Neighborhoods burned to the ground after a “rolling meth lab” explodes. A “permanent underclass of people living in vehicles.” A dystopian Seattle overrun by former homeowners and apartment dwellers decamping from their stable living environments to take up residence in a recreational vehicle as part of an elaborate property tax dodge.
These were just a few nightmare scenarios posited by people enraged by early draft legislation that leaked from Councilmember Mike O’Brien’s office that would loosen the rules for homeless folks living in their cars or campers. Opponents came to a meeting of the Seattle City Council’s Human Services & Public Health Committee Aug. 9 to voice their complaints against the proposed legislation.
O’Brien’s intended draft, made public days after the meeting, proposes allowing people who live in their vehicles to sign up for a program that would divert residents with tickets and violations into social services rather than being towed or booted. Participants could receive amnesty from ticket payments, although this would apply to owners of recreational vehicles only if they parked in industrial areas.
It incorporates many suggestions that came out of the Vehicular Living Work Group, a group convened by O’Brien in March, that presented their recommendations at the Human Services & Public Health Committee meeting on Aug. 9.
Work group members presented the recommendations as a formalization of existing procedures that evolved over several years as volunteers, the courts and parking enforcement worked together to help vehicle residents avoid costly tickets and the legal trouble that comes along with the inability to pay.
“We’re encouraged that there’s a willingness to re-examine current processes and the way we’re responding to this issue, and we believe that consistency will create better entry to social services, support and ultimately a path out of homelessness,” said Yurij Rudensky, a staff attorney with Columbia Legal Services.
Members of the Neighborhood Safety Alliance (NSA) and Safe Seattle spoke against the proposal. Cindy Pierce of the NSA likened the concept to legislation they opposed that would have prevented police from sweeping unauthorized tent encampments if officials could not offer homeless people another place to go.
This, too, opponents asserted, would make neighborhoods less safe. One suggested posting councilmembers’ addresses and encouraging vehicle residents to park outside their homes. Another recommended using District 6 — O’Brien’s district — as a pilot.
The draft legislation gained attention after a copy was posted to the website of Scott Lindsay, former public safety adviser to Mayor Ed Murray and current candidate for city attorney. Lindsay is no fan of the concept. He took to social media to note that previous attempts to help vehicle residents were “expensive and ineffective” and that the proposals wouldn’t help homeless people of color, whom he believes are a small minority of vehicle residents.
The task force recommendations and the draft legislation seek to address a fundamental problem in Seattle’s response to the homelessness crisis. Vehicle residents make up 42 percent of the homeless population in King County, but are cut off from the support needed to help them get stable and housed.
Unlike people who sleep in shelters or even unauthorized encampments, vehicle residents do not benefit from a specific program that offers outreach. A recent attempt to establish an encampment of vehicle residents was quashed by police who noted that they had no obligation to follow the procedures that govern sweeps of tent encampments, such as offering services or providing an alternative place to go.
That means to get help, vehicle residents are tacitly asked to give up their only source of stability — their vehicle.
In the meantime, those cars and RVs can become a liability if they collect tickets for expired tabs, abandonment or a 72-hour parking violation. Too many tickets and a person can be branded “scofflaw” and their vehicle taken.
A pair of volunteers, Jean Darsie and Bill Kirlin-Hackett, formed the Scofflaw Mitigation Team six years ago, and work with parking enforcement and the courts to prevent vehicle residences from being towed or booted. But in the absence of formal legislation, people can fall through the cracks.
Darsie, who presented to the committee Wednesday, began tearing up as she described the situation with one woman whose home was impounded.
Nine days later, the woman died, Darsie 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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