees and police patrols to enforce “no return zones” for homeless camps along the Guadalupe River and those surrounding temporary shelter sites citywide.

An initial plan to expel more than a dozen homeless residents off the trail between Julian Street and Woz Way earlier this year has expanded to include at least 11 zones, according to the city’s latest budget. BeautifySJ employees and police will be deployed to ensure homeless residents and encampments don’t return.

“The no return zones are going to be established within two walkable blocks of every existing and planned (temporary emergency housing), safe parking and safe sleeping sites,” San Jose Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services spokesperson Ed Bautista told San José Spotlight. “There’s only one currently that we have, which is the Guadalupe River site.”

The San Jose Police Department will receive $500,000 for enforcement and BeautifySJ will receive $407,000 for three positions related to the encampment sweeps and outreach.

A police spokesperson told San José Spotlight the department will continue to provide security for city employees during encampment cleanups and outreach, along with enforcement of the no return zones if required.

Homeless advocates say it’s just San Jose’s latest attempt to clear unhoused people from the streets rather than provide them housing. But city officials say more shelters are opening up to accommodate homeless residents.

“As we invest in standing up more shelter and providing more services than we ever have, we are working to preserve our progress by ensuring that public spaces like parks, trails and sidewalks are clean and open for everyone’s use and enjoyment,” Mayor Matt Mahan told San José Spotlight.

Of the 11 planned no return zones, six surround San Jose’s existing temporary shelter sites, three surround the city’s future temporary shelter site, one surrounds a safe parking site and the largest zone encompasses the Guadalupe River.

The six existing temporary shelter sites have a total of almost 500 beds. While five of the sites opened in 2020 and 2021, only one other site has opened since 2022.

“The new site at Via Del Oro won’t be ready until the end of the year, and the city is slowing their feet on the site at Cherry Avenue,” homeless advocate Gail Osmer told San José Spotlight. “There’s just not enough the city’s doing right now.”

A future 150-bed temporary housing development known as Via Del Oro broke ground in May, while another temporary shelter site on Cherry Avenue is set to open Sept. 30, 2025.

Mahan bulked up emergency temporary housing efforts in June when called for more than $30 million in Measure E funds to build more temporary shelter and safe parking sites at the expense of more permanent affordable housing to help homeless residents being cleared from the waterways.

“We can’t expect the community to invest in solutions to homelessness if people don’t see steady progress that makes their daily lives better,” he said.

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Homeless advocate Scott Largent said the city pushed unhoused people previously living in the crash zone of San Jose Mineta International Airport to areas like Guadalupe River. The city should not mandate homeless residents leave the place they called home for the past few years, Largent said, but those who do need assistance should be able to seek it.

“I have a feeling that (homeless residents) are going to probably go back down near the airport,” he told San José Spotlight. “These folks need drug rehab, mental institutions or they just need jail – I know that might sound weird but for a lot of people it’s really gotten that bad.”

Contact Vicente Vera at [email protected] or follow @VicenteJVera on X, formerly known as Twitter.