San Jose is about to pull a classic tech industry move: disrupting lives without a solid backup plan. As the city prepares to sweep its largest homeless encampment at Columbus Park, hundreds of vulnerable residents are left wondering where they’ll sleep next.

The Cruel Housing Shuffle

Jennifer Lagone, a 41-year-old resident of Columbus Park, has been playing an exhausting game of bureaucratic ping-pong. After months of calling hotlines and getting the runaround, she still hasn’t secured a spot in the city’s promised housing. “The runaround is quite annoying,” she told local reporters. “You’re not getting anywhere”.

Tow Away Zone: Homeless Edition

To make matters worse, San Jose is implementing a new policy that will immediately tow vehicles with expired registration - a move that will disproportionately impact the city’s estimated 2,000 vehicle residents. With about 36% of these vehicles having outdated tags, this feels less like urban management and more like a targeted attack on the most vulnerable.

Empty Promises and Displacement

The city claims it’s working on solutions: converting motels into temporary housing and planning safe sleeping sites. But these “solutions” won’t be ready until late August or September, leaving hundreds of people in limbo. As Joe Ortiz, a long-time Columbus Park resident, grimly noted, “I feel that a lot of people are gonna lose a lot of their belongings”.

This isn’t just a housing crisis - it’s a humanitarian failure that exposes the ugly underbelly of a tech-rich city that seemingly cares more about property values than human lives.