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Fremont, houseless advocates spar
By Alina Ta SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Fremont city officials and San José advocates are split on whether banning houseless encampments will push unhoused residents into neighboring cities and counties.
They also disagree if unhoused advocates will be charged with a misdemeanor if they continue to help unhoused community members.
On Feb. 11, Fremont’s city council voted 6-1 to pass a policy banning community members from building houseless encampments on public property, according to a Feb. 14 news release.
Any person “aiding (or) abetting” someone who is in violation of the policy can be considered guilty of a misdemeanor and could receive a fine up to $1,000 or go to prison for up to six months, according to the ordinance in Fremont city council’s agenda.
Crimson Fist, an unhoused advocate from Bay Area Superheroes who distributes supplies to unhoused communities in Fremont and San José, said unhoused residents and unhoused advocates are understandably nervous.
Fist, who uses they/them pronouns, requested to be anonymous out of fear of retaliation from other groups who may oppose the advocacy work they do.
Bay Area Superheroes is an independent activist
group that advocates for multiple communities, including the unhoused community, the LGBTQIA+ community and more, according to its Linktree web page.
“Everybody’s definitely kind of on edge,” Fist said.
Fist said they are also concerned that San José and other neighboring cities and counties may adopt similar policies.
Shaunn Cartwright, an unhoused advocate and founder of the Unhoused Response Group, said there is a passionate community of unhoused advocates to fight against these types of policies in San José.
The Unhoused Response Group is an advocacy group that distributes supplies and supports the unhoused community throughout different parts of the Bay Area, according to its Facebook page.
However, Cartwright said she is concerned that the ordinance will put a target on both unhoused community members and advocates in and outside of Fremont.
“This will affect all of us (unhoused advocates) nationwide, because it’s already got that stigma of aiding and abetting, and you can’t take that back,” she said. “You just can’t. The only people who are (aiding and abetting), are people committing a crime.”
Around 6,343 people were unsheltered out of 9,450 people of Fremont’s unhoused population,
according to the city’s 2024 Point-In-Time Homelessness Report.
Around 21% live in makeshift shelters and 17% live on streets or sidewalks, according to the same source.
The city also estimates that it had around 223 encampments between 2022-2023, according to the ordinance within the previous agenda.
Fist said they estimate that Fremont’s policy will influence many unhoused community members to attempt to find shelter in more urban areas of the city.
enough shelters to house all of Fremont’s unhoused population and does not have any future plans to build another shelter in the city.
Bosques said the city has been struggling to collect more funding to expand its shelter programs for the past two years.
“We probably have one of the lowest number of shelter beds available,” Bosques said. “We did attempt to secure Homekey funding twice (but) we were not successful.”
Homekey is a statewide effort to expand housing options for unhoused
You can never, ever trust a city that is clearly trying to criminalize homelessness. You just can’t.
Shaunn Cartwright Founder of the Unhoused Response Group
“We already see (through) my drive through here, people (are), like, sleeping in bus shelters,” they said.
In 2024, around 2,271 of the 2,440 emergency shelter beds (93.1%) were occupied in Alameda County, according to the county’s 2024 Pointin-Time Homelessness report.
Geneva Bosques, the director of communications for the City of Fremont, said the city does not have
community members or those who are at risk of becoming homeless throughout California, according to a web page from the California Department of Housing and Community Development.
Fist said unhoused advocates will continue to distribute supplies to different unhoused communities in Fremont, but they will have to make small changes to adjust to the ordinance.
They also said they
are concerned unhoused community members in Fremont may be influenced to move to neighboring cities and counties around Fremont.
Around 7.1% of unhoused individuals interviewed by Alameda County reported living in the county for one year or less, according to the same Point-In-Time report.
“I feel like it’s an unavoidable thing that we're going to start seeing soon, if there’s no place for people to go here and they're getting consistently hassled by the cops to move to a different place to sleep like that,” Fist said. “You can only push people so many times before they're in different places now.”
Bosques said the intent of the ordinance is to not to encourage people to leave.
She said most unhoused residents typically prefer to stay in their original communities because of familiarity.
More than threequarters of those who self-reported that they were unhoused recorded that they lived in Alameda County for ten years or more, according to the same Point-In-Time Homelessness Report.
“The intent of the ordinance is not for us to enforce the ordinance and encourage people to leave,” she said. “Most unsheltered people tend to try to live in the communities that they grew up in or where
they have family.” The ordinance does not prohibit unhoused advocates or community members from providing aid and services to unhoused residents in Fremont, according to the same news release from the city.
Fist said the language is too vague in the ordinance and that it is very difficult to understand how the City of Fremont will enforce the policy.
“The examples we’ve provided to the community and during the council meetings have been somebody helping to provide a structure enabling someone to camp, or helping them to camp because the ordinance’s prohibition is camping on public property,” Bosques said.
Providing food, clothing, water, blankets and tents would not be considered “aiding and abetting,” according to the same web page.
Cartwright said she doesn’t trust the City of Fremont to not fine or arrest unhoused advocates for helping unhoused residents.
“You can never, ever trust a city that is clearly trying to criminalize homelessness. You just can’t,” Cartwright said.
GRAPHIC BY ALINA TA, PHOTO FROM CANVA
The BLOC celebrates its seventh anniversary
A&E
Photo Package: San José Black Family Day
SJSU baseball team beats Utah Valley
BLOC’s legacy continues at SJSU
By Israel Archie & Alina Ta SENIOR STAFF WRITERS
The Black Leadership and Opportunity Center celebrated its seventh year at San José State University on Friday, where students and staff took time to reflect on the resource center and its role on campus.
The Black Leadership and Opportunity Center, also known as the BLOC, seeks to uplift and empower students and encourage a positive sense of Black identity, according to an SJSU webpage.
The resource center also offers academic and social support such as tutoring, scholarships and job opportunities, according to the center’s resource page.
There’s so much that has blossomed from the center’s existence. So I’m delighted to be here to celebrate their birthday because it's a symbol of progress in this very challenging time.
Cynthia TenienteMatson SJSU President
Second-year film student Kelechi Maduako was one of the students in attendance who decided to come out and celebrate this moment with the center.
“What brought me to the BLOC for the seventh anniversary was the achievement that they have,” Maduako said. “The that goal for the seventh year and I love to see that continue to grow.”
Only 3.3% of the student population at SJSU is Black, making them one of the smallest demographics on campus, according to a webpage from the university.
“Some of the Black kids on campus, they may not
know where the BLOC is,” Maduako said. “That’s why I try to tell them where the BLOC is because, I don’t know if they think they have a whole space for their community, but they do.”
Abdul-Azim Omolola, a peer mentor for the BLOC, gave thanks to the program director of the resource center, MyShaundriss Watkins for making the celebration possible.
Watkins recently took the role after the former program director Emerald Green left SJSU last year, according to a post from the BLOC’s Instagram page.
“Seeing the BLOC grow
is beautiful because I am also getting to see her grow as a leader (and) see the adaptations she’s made over the year, all the great things that she’s doing (and) all the sacrifices she makes to make sure things like this happen,” Omolola said.
The third-year business accounting student also brought up the importance of having a space like the BLOC on campus.
“It’s really important to have centers like this (because) there’s a lot of experiences that you won’t understand unless you are a Black student,” Omolola said. “The BLOC isn’t just a place (where) you can go and hang out;
it’s really a resource center.”
Also among the crowd on Friday was SJSU President Cynthia Teniente-Matson, who talked with students and celebrated the BLOC with them.
“There’s so much that has blossomed from the center’s existence,” Teniente-Matson said. “So I’m delighted to be here to celebrate their birthday because it's a symbol of progress in this very challenging time.”
Even though the center is a space predominantly for Black people, the BLOC welcomes all SJSU students, looking past race, color and origin
as stated on the campus resource webpage.
“We are welcoming (and) we let anybody in,” Omolola said. “People are people (and) obviously there’ll be experiences that maybe we all have that you may not be able to relate to; I know it can be nerve-wracking when you get in here at first, but after 20 minutes or so, you’ll start to feel the love.”
While Friday was a celebratory day for the BLOC, United States President Donald Trump began to expedite efforts to undermine diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts on a federal level according to an article from the Hill.
The efforts in turn could threaten race-based organizations and centers on college campuses like the BLOC. Despite the threat, students are not letting it stop them from enjoying the BLOC and celebrating its history at SJSU.
“To those students and to anybody else that is feeling discouraged by that, I will say that there’s no need to panic until there's a need to panic,” Omolola said. “You can take away everything from a certain group of people, but you can’t take away the people from each other.”
MyShaundriss Watkins, program coordinator for the BLOC, introduces SJSU President Cynthia Teniente-Matson before she begins to speak to students at the BLOC 7th Anniversary celebration.
Black families dance day away in SJ
3
5 4 6 1 2
Grady Turner, a
who has lived in San José for 40 years, drums next to the stage between performances at
#3: Garland Grady, the owner of Kemet Dekor, cuts and decreases the length of a red and black waist bead strand before tying it around a customer’s waist. Kemet Dekor is a small business that sells African wear from Ghana.
#4: Dancer Kimi Harvey-Scott teaches a child how to dance in front of the stage while the drummers keep the beat.
#5: Grady ties a measured strand of red and black waist beads around a customer’s waist in the midst of the festivities.
#6: A volunteer distributes free chicken and beef wraps from Jubba Somali, a Somali restaurant in San
#1:
drummer
Silicon Valley Black Family Day in San José on Saturday.
#2: Drummers Eric Bubi Gore (right), Mohamed Kouyate (middle) and Madiou Diouf (left) drum on stage at Parque de Los Pobladores while some crowd members choose to dance.
José.
PHOTOS BY ALINA TA
BASEBALL
SJSU sweeps Utah Valley in home series
By Anfisa Pitchkhadze ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
In a tightly contested, back-and-forth game, the San José State baseball team batted away in a thrilling 8-7 win over Utah Valley in its home opener at Excite Ballpark on Thursday.
With the game tied 7-7 at the bottom of the eighth inning, senior outfielder Jeriah Lewis hit a solo home run from right-center field which became the go-ahead winning score.
“I tried to put the ball in play and I ended up getting a good swing on it and somehow it went over the fence,” Lewis said.
Brad Sanfilippo, the Spartans baseball head coach, said he was proud of Lewis for having his moment in the game.
“He’s one of our leaders, one of our better players and came through in the moment that we needed him to so I’m obviously very happy for him,” Sanfilippo said.
Lewis played a crucial role in the Spartans’ batting as he ended the game with two runs, two hits and an RBI during the game.
Senior infielder Zach Chamizo praised the team for giving the Wolverines a strong fight throughout the game.
“It really just speaks to who we are as a team, we’re a bunch of greedy guys and we have a lot of fight in us,” Chamizo said.
Besides Lewis, other batters contributed to the hard-fought win, such as the top hitters Chamizo and junior infielder Rocco Caballero.
Chamizo scored a run while going 2 for 3 and added
MEN’S LACROSSE
two RBIs while Caballero went 2 for 4 at bat, adding two runs and an RBI.
“It was a team game that we won today,” Chamizo said.
“Everyone did their part, pitchers threw well, every hitter contributed somehow, the bench was great and everyone contributed to that.”
The first three innings featured junior pitcher Cade Cushing for the Spartans and Wolverines freshman pitcher Landon Zaborowski preventing runs until sophomore infielder Dominic Longo II scored a run to put Utah Valley on the board first in the top of the third inning.
The one thing when you do have a bullpen game, you have to have some flexibility just because sometimes when you throw that many arms in a game, it’s not exactly gonna go perfectly planned.
Brad Sanfilippo SJSU baseball head coach
The Spartans and Wolverines then dueled in the next two innings as both teams got their offenses going, including runs from SJSU’s Chamizo and senior infielder Antonio Nanez.
Senior outfielder Alex Fernandes hit the lone RBI triple that led to a run for Nanez, adding a spark for the Spartan offense.
“He showed up in some big moments and the three games that he’s played, he’s made a really big impact,” Sanfilippo said.
Junior outfielder Luke Iverson then stepped up for the Wolverines by scoring a run, including hitting a single that led to a Longo II run.
Later, the sixth inning marked a surge for the Spartans, notching four runs
and two hits and taking a commanding 7-3 lead.
The Wolverines then clawed back to put up four runs to tie the game 7-7 in the seventh inning.
“I’m really impressed right now on how we’ve completed so far,” Sanfilippo said. “It’s a hard game to win tonight when you have a 7-3 lead and they (Wolverines) come back and tie it.”
Notably, the Spartans made pitching changes throughout the innings during the game.
Sanfilippo said he knew the game was going to be a bullpen game, but was not keen on moving starters.
The SJSU baseball team (6-1) went under renovation leading into the season, adding 26 commitments from college and high schools, according to a Feb. 18 KSJS article. Sanfilippo said he is still figuring out the personality of the offense, how they score runs and viewed this game as an opportunity to see what each new player can do.
“It’s learning for the coaching staff,” Sanfilippo said. “There’s guys that we put into situations before that we’ve never seen in those situations before today. We gave the ball to freshmen in the inning where things were getting a little squirrely and we got a couple outs.”
San José State went on to sweep the four-game series against the Wolverines (2-6), earning a hot 6-1 start of the season and its first four-game sweep since May 2009, according to an SJSU athletics webpage.
The Spartans are currently on a six-game win streak, marking their longest win streak since the first six games of the 2011 season, according to the same SJSU athletics webpage.
SJSU is looking to extend its streak as the team hosts Santa Clara this afternoon at 3:05 p.m. at Excite Ballpark.
“We were hoping to get two or three from Cushing and then two or three from (Luca) Staiano, and then things went sideways a little bit,” Sanfilippo said. “The one thing when you do have a bullpen game, you have to have some flexibility just because sometimes when you throw that many arms in a game, it’s not exactly gonna go perfectly planned.”
SJSU Lacrosse loses home opener
This past Sunday, the San José State men’s club lacrosse team fell to California State University Long Beach in a 9-6 loss in its home opener.
Long Beach won the first face off to which they then lost possession in its transition down to offense.
Spartans defenders were able to come up with the ground ball and return it to their offense ultimately reaching Lukas Payne’s stick where he was able to crease-roll past Beach defenders scoring the first goal of the game in the first quarter.
Both SJSU and Long Beach came to the game with high intensity, keeping a tight score throughout the game.
Spartans Head Coach Derek De Lemos provides more insight on the history that these two programs have with each other.
“Over the years, we each had really small numbers. We play a hard, physical game and most of our games have been a two or three goal game. So it’s back and forth. This is their fourth game of the season,” De Lemos said.
Long Beach dominated in the face off gaining the team multiple opportunities for them to have possession and score.
Spartan defenders
played a zone defense only pressuring the ball when the Long Beach offense would try to infiltrate the eight-meter arch and shoot on Spartans goalie, Gavin Gannod.
Gannod was able to make a total of 14 saves throughout the game with having the most during the third quarter.
Gannod made a successful save against a shot from Long Beach successfully creating a transition play with defensive pole, Brayden Smith to then offensive man Max Oshetski who tied up the score after a
shoulder check to create room.
Nearing the end of first quarter, Collin Fitzpatrick, SJSU defenseman stick checks a Long Beach player with possession resulting in the other players’ stick to become unusable.
The Spartans took advantage of this and gained possession.
However, this possession did not last long as Fitzpatrick’s pass was intercepted by a Beach player who took it down to goal ending the first quarter with Beach having a 3-2 lead.
Fitzpatrick shared from a
defensive standpoint what the Spartans can work on moving forward.
“We need to communicate better. I think defensively we made our mistakes, but just hammering down our plays and making sure we know what to do in certain situations will help us move forward throughout our season,” said Fitzpatrick.
Throughout the second and third quarter of the game, Long Beach continued to dominate in the face offs and ball possessions ultimately allowing them to have more opportunities to shoot on goal.
Spartans shot on goal 21 times only making 6 of those shots behind the net.
When Spartans had possession during the third quarter, Beach defenders responded with high pressure defense with several defenseman checking and body blocking and Spartans trying to create opportunities to shoot on goal.
At the end of the third quarter, the Spartans were falling behind 6-4.
Similar to the previous two quarters, Beach continued to dominate in the possession game but that did not
stop the Spartans. After a goalie save from the Gannod , SJSU was quick to take advantage of their opportunity allowing for a quick transition from goalie Preston Vana to Oshetski and finishing the transition with Ryder Smith making a shot on goal that made the back of the net. Vana gave some insight on the energy of the team despite the loss.
“I was really proud of the effort that the team put out. It felt like they really wanted it, and we all came together as a team. I'm really happy with what I saw today. I think we got places to go and we are just starting,” Vana said.
While Oshetski and Hunter Dietrich both lead the team with the most goals scored individually, it was not enough to bring the Spartans from a deficit ending the game with a 9-6 Spartan loss.
As mentioned earlier, this is Beach's fourth game while this was the Spartans first game of the season. They have already started to identify what they can work on in the upcoming practices before their next game.
SJSU men’s lacrosse club team will be on the road this Sunday against Saint Mary’s College.
By Anahi Herrera Villanueva CONTRIBUTOR
HUNTER YATES | SPARTAN DAILY
Spartans infielder Drew Giannini (4) bats against Utah Valley on Thursday afternoon at Excite Park in San José.
On April 27, 2024 SJSU men’s lacrosse teammates celebrates against Saint Mary’s at Los Gatos High School.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SJSU MEN’S LACROSSE
