Homeless Advocates Stage Overnight Tent Protest Outside Milpitas City Hall
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MILPITAS (KPIX) -- Homeless advocates in Milpitas on Monday transformed city hall into a tent city to highlight the plight of the homeless and pressure Milpitas Mayor Rich Tran to come up with meaningful solutions to the crisis.
"They don't like people living in the parks. They don't like us parking in their neighborhoods. Well, we have to be somewhere. We have to be somewhere," said unhoused Milpitas resident Lynn Shipman.
The 57-year-old has been homeless for roughly four years and lives in a ramshackle RV across the railroad tracks in an industrial zone in Milpitas.
She fears the city is planning to crack down on the homeless encampment and impound the RVs and cars her homeless neighborhood live in.
"We're just going to all leak into the neighborhoods. We've got to go somewhere. We can't just magically go "Poof!" and be somewhere else," she said.
Homeless advocates say the crackdown on the encampment highlights the city's cruel and capricious approach to dealing with the homeless -- an attitude they attribute to Mayor Rich Tran.
"We were voted into office to take care of Milpitas. So I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt that he wants to address homelessness in a positive and humane way," said City Councilmember Karina Dominguez.
Mayor Tran says he created a homeless task force last year and plans to present a comprehensive plan to address the crisis at Tuesday's city council meeting.
In a prepared statement, Mayor Tran says he's responding to community frustration about illegal dumping and trash at the homeless encampment. He wrote, "The proximity of that encampment is too close to the thousands of parents and families who use our one and only library."
Homeless advocates say that attitude is tone-deaf and insensitive to the homeless men and women who have so little but could lose so much in a sweep.
"If they take these things, we don't have a home. And we don't have anywhere to go. And we can go anywhere else because they're sweeping everywhere. So, what are we supposed to do?" said Valerie Soto.
The protesters said they would keep the tent city up until after the meeting.
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