On a rainy morning last December, hundreds of people emerged from a
muddy gully in San Jose, California, hauling their possessions in
garbage bags and shopping carts after the city’s largest homeless
encampment, known as “The Jungle,” was closed.
Over the following weeks, workers in biohazard suits removed more
than 600 tons of garbage – including nearly a ton of human waste, much
of it deposited directly into a beleaguered local waterway called Coyote
Creek.
Media reports on the eviction focused on the grim aesthetics of the 68-acre camp, which, at its height, was choked with makeshift wooden structures and home to roughly 250 residents. The symbolism was stark and, for city leaders, deeply troubling: One of the country’s largest homeless camps lay in the heart of Silicon Valley, the nation’s wealthiest region.
Back in March 2014, a California Department of Fish and Wildlife game warden filed a formal complaint to regional water authorities, citing heaps of garbage and human waste as a hazard to public health and the local environment. The environmental group Baykeeper announced a similar lawsuit against the city later that year, over the hazards that large “rafts” of trash and fecal bacteria posed to public health and the creek’s flagging runs of steelhead and chinook salmon. For the first time, homelessness in Santa Clara County was no longer framed as just an intractable social problem; it had become a clear environmental threat.
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Media reports on the eviction focused on the grim aesthetics of the 68-acre camp, which, at its height, was choked with makeshift wooden structures and home to roughly 250 residents. The symbolism was stark and, for city leaders, deeply troubling: One of the country’s largest homeless camps lay in the heart of Silicon Valley, the nation’s wealthiest region.
Back in March 2014, a California Department of Fish and Wildlife game warden filed a formal complaint to regional water authorities, citing heaps of garbage and human waste as a hazard to public health and the local environment. The environmental group Baykeeper announced a similar lawsuit against the city later that year, over the hazards that large “rafts” of trash and fecal bacteria posed to public health and the creek’s flagging runs of steelhead and chinook salmon. For the first time, homelessness in Santa Clara County was no longer framed as just an intractable social problem; it had become a clear environmental threat.
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