SAN JOSE: Authorities began dismantling a notorious homeless camp Thursday known as "The Jungle" in the heart of California's affluent Silicon Valley, where skyrocketing rents have forced hundreds onto the streets.
Municipal workers in white overalls and face masks moved into the camp along a creek in San Jose where some 300 people live in tents and other makeshift lodging.
"It is a disgrace," said housing advocate Sandy Perry, adding: "It's an example of the total failure of our city's housing policy as well as our state and our nation."
"It's like a big family," Yolanda Gutierrez, a former resident, told AFP. "We all looked out for each other, especially the females that are single. We all had our own little group that we would check up on each other.
"But unfortunately what they just did to us today it's like they split the family apart."
The encampment, only a few minutes away from San Jose's downtown district, is home to people forced out of an overheating rental market as lucrative tech companies moved in recent years.
"We have been rehousing for the last 18 months," San Jose city spokesman David Vossbrink told AFP, saying they had found places for some 140 people in shelters, with some in hotels and motels.
About 60 others had received offers of rent subsidies but have not yet found somewhere to live, he added.
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