New regulations meant to help people living in their vehicles got off to a bumpy start in August after an early draft was leaked to the media. People frightened that the city and their neighborhoods would be overrun by an army of car campers seized upon the legislation and flooded a recent meeting of the Seattle City Council’s Human Services and Public Health committee to voice their concerns.
But some homeless people and members of the team that helped put the proposal together are cautiously optimistic that such a program would solve many of the problems that most concerned residents. The attempt would formalize a diversion program for car campers, connect people with services and end a relentless cycle of ticketing and criminalization. The proposal is a one-two punch put forward by Councilmember Mike O’Brien: a resolution and legislation to formalize and enhance relationships among parking enforcement, the municipal court and service providers to get vehicle residents the help that they need, keep them out of financial and legal trouble and their cars out of the tow yard.
If Councilmember Kshama Sawant is the champion of the working classes and Councilmember Tim Burgess takes point on pre-school for underprivileged families, O’Brien is comfortably the most staunch supporter for vehicle residents on the council.
O’Brien backed Road to Housing, which gave people a safe place to keep their cars, and a 24-hour safe lot that ultimately closed due to the exorbitant cost of maintaining and staffing it. He also convened the working group that inspired the legislation he has now put forward.
“In 2016, City of Seattle funding helped thousands of people exit homelessness and move into permanent housing, and I’m proud that the City continues to build on these efforts,” O’Brien wrote in a statement when he formally released the draft. “However, the vast majority of the City’s focus is on individuals completely without shelter, while vehicle residents account for more than 40 percent of the unsheltered homeless population in Seattle.”
The lynchpin of the legislation is the creation of a voluntary vehicle residency program. People who choose to participate would get connected with a case worker or other social services, and identify their vehicle as one that doubles as a home. Police and parking enforcement would be able to look up cars in the system and, if they overstayed their welcome, the person would get help resolving it rather than a ticket and possible tow.
The accompanying resolution lays out long-term actions such as the creation of maintenance classes, city-owned RV campgrounds and health care options for vehicle residents, as well as a needs assessment asking car residents what they think would make the program successful.
The proposal would memorialize an existing system of relationships Interfaith Task Force on Homeless Director Bill Kirlin-Hackett — a pastor and vehicle resident advocate — and Ballard resident Jean Darsie, the Scofflaw Mitigation Team, established with city officials and the courts to keep people experiencing homelessness safe in their cars.
The Scofflaw Mitigation Team gets calls from parking officials when a motor home or RV runs afoul of regulations to resolve the problem, rather than automatically ticket them. The team may help someone who has to report to court.
It’s an effective, but fragile system. One retirement, one promotion and the delicate network created for people in their cars would fall apart.
It’s an effective, but fragile system. One retirement, one promotion and the delicate network created for people in their cars would fall apart.
“If the staff changes, it’ll be gone in a minute,” Kirlin-Hackett said.
It’s currently unclear when the proposal will go before a council committee, although O’Brien signaled to his colleagues that they likely wouldn’t see it until mid-September at the earliest.
Nothing about the law or the resolution are set in stone, O’Brien told his colleagues on Aug. 14 at a briefing prior to the afternoon council meeting, and lamented the leak that caused the furor, forcing him to release a draft before engaging with stakeholders.
“In an ideal world, this legislation would still be in the draft phase, and I would be working with executive departments on further refining because those folks are the experts on the ground and getting their input, expertise and their buy-in on where we go next,” O’Brien said. “Unfortunately, the reality of the leaked document forced me to talk about this publicly prior to doing the level of engagement I would like to do.”
The release of the early draft spread through neighborhood advocacy groups like wildfire
The release of the early draft spread through neighborhood advocacy groups like wildfire. Members of the Neighborhood Safety Alliance (NSA) and Safe Seattle came to the meeting of the Human Services and Public Health committee predicting the descent into lawlessness should the legislation go forward. They believed that the proposal would give vehicle residents a free pass from parking enforcement, and would place drug use and danger right next to their homes.The bottom line is that the rule of law should be followed, said Cindy Pierce of the NSA.
“The council just throws these Bandaids out, but there are no real answers,” she said.
The response demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of how the program would operate, and how the system works — and doesn’t — today, Kirlin-Hackett said.
“The safe zones are not going to be on neighborhood streets,” Kirlin-Hackett said. They weren’t there before and they won’t be there now. They’re running into a situation that supports their fears. If you don’t do anything, the current situation stays.
“It’s a puzzle to me why beginning to have a conversation about a remedy offends so many people when it is the current situation that bothers them,” he said.
Ashley Archibald is a Staff Reporter covering local government, policy and equity. Have a story idea? She can be can reached at ashleya (at) realchangenews (dot) org. Twitter @AshleyA_RC
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