Less than two weeks after Microsoft got the greenlight to build its data center in North San Jose, the city will begin clearing a large encampment of RVs lined along Alviso-Milpitas Road today, leaving dozens of people scrambling to figure out where they will go next.

After taking their pleas to the City Council and the tech giant last week to no avail, housing advocates lamented what they believed was a lack of compassion and a concrete plan from the city because many of the unhoused residents had no means to move their vehicles and there is not enough available emergency interim housing to relocate them. Several of the RVs are inoperable.

“If this city or housing (department) doesn’t have a plan for where 45 rundown RVs are going to go, either together or one-by-one, what do you think the city is going to do with Columbus Park?” advocate Gail Osmer said, referencing the city’s other plans to clear a large encampment south of the airport later this year. “This is a joke, and on Monday, they’re going to come and take people’s homes and belongings. I don’t think these people from the city care anymore.”

San Jose stands to benefit significantly from the 99 MW project at 1657 Alviso-Milpitas Road, as it will generate approximately $8.4 million in development impact fees and over $10 million in annual property tax revenue, resulting in the city receiving between $3.6 million and $6.4 million in yearly revenue.

Microsoft also will make $65 million in infrastructure improvements and its project will create 100 construction jobs and employ 140 people once construction is complete.

Sheena Talosig, a public information officer with the city’s Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Department, said the city posted notifications on April 3 and again on April 16, one week after the planning commission approved Microsoft’s conditional use permit.

“This abatement is starting along with the Microsoft Data Center, but this work has previously been scheduled to happen before the announcement from Microsoft,” Talosig said.

The city also initially targeted Alviso-Milpitas abatement for April when it rolled out its oversized and lived-in vehicle enforcement program to clear vehicle encampments cluttering public streets and posing public health and safety challenges.

Yolie Garcia, a homeless advocate from Hope for the Unhoused, said RVs began parking along Alviso-Milpitas Road about three years ago, and more recently, the vehicle population has swelled at times to more than 50 vehicles.

Several unhoused residents who recently joined the encampment have relocated from Fremont, attributing their move to the controversial no-encampment rules passed by the city’s council earlier this year.

“A cop, whom I had been interacting with, handed me the citation and said, ‘Leave Fremont. I’m telling you right now if you want to keep your RV,’” said Leonardo Leyva, who added that he knew at least seven people from Fremont who relocated to Alviso-Milpitas Road. “After that, they were going around citing people and towing their stuff away.”

While Garcia said she informed unhoused residents that it could not become a homestead because of Microsoft’s well-known plans to build a data center on its 64.5-acre property, she questioned the city’s endeavors to provide the people living there with an alternative.

Lynn Shipman, an unhoused resident living at the future abatement site, appeared before the San Jose City Council last week to ask about the city’s plans and to petition city leaders to use their power to delay the abatement.

“Don’t let the actions of a few leave a bad taste in your mouth about the law-abiding, long-term (Highway) 237 residents,” Shipman said. “Where do you want us to go?”

She was among the several unhoused residents who spoke to The Mercury News on Friday and uttered, “I don’t know where I’m going to go,” and were resigned to the belief that the city would not offer any help.

Meanwhile, Osmer feared the latest abatement could be a sign of what is to come in San Jose, referencing comments recently made by San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan in which he stated that if the city required a shelter bed for every person involved in a homeless camp sweep, no progress would be made in clearing out encampments in public parks.

Garcia also noted that outreach workers have informed unhoused residents about the new interim housing solutions set to come online by the end of the year, but have failed to see how this helps address the current predicament of those about to be displaced.

“We knew this was going to eventually happen and I don’t have a problem with that, but let us help you help everyone else,” Garcia said.