The city of Seattle spent nearly $225,000 to tow and destroy recreational vehicles in 2017, records show, providing a window into the hidden costs of Seattle’s response to the vehicle resident population.
That sum, invoiced by Lincoln Towing to the “Motorhome Transfer Account,” accounts for 152 recreational vehicles (RV) and trailers towed in 2017. The newest vehicle dates from 1999, and the oldest known is from the 1970s.
Real Change requested invoices issued to the city of Seattle for the tow and disposal of RVs. While it is impossible to tell from the records which RVs have been used as vehicle residences, many are. The city of Seattle added a section to its contract with the tow company explicitly to manage costs associated with RVs.
The figure likely low-balls the amount spent to tow vehicles that people experiencing homelessness use as dwellings. Many people sleep in vans, trucks or other kinds of vehicles not captured by this records request. Other RVs could be repurchased at tow yard auctions, meaning the city does not pay to scrap them.
These are the vehicles that fall through the cracks in a system that is more cracks than not. There is little formal help for people living in their vehicles. They do not interact with homeless services in the same way that people in tent encampments and shelters do and are often asked to give up their most valuable possession and piece of security, their car, in order to access those services.
And, even when they try to follow the rules, they’re chased around the city as housed neighbors call parking enforcement on them and they struggle to pay car tab fees, tickets and the basic car maintenance required to keep their vehicle in shape to move every 72 hours.
And, even when they try to follow the rules, they’re chased around the city as housed neighbors call parking enforcement on them and they struggle to pay car tab fees, tickets and the basic car maintenance required to keep their vehicle in shape to move every 72 hours.
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Even that wasn’t enough for Holton Miller, a 55-year-old man who has lived in the Seattle area his entire life. Miller had parked his 1986 Chevrolet motorhome in the Greenlake area when a police officer, who Miller claims is familiar with him and his many vehicles, ticketed him for expired tabs.
In fact, Miller was paid up on his tabs, and simply hadn’t affixed the new stickers. When he returned to move his vehicle, the motorhome and all of his possessions were gone.
A judge sided with Miller and gave him the paperwork to free his vehicle from impound free of charge, but it took weeks to get the motorhome moved because, Miller says, the vehicle was damaged during the tow.
A judge sided with Miller and gave him the paperwork to free his vehicle from impound free of charge, but it took weeks to get the motorhome moved because, Miller says, the vehicle was damaged during the tow. The wheels, once pointing straight forward, were bent akimbo in photos that Miller snapped of his vehicle.
Now Miller is fighting to get someone, either the city or the tow company, to pay for the repairs so he’s able to put the car back out on the street.
If he puts it out in street parking again as it is, the car will end up back in the impound lot for violating the72-hour parking rules because it can’t be moved.
But Miller is determined — he wants to send a message that he can’t be pushed around simply because of his economic and legal status.
“Yeah, I’m an ex-felon, and I’m also standing up for myself too,” Miller said.
Miller took heart from the case of Steven Long, a homeless man whose truck was impounded in 2016. For 21 days, Long lost his vehicle residence and access to the tools of his trade, rendering him without shelter and a means of income.
A judge ordered Long to pay $576 to retrieve his truck, which he began paying in installments. Columbia Legal Services, a nonprofit law firm, sued on Long’s behalf and won. A judge found that the high fees violated Long’s constitutional rights and that the seizure of his vehicle residence ran afoul of a little-used Washington law called the Homestead Act.
The pioneer-era law protects homes from being used as collateral on debts. The Washington state legislature amended the law to include personal property in the 1990s.
Rather than throw the floodgates open on parking in the city, Judge Catherine Shaffer’s ruling protects people from losing their homes and valuable possessions when they can’t afford the fees, said attorney Alison Bilow.
“I think the slippery slope argument was definitely made during oral argument, that this would prevent the city from enforcing any traffic laws and towing laws,” Bilow said. “But I think that in the judge’s ruling she didn’t say that vehicular homes could never be impounded.”
Long’s case and that of Miller represent the effective equivalent of a sweep of tent encampments, but done on an individual basis and without the benefit of the Navigation Team, a group of police officers and outreach workers that try to connect people living in unauthorized tent encampments with services. The difference is that in the case of a car, the impound lot has the right to sell the vehicle at auction after two weeks and holds the vehicle owner responsible for storage and tow fees even after the car has gone to a new owner.
The only systems in place to help vehicle residents avoid tickets and the fees that they incur are two volunteers, Jean Darsie and Bill Kirlin-Hackett, who together make up the Scofflaw Mitigation Team.
Darsie and Kirlin Hackett work with parking enforcement and the courts to address issues facing vehicle residents before their situation gets to the point of impound.
Attempts to formalize their work with legislation have been met with intense pushback from housed Seattleites who believe that it will lead to permanent camping outside of their homes. In the meantime, Darsie and Kirlin Hackett operate on the basis of word-of-mouth and with whatever resources they can muster.
When told about the $225,000 spent on tows and disposal, Darsie looked wistful.
“If we had a fraction of that ...” she 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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