As San Jose crews began clearing a homeless encampment Monday morning at Columbus Park, they found a man’s body inside an RV, police confirmed.
The cause of death is unknown, but the man’s friends think he was stressed and distraught over the sweep and the prospect of not having a place to go to.
Two women who knew the man went inside his RV Monday morning and found the man dead on his bed. Authorities say there are no obvious signs of trauma.
No official identification was released, but friends told NBC Bay Area that his name was Octavio and that he was about 45 years old. They also said he drove a truck for a living and had recently spent $7,000 on his RV.
“He was good, but he was sick, but nobody seems to care, you know,” said Sergio Valencia, a friend. “Once they told him he was moving, he started doing really, really bad. He started stressing.”
City workers Monday morning began cleaning up the trash littering the large homeless encampment at Columbus Park.
The city had posted a notice that at 7 a.m. Monday, anyone still staying at the park would be asked to leave because the park is unsafe and the park unusable. But as of 11 a.m., there was no sign of people moving out or being forced out.
Mayor Matt Mahan’s office released a media advisory.
“Over the coming weeks, residents currently living at the park will have the opportunity to transition into hundreds of newly available shelter beds. Those who refuse to come indoors will be cleared from the site as it becomes a no encampment zone in preparation for restoration.”
A man named Frank, who’s been living with his dog in a camper at Columbus Park for the past year, says he feels safe there because he can lock his camper at night and go to sleep.
His alternative, he said, would be a tent, streets, sleeping outside a 7-Eleven or something else. Frank said he would accept a shelter bed if it was offered.
City workers also were at the park doing outreach to see how they can help the encampment residents. The city has set aside motel rooms for transitional housing. But the mayor’s office says only 42 motel rooms were available Monday.
There are more than 300 people living at the park.
The city says it plans to open nearly 400 housing units over the next four weeks.
