Slowly but surely the city of San Jose is cleaning up its largest homeless encampment at Columbus Park and moving more people into converted motel rooms.

On Wednesday, Fernando Alcantara moved into the Casa Linda Motel – one of only about two dozen people so far. Alcantara, an electrician by trade, lived at Columbus Park for two years. He likes his new room better.

“It’s good, yeah,” he said. “I like it. It’s clean and it’s safe. It looks safe.”

He did have one complaint that has been echoed by many others still trying to leave the park: personal belongings are being lost or trashed.

“When people move indoors they’re assigned a case manager, and that is their point person for care coordination, getting appointments for job training, drug treatment,” Mayor Matt Mahan said. “If somebody

See Full Page