Apple in talks with San Jose over homeless encampment on its undeveloped land
Apple is facing a potential problem in San Jose, with an increasing number of homeless people trickling into an owned plot of undeveloped land as nearby encampments are cleared out.
Source: Richard Scott via Vice
CBS affiliate KPIX last week reported inhabitants of homeless clusters near the Mineta San Jose International Airport are making their way to larger parcels of land owned by Apple.
The exodus from Mineta to Apple's plots supposedly began when the City of San Jose proceeded with an "enhanced cleanup" at the airport in recent weeks, a project urged on by the Federal Aviation Administration. There are currently between 30 and 100 residents living in the approximately 55-acre patchwork of land parcels, a chunk of which was purchased for $138 million in 2015. Inhabitants have set up in RVs, tents, and vehicles, while Vice reports dumpsters and portable toilets are also on the scene.
Homeless people who have been living on Apple's land say the company and management has not made attempts to push them off the property.
"I'm grateful that they don't kick us out," Renee Corona, an inhabitant who lived on the parcel for nearly two years, told Vice. "I just want to say thank you. They don't bother us."
Crime appears to be a minor issue and some inhabitants leave trash strewn about, but others, like a 40-year-old woman who goes by "Tigs," are trying to better the area.
"The people that are living here, we'd like Apple to know we'd like to try to make this a healthier environment," she said. "We want to make it eco-friendly and create systems for water consumption and energy."
San Jose City Council member David Cohen is attempting to meet with Apple to discuss the situation, Vice reports.
"We're setting up a meeting so that I can begin to talk to them about what we might be able to do to help the people who are living there, and to figure out some plan for offering services," Cohen said.
Apple said it has "been in talks with the city to find a solution," the report said.
The Vice report also notes that the growing population at Apple's property might not be a direct result of the airport-related effort. One person who currently lives on airport land didn't see evidence that the Apple camp was taking on many people from the airport tract, while Richard Scott, former supervisor for Santa Clara County's mental health homeless team, concurred.
In any case, the encampment at Apple's undeveloped property is quickly growing.
News of the homeless camp arrives as Apple metes out funds from a $2.5 billion fund commitment to ease California's housing shortage. The company on Wednesday said it has put $1 billion toward the initiative.
Keep up with everything Apple in the weekly AppleInsider Podcast -- and get a fast news update from AppleInsider Daily. Just say, "Hey, Siri," to your HomePod mini and ask for these podcasts, and our latest HomeKit Insider episode too.If you want an ad-free main AppleInsider Podcast experience, you can support the AppleInsider podcast by subscribing for $5 per month through Apple's Podcasts app, or via Patreon if you prefer any other podcast player.
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Source: Richard Scott via Vice
CBS affiliate KPIX last week reported inhabitants of homeless clusters near the Mineta San Jose International Airport are making their way to larger parcels of land owned by Apple.
The exodus from Mineta to Apple's plots supposedly began when the City of San Jose proceeded with an "enhanced cleanup" at the airport in recent weeks, a project urged on by the Federal Aviation Administration. There are currently between 30 and 100 residents living in the approximately 55-acre patchwork of land parcels, a chunk of which was purchased for $138 million in 2015. Inhabitants have set up in RVs, tents, and vehicles, while Vice reports dumpsters and portable toilets are also on the scene.
Homeless people who have been living on Apple's land say the company and management has not made attempts to push them off the property.
"I'm grateful that they don't kick us out," Renee Corona, an inhabitant who lived on the parcel for nearly two years, told Vice. "I just want to say thank you. They don't bother us."
Crime appears to be a minor issue and some inhabitants leave trash strewn about, but others, like a 40-year-old woman who goes by "Tigs," are trying to better the area.
"The people that are living here, we'd like Apple to know we'd like to try to make this a healthier environment," she said. "We want to make it eco-friendly and create systems for water consumption and energy."
San Jose City Council member David Cohen is attempting to meet with Apple to discuss the situation, Vice reports.
"We're setting up a meeting so that I can begin to talk to them about what we might be able to do to help the people who are living there, and to figure out some plan for offering services," Cohen said.
Apple said it has "been in talks with the city to find a solution," the report said.
The Vice report also notes that the growing population at Apple's property might not be a direct result of the airport-related effort. One person who currently lives on airport land didn't see evidence that the Apple camp was taking on many people from the airport tract, while Richard Scott, former supervisor for Santa Clara County's mental health homeless team, concurred.
In any case, the encampment at Apple's undeveloped property is quickly growing.
News of the homeless camp arrives as Apple metes out funds from a $2.5 billion fund commitment to ease California's housing shortage. The company on Wednesday said it has put $1 billion toward the initiative.
Keep up with everything Apple in the weekly AppleInsider Podcast -- and get a fast news update from AppleInsider Daily. Just say, "Hey, Siri," to your HomePod mini and ask for these podcasts, and our latest HomeKit Insider episode too.If you want an ad-free main AppleInsider Podcast experience, you can support the AppleInsider podcast by subscribing for $5 per month through Apple's Podcasts app, or via Patreon if you prefer any other podcast player.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
What then?
Yes, you present a nice, utopian solution to the problem & your heart is in the right place. But, Apple needs to tread carefully here to avoid painting themselves into a corner they cannot escape. The fact that they haven’t done anything yet and are carefully considering a proper response shows that they know it too.
It's been shown that many or most homeless have untreated mental health issues. But many with mental health issues self-medicate with street drugs.
Bottom line is that the culture doesn’t have the guts to deal with the situation. Instead it just throws flowery, humanist cliches around, a little money, and lot of hand wringing about the evils of capitalism. These souls need to be handled kindly but firmly, making treatment, counseling, and responsibility mandatory, and with active monitoring. But imagine the protests and outrage if that were to be implemented. Nope, just hang the Albatross around some company’s neck as you suggest Apple DO something.
Next, we blame people who have mental health problems for having mental health problems. We’ve been conditioned to think it’s just weakness and lack of willpower, instead of acknowledging it’s a health issue, just like heart conditions or cancer. As noted above, state mental health hospitals have shuttered nationwide. Conservatives think they’re saving money, and liberals think they’re giving people personal autonomy by making it next-to-impossible to commit a severely mentally ill person to a mental hospital. The result is mentally ill people living on the street doing mentally ill things, and the public blaming local authorities for impossible problems they didn’t create.
I’m pretty sure squatter rights only apply to land/structures zoned as residential property. There’s a reason commercial and residential building/safety codes and standards are different.
For Apple to allow these people to live there, they would have to get the property re-zoned as residential, otherwise it could become a huge liability issue; people getting hurt or sick from environmental issues, etc.
yes, very well-put! Thank you.
No, the homeless problem used to be directly related to drugs and mental health, but that’s not true any longer. I fly in and out of San Jose all the time and just a few days ago noticed this encampment had grown to massive proportions.
So they can either choose to take a proactive stance, or wait until local government succumbs to resident pressure to hike up their tax contributions in order to take care of the problem. Option A seems better for all parties involved.
https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/medicine-hat-becomes-first-canadian-community-to-eradicate-chronic-homelessness-1.5454057
Housing is an important step in brining people off addictions, getting them mental health assistance, jobs.
That mostly started with the American indsutrial revolution of the late 19th century -- prior to that the U.S. was mostly an agrarian society. Since then its gone back and forth -- between the likes of Hoover, Roosevelt, Johnson, Reagan. But since Reagan its been mostly promoting the top 1%