LA restricts homeless living in vehicles

[FaxModem1]

NPR

Amid Homelessness Crisis, Los Angeles Restricts Living In Vehicles

August 19, 20195:04 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
ANNA SCOTT

FROM
KCRW


RVs line neighborhood streets in Los Angeles, where nearly 10,000 people live in vehicles.
Anna Scott/KCRW
Along a big, commercial street in Los Angeles' North Hollywood area, near a row of empty storefronts, about half a dozen motor homes sat parked on a recent morning. Inside one of them, 67-year-old Edith Grays and her husband watched TV with the door open. Grays said they'd been there a few days, despite a two-hour parking limit.

"Thank God they're not bothering us right now," she said.

It's not unusual to see clusters of campers around the city. Grays is one of the nearly 10,000 people who live in vehicles inside LA's city limits. Some take shelter in cars, others in vans or trucks, but RVs are the most visible. They're also the most difficult to park — especially now.

The Los Angeles City Council recently reinstated an ordinance that bans sleeping overnight in vehicles in residential areas. The law also forbids living in a vehicle within a block of a park, school or day care. Tickets for violating the rules start at $25 for a first offense, $50 the second time and $75 after that.

Neighborhoods divided

Residents who support the restrictions say vehicle encampments have caused parking shortages and sanitation issues. Critics say that without alternatives to parking on the street, the rules are inhumane.

"This is a stupid law," Mel Tillekeratne, executive director of a homelessness nonprofit called The Shower of Hope, said during a recent public meeting. "This law ... is going to directly contribute to these people being on the street."

For Edith Grays, who ran a window-washing business with her husband until he had a series of strokes and couldn't work, losing their motor home is a big fear. She said they moved into it after not being able to afford rent anymore, and she takes care to avoid being ticketed or towed. When asked how much of her time is spent looking for parking or planning where to park next, Grays replied: "All of it."

"It's very difficult," she said. "It causes a lot of stress in my life."

Just a couple of miles away, however, homeowner Walter Hall says RV encampments have choked major streets and that public urination by people living in vehicles has been a problem for at least one local park. "That's the kind of thing we would prefer not to see," he said.

Hall supports the city having rules around vehicle dwelling but said enforcement should be tougher. A 2018 report from the Los Angeles Police Department said that officers issued about 10 citations a month, partly because it's difficult to confirm when people are living in vehicles.

One result, Hall said, is that the restrictions mostly just shuffle people from one location to another.

"They disappear one place only to reappear someplace else," he said.

A national problem

Los Angeles isn't the only city struggling to balance the rights of those with and those without homes. Over the past decade, municipalities around the country with large homeless populations have passed laws banning activities such as panhandling or sleeping in public areas.

Ordinances limiting where people can live in vehicles are now the fastest-growing type of such restrictions, according to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.

For decades it was completely illegal to live in a vehicle in LA. But in 2014, as homelessness swelled, that policy was struck down in federal court. The city then came up with the current ordinance, but it expired in July, so the City Council had to vote on renewing it for another six months.

It's unconscionable that they would be criminalized.

Erika Feresten, Los Angeles resident

One reason it had lapsed is that it was intended to be a stop-gap while the city expanded its safe parking program, which provides after-hours lots specifically designated for overnight vehicle camping. The program also provides security and bathroom access. But that plan has lagged, partly due to budget issues, and LA has only about 100 safe parking spaces for more than 5,000 vehicles in which people live.

The day of the City Council vote on extending the parking restrictions, dozens of opponents showed up at City Hall to argue that the policy is cruel without safe parking options.

"Several of the families at my children's elementary school are struggling with homelessness," said Erika Feresten. "It's unconscionable that they would be criminalized."

After hearing nearly an hour of solid opposition, the City Council voted 13 to 0 to reinstate the rules, prompting the crowd to start chanting, "Shame on you!"

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti says he expects to add another 200 safe parking spaces in the next few months. In the meantime, he said, the city has homeless outreach teams dedicated to finding people in vehicles and connecting them with social services.

"We want to make it easier" for people living in vehicles, Garcetti said, "but we also have to have that balance ... making sure that it's not going to be chaos out there."

The parking restrictions will go to the City Council again early next year.

City decides, with high rent costs and houses way too expensive to purchase, to make it even harder for those who have to live in their cars to survive. This is a bad trend as housing costs increase.

[The Romulan Republic]

Shit like this is why I started using the term "economic cleansing".

[Broomstick]

And once the upper-class succeeds in "cleansing" their cities of the "riff-raff" who can't afford permanent housing they'll start whining about where have all the baristas and grocery clerks and other service personnel have gone? Heavens! One can not find good help anymore! It's as bad as finding a maid or nanny now that there's been a crack-down on immigration! They just don't understand the difficulty of finding peasants to hire at low wages, how could all of these things possibly be connected?

Sorry - I seem to have had an outbreak of sarcasm.

The next revolution won't be over bread shortages, it will be over housing shortages.

[ray245]

And once the upper-class succeeds in "cleansing" their cities of the "riff-raff" who can't afford permanent housing they'll start whining about where have all the baristas and grocery clerks and other service personnel have gone? Heavens! One can not find good help anymore! It's as bad as finding a maid or nanny now that there's been a crack-down on immigration! They just don't understand the difficulty of finding peasants to hire at low wages, how could all of these things possibly be connected?

Sorry - I seem to have had an outbreak of sarcasm.

The next revolution won't be over bread shortages, it will be over housing shortages.

Robots and automation. The obvious solution in their mind.

[Solauren]

I'm rather divided on this.

On one hand, I do see the problem, as far as taking up parking goes. Especially RVs. I've never seen an RV that takes up less then two parking spaces.
Also, you have people that urinate in public and the like.
It's a real problem for home owners and businesses in the area this happens in.
And I can't imagine what several thousand RVs looking for parking do to local traffic.

...

On the other hand, most of these people are in this situation due to the absolute crappy support systems in the United States, as well as housing problems.

In the article, it even says that Mrs. Gray had several strokes. By any definition, that's medically disabling. Why is she not getting suitable social assistance of some kind?

[Zaune]

I'm rather divided on this.

On one hand, I do see the problem, as far as taking up parking goes. Especially RVs. I've never seen an RV that takes up less then two parking spaces.
Also, you have people that urinate in public and the like.

I would have thought people who find themselves in these financial straits are more likely to be making do with the kind of camper that's built on a transit van chassis, or those removable compartments you strap into the bed of a pickup truck. Anyone who can afford one of those damn great land-yachts can probably afford a pitch in a trailer park if they have to downsize in a hurry.

[Gandalf]

And once the upper-class succeeds in "cleansing" their cities of the "riff-raff" who can't afford permanent housing they'll start whining about where have all the baristas and grocery clerks and other service personnel have gone? Heavens! One can not find good help anymore! It's as bad as finding a maid or nanny now that there's been a crack-down on immigration! They just don't understand the difficulty of finding peasants to hire at low wages, how could all of these things possibly be connected?

Sorry - I seem to have had an outbreak of sarcasm.

The next revolution won't be over bread shortages, it will be over housing shortages.

They'll just commute in and out for a few hours each way. Like Sydney.

[Akumz Razor]

I'm rather divided on this.

On one hand, I do see the problem, as far as taking up parking goes. Especially RVs. I've never seen an RV that takes up less then two parking spaces.
Also, you have people that urinate in public and the like.

I would have thought people who find themselves in these financial straits are more likely to be making do with the kind of camper that's built on a transit van chassis, or those removable compartments you strap into the bed of a pickup truck. Anyone who can afford one of those damn great land-yachts can probably afford a pitch in a trailer park if they have to downsize in a hurry.

Anecdotally, many people up here in Seattle who live in larger RVs have very old models that they scraped $500-1500 to purchase, and also probably have some kind of income but not enough to pay for an apartment.

[Broomstick]

I'm rather divided on this.

On one hand, I do see the problem, as far as taking up parking goes. Especially RVs. I've never seen an RV that takes up less then two parking spaces.
Also, you have people that urinate in public and the like.

I would have thought people who find themselves in these financial straits are more likely to be making do with the kind of camper that's built on a transit van chassis, or those removable compartments you strap into the bed of a pickup truck. Anyone who can afford one of those damn great land-yachts can probably afford a pitch in a trailer park if they have to downsize in a hurry.

Unless, of course, they're elderly or disabled, in which case getting into and out of the back of a pickup truck or similar is going to be between difficult and impossible. Yes, there are panel vans and such, too, but while that sort of roughing it isn't a big deal for the young and healthy it can be quite a problem for other folks.

[FaxModem1]

This isn't just about RVs. As the article notes, RVs are just the most visible. When I was in San Diego for my Americorps service, there were dozens of regular cars with people living in them. When they're told to move on, they move on. And keep on moving on until they're in a place that is less monitored.

And once the upper-class succeeds in "cleansing" their cities of the "riff-raff" who can't afford permanent housing they'll start whining about where have all the baristas and grocery clerks and other service personnel have gone? Heavens! One can not find good help anymore! It's as bad as finding a maid or nanny now that there's been a crack-down on immigration! They just don't understand the difficulty of finding peasants to hire at low wages, how could all of these things possibly be connected?

Sorry - I seem to have had an outbreak of sarcasm.

The next revolution won't be over bread shortages, it will be over housing shortages.

They'll just commute in and out for a few hours each way. Like Sydney.

They already do, it's Los Angeles, home of gridlock and sprawl as far as the eye can see. It's just going to get worse. However, there's a point where commuting reaches a point where commuting isn't possible, as driving four or five hours a day each way to an 8 hour job isn't possible or desirable unless they're willing to risk passing out due to lack of sleep.

We're talking about a three bedroom house two hours away from the city being 1.5 million dollars. There's a reason people are selling their homes in California and buying cheaper, better homes in Texas, property values. Which ironically brings up the property values in Texas, making it harder for people in Texas to buy homes, starting the cycle anew.

[Gandalf]

They already do, it's Los Angeles, home of gridlock and sprawl as far as the eye can see. It's just going to get worse. However, there's a point where commuting reaches a point where commuting isn't possible, as driving four or five hours a day each way to an 8 hour job isn't possible or desirable unless they're willing to risk passing out due to lack of sleep.

That's been happening in Sydney since the 90s. Now it just way worse as the city and surrounds get even worse for real estate prices.

[madd0ct0r]

The market delivers.