Overview
- San Jose signed a cooperative agreement with Caltrans that lets the city conduct encampment removals on state rights-of-way, making it one of 22 cities with such deals.
- The agreement requires cleanups to follow state and local policies and mandates detailed reporting to ensure eligible costs reimbursed by the state are tracked and used transparently.
- Cleanup operations will prioritize locations posing immediate health and safety risks, with city landscape and maintenance crews removing litter, debris and weeds and resolving encampments.
- City officials said San Jose will take over cleanup operations at 13 state-owned sites with Caltrans covering part of the cost, a shift the mayor says will cut timelines from weeks to days.
- Caltrans reports more than 19,000 encampment removals statewide since 2021, including 115 in San Jose in fiscal year 2024–25 and 9,200 cubic yards of debris collected, as the state’s SAFE Task Force continues targeted operations in other major cities.