When Azazel Holmkvist was placed in a squalid home on East San Fernando Street, his case manager told him there was no other housing available.
The 42-year-old was receiving treatment at a residential program operated by Momentum for Health, one of Santa Clara County’s largest nonprofit behavioral health service providers. Holmkvist said he’s a survivor of sexual abuse as a child, domestic violence and homelessness. His scars have left him with anxiety and bipolar disorder.
Holmkvist was discharged from Momentum’s program and moved to a string of run-down unlicensed homes. The house on East San Fernando Street was rife with bed bugs, plumbing issues, broken appliances, drug use and verbal harassment, according to photos and interviews. His post-traumatic stress disorder was triggered.
“They place people in these homes all the time, I’m not the only one who this has happened to,” Holmkvist told San José Spotlight.
