PHOTO/SANDY PERRY
SAN JOSE, CA — Is San Jose at war with the homeless? This was one of the questions asked when the homeless presented their perspective at the State of the City gathering on March 14. While Mayor Sam Liccardo delivered his report inside, Phil Olmstead, who is homeless, delivered the homeless perspective outside, dressed in a suit. The report spoke to the city’s practice of chasing the homeless from campsite to campsite.
The city has a new strategy. Fourteen police officers appeared at one encampment on Union Pacific property on a Tuesday in March and rounded up twelve shopping carts and a stolen motorbike. They returned on Wednesday, forced residents to sit on the ground, and cited 22 people for trespassing. City contractors posted notices that they would have to evacuate the site in 72 hours. On Thursday, the officers issued 12 more trespassing citations. Finally, when the 72-hour notification expired, city contract workers showed up with water district equipment and the destruction began.
Phil Olmstead was asleep in his tent at the time. He had suffered a stroke four years previously and had trouble moving his things. The cleaning crew helped him out of his tent and allowed him to carry his backpack and helped him with his loaded granny cart. Phil said he wanted his things not to be thrown away, but police told him if he did not like it to sue the cleaning crew for his lost items. When Phil saw them lift his tent and his bedding and shove it into the compactor truck, he attempted to re-enter the camp to stop them. The officer grabbed him and slapped handcuffs on his wrists as he helplessly watched the last of his belongings crushed by the compactor.
After Phil was searched and placed in the rear seat of a patrol car, his chest began to feel tight and it became difficult to breathe. When the ambulance showed up to check on him, officers uncuffed him and made him sign a citation, promising to appear in court. He was taken to the hospital for two days for very high blood pressure and a possible heart condition.
When Phil read his Homeless State of the City Report, the audience grew and many were surprised to learn that he was homeless. Homeless volunteers circled about wearing signs that read, “I am an underwater welder, and I am homeless,” or “I am a Berkeley graduate and I am homeless.”
Even as Phil spoke, the city was preparing to sweep three other camps within the next 24 hours. The vicious cycle continues as the homeless are hunted down like animals. We continue to ask, “Where do we go?” and they continue to say, “Anywhere, but here.” They want to break up any communities and have us hide as isolated individuals, here and there, as long as we are not visible.
Now we have become emboldened and we ask, “Can you see me now?” The war continues.
[homelessBox]
