The Jungle is the largest of many Silicon Valley homeless encampments, and the 65 acres bordering Coyote Creek in San Jose can be home to up to 175 people at a time.
2013-09-07
It is the largest homeless encampment in the continental United States.
From kids to convicts to moms and dads and the mentally ill, The Jungle is a desperate mix of people out of whatever options they might have once had.
When Business Insider visited The Jungle over the course of a week in mid-July the city was getting ready to clear the homeless out again after they had just settled back in from a previous eviction.
It's a back-and-forth with no easy answers as Silicon Valley's cost of living increases, but the jobs and affordable housing needed to keep its poorest residents inside and off the streets remains unseen.
Welcome to the Jungle, the largest homeless camp in the Silicon Valley and continental United States.
Business Insider
Business Insider visited The Jungle several times in mid-July to talk to the people who live here and see what their lives are like.
Jeri found a burnt corpse along the river in The Jungle and says it's not uncommon to hear threats of "burning people out" of their tents while they're asleep inside.
A lot of time and effort has gone into many of these Jungle encampments. San Jose city officials call this type of semi-permanent camp an "entrenchment."
The scores of homeowners in nearby neighborhoods are concerned the longer people stay, the greater the chance Jungle fires could spread to their homes, as this one nearly did in July.
The water that fills much of Coyote Creek is runoff from local roads, land and parking lots. It arrives through immense pipes shored up by these sand bags.
Robert Johnson was Business Insider's senior correspondent and the originating editor of Business Insider's military-and-defense section.A former US Army noncommissioned officer, Johnson enlisted in the Army before 9/11, was injured, and spent his final two years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. It was his experience at Walter Reed in 2004 and 2005 that brought him to journalism.Johnson attended the University of Missouri and New York University.
