DOZENS OF HOMELESS RESIDENTS living at Columbus Park in San Jose have struggled to get drinking water, as local sources in the park have been off and on for weeks.
Residents encamped in RVs and vehicles said they used to get their drinking water from fountains in the park, but the city shut the water off for at least two months. Some reverted to collecting water in containers from a spigot to bathe, wash their hands and cook. But when the spigot shut off mid-March, residents had to limit their baths and rely on advocates to bring them drinking water or find another water source elsewhere.
Water at both the fountains and spigot returned the day after San José Spotlight inquired about the situation, but have since gone dry again. Columbus Park is home to at least 50 lived-in vehicles.
Residents expressed frustration at not having water for an extended period of time.
“When they shut off water, it’s hard to give water to our animals. They don’t realize how hard it is out here,” Courtney Hayes, 26, told San José Spotlight. “It’s scary because what if there’s a fire? Right now people start fires to keep themselves warm.”
Teresa, a resident who didn’t want to give her last name for privacy reasons, has had to walk about a mile to another spigot and carry her jugs back to the encampment.
“Older people, people (who) are disabled or mentally ill, they don’t know where to get (water),” she told San José Spotlight. “There’s a lot of (them) here.”
Problems at the park
More people have been funneling into Columbus Park lately, homeless residents told San José Spotlight. Teresa recently moved from Commercial Street to the park after the city swept the area. San Jose has been ratcheting up its street sweeps and imposing temporary RV bans in designated areas under a pilot program that started earlier this year.
Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services spokesperson Amanda Rodriguez said San Jose Water shut off the spigot because of issues with the backflow prevention device, which prevents contamination of the water supply of the irrigation system. She also said the city shut off the water fountains because it kept getting vandalized.
“There is no plan to fix (the backflow prevention device) before we start construction on the new park at Columbus Park, which would start in early 2026 if council approves (the master plan),” Rodriguez told San José Spotlight.
However, a San Jose Water representative told San José Spotlight they don’t monitor backflow prevention devices, nor do they shut off water because of it. They only turn it off if there’s a leak to prevent water from being wasted. The representative couldn’t tell by the meters if there had been leaks. The city manages the backflow prevention devices, the representative said.
“When they shut off water, it’s hard to give water to our animals. They don’t realize how hard it is out here.”
Courtney Hayes, Columbus Park resident
Water has been turned off periodically in the park, homeless advocate Scott Largent said. The area used to have multiple water fountains, but the city removed them, leaving two water fountains at the dog park that he said had been the resident’s main source of drinking water. But with the city turning off the water fountains for more than two months, it forced people to drink from unsanitary water, he said.
Worse than ‘third-world countries’
“Third-world countries supply people in war torn areas with fresh drinking water, and yet, we can’t pull that off here at all,” Largent told San José Spotlight. “Clean water should never been taken away from anyone in need. That’s a new low for San Jose.”
Water coming out of the spigot is connected to the irrigation system. Irrigation water can be contaminated with fertilizer, animal waste, pathogens or heavy metals.
Hayes avoided drinking water from the spigot because it made her sick. She relied on people bringing bottled water to the encampment after the city shut off the water fountains. But others continued to drink from the spigot, she said.
“I don’t know what I had, I was throwing up even after boiling it,” she said. “People were getting sick.”
Contact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com or @joyce_speaks on X.
This story originally appeared in San Jose Spotlight.
The post Cut off at the tap: Homeless people living in San Jose park struggle to find clean water appeared first on Local News Matters.