COLORADO SPRINGS has long banned parking RVs on city streets in residential neighborhoods, but soon, City Council will cast a vote on whether to expand that prohibition to all city streets, reports Colorado Springs Independent.
Councilor David Geislinger, who said he opposes the ordinance as currently written, said he foresees creating a “Whack-a-mole” situation where RV dwellers would merely move the problem from place to place.
He also said he views the ordinance as criminalizing homelessness, though the city’s legal advisor said the offense is a parking violation, not a criminal charge. Read more.
BERKELEY — Since being kicked out of the Berkeley Marina, a group of 22 RV dwellers has lugged their aging rigs from place to place like nomads and, to the chagrin of some neighboring businesses, settled down in West Berkeley — possibly their last stop before being driven out of town, reports the East Bay Times.
They live in about 15 RVs at Eighth and Harrison streets in an industrial area, and nearby businesses have pleaded with the city to do something to manage the number of RVs parked there.
But the RV dwellers say they have nowhere else to go, and they don’t want to move to another city, Yesica Prado, one of the RV dwellers, said. Many are longtime Berkeley residents, some with children in Berkeley Unified schools. Read more.
Homeless people living in RVs are still being ticketed in SAN DIEGO despite a federal injunction blocking one kind of enforcement, prompting advocacy groups to launch a program that helps fight the tickets with sophisticated appeals, reports the The San Diego Union-Tribune.
San Diego police have obeyed the federal judge’s order to stop issuing tickets under the city’s vehicle habitation law, but the police have continued issuing tickets under the city’s oversized vehicle law.
So Disability Rights California and Think Dignity began hosting clinics last week at which they teach homeless people living in RVs how to legally appeal the tickets, request administrative hearings, and mount a “necessity” defense.
Even if the appeals end up failing, the advocacy groups say they will have achieved the goal of making it harder for the city to force homeless people, especially disabled homeless people, out of their RVs and onto the streets. Read more.
Nothing to discuss, really. Unemployment, low-paying part-time jobs, stagnant wages, sickness, addictions and disability lead to homelessness. And all of those are regarded with disfavor in this nation. Poor people live where they can, however they can. It may be illegal and criminal, but what is the alternative? As our old 86-year-old neighbor lady protests, “If they would only get off their lazy {bleeped} and get a decent job!”
She’s no more clueless than most of the city and state authorities who scramble to appease angry residents who fear the poor and homeless. Perhaps they expect them to crawl under an overpass somewhere and die… problem solved.
Or we could agree that a nation is only as good as how its treats its people, and we begin to change our attitude so to find real solutions to a national disgrace.
Very well said!!! People living in RV’s on the streets are not there by choice but by circumstances beyond their control. If the critics would spend a day or two working at a soup kitchen for the underprivileged during the holiday season they might see another side of the story. When we begin to see another side we can become a part of the solution. Unfortunately, affordable housing is pretty much non existent in most communities now and until that can be addressed we’ll continue to be at a standstill.