Santa Clara County's Valley Water has implemented a ban on homeless encampments, reversing a previous commitment to allow outreach by nonprofits. The agency started clearing areas along waterways, citing public safety and environmental risks as reasons for the abrupt action. Despite initial plans for collaboration with nonprofit organizations to assist residents with the transition, enforcement began without those outreach efforts. Valley Water's new policy, enforced without significant citations so far, restricts encampments along 333 miles of agency-owned waterways, highlighting a shift in how the agency addresses homelessness.
"These operations were planned independently of the Water Resources Protection Zones Ordinance due to public safety and criminal activity impacts to the surrounding community and environmental risk factors," Mark Bilski stated.
"No amount of outreach would have allowed the people to stay there. We did give several weeks of notice before each of our encampment sweeps this year," Bilski added, explaining the agency's stance.
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