If you want to see for yourself, look no further than the Stevens Creek Trail where it crosses over Hwy 85 at the Southern end. Instead of going over the bridge (to Dale/Heatherstone), continue going south. There is a well-defined dirt trail. It will lead you along the side of the overpass. Then you will walk besides the sound wall. Continue down the dirt trail until you hit a small embankment. Go over the embankment and you will start seeing the camps and the trash.

The camps have been moving south with the SC trail. They were there before the trail and then moved south when they opened up the last southern extension.
They are also some smaller part time camps right behind Landels school
as well as a few other places.

Thanks Gary for a compassionate response to homelessness.

The issue here is that to some people, homelessness is a deliberate choice. Homeless in California in Santa Claus County beats being homeless in Denver, where people fight over the " ownership " of a steam grate during the winter.
These " homeless " cannot abide by simple rules like not being drunk in a shelter. The same applies to an addict.

For the truly homeless, housing, treatment and dignity is what is really needed.

One solution that Hawaii is doing is providing shipping containers for homeless in their state. Shipping containers are easily turned into basic housing units complete with sanitary facilities.
These conversions are easy; many construction companies use them for offices on construction sites. Portable laboratories and even portable cell phone units on call for disaster relief are built out of shipping containers.
This is recycling that truly benefits the REAL homeless!
I'll bet Oakland has plenty of usable shipping containers for sale. Even Denver has used shipping containers for sale!

While the article accurately points out the health hazard of the homeless' waste let's not forget that these people are also trespassing on water district land so the sheriff should forcibly evict the homeless from illegally squatting. All of society benefits from not having contaminants in the drinking water.

If anyone cares to see how bad it can get, UPRR had to clear out a massive tent city by its tracks in San Jose that was full of stolen property,(hundreds of bicycles), garbage and other crime problems. Employees from businesses adjacent the tracks were in fear to walk by the area.

Homeless have a right to survival but not by illegally squatting anywhere they please.

"We need to house these people. That's the best return on investment,"
Can somebody explain to me what the return on investment is here? We pay the water district for water. We don't pay them to build housing.