The project of 96 tiny homes, will be built across from the Blossom Hill Hampton Inn, on land owned by Valley Water, where dozens of people are camped along the Guadalupe River.
The water agency decided to partner with the City of San Jose to come up with a plan for its Cherry Avenue property, because it was looking for ways to solve the encampment problem on its land.
In June 2023, the San Jose City Council – which has the goal of removing all people encamped along Guadalupe River and Coyote Creek by next year – approved the site for temporary housing. Their intention is to move those living at the Cherry Avenue encampment into the tiny homes.
San Jose Spotlight reports, that the Valley Water board has postponed a vote on banning and penalizing those living in encampments on all 295 miles of its land. But Matt Keller, Valley Water’s spokesperson, stated that the agency still plans to keep the Cherry Avenue site free of encampments, once the homes are constructed.
At last month's San Jose City Council meeting, councilmembers voted to accelerate the Cherry Avenue project, with the goal of opening it by Sept. 30, 2025. It will be funded, in part, by Measure E, a property transfer tax approved by voters in 2020.
