For the last 10 years, Columbus Park in San Jose wasn't a park at all. It was a home for hundreds of encampments and RVs. San Jose, though, has started Operation Cleanup Columbus, and now only a few tents remain.

A woman named Raquel, who only wanted to be identified by her first name, used to call Columbus Park home.

"Last time I saw this field like this was when I first became homeless in 2012," she said.

She was one of the first to call this place home. It's where she eventually raised her son before she was placed into a tiny home.

"I get down on myself about that sometimes because I told myself I would never be homeless with my son because I was when I was a kid," she said.

As she looked at what was now an empty field, she was overwhelmed by a flood of memories.

"Seeing this fie

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