The coming election may decide where RVers living on the streets of East Palo Alto will be able to live, but the candidates for the city council have different ideas for how the city ought to deal with the influx of RVs parked on city streets, reports the Daily Post.
Rising rents have forced some people to move into RVs, which they park on city streets at night. It’s become a big issue in Mountain View, Redwood City, Palo Alto, and East Palo Alto. In July, the East Palo Alto City Council approved a plan to let up to 20 RVs park overnight on a city-owned lot at 1798 Bay Road, near Clarke Street. The nonprofit Project WeHope will manage the RV park. Showers, laundry rooms and a bathroom will be provided. The RV dwellers will also get help from Project WeHope when it comes to job training and finding affordable alternatives to living in an RV.
The program was approved as a yearlong pilot program, so the next council will have to decide whether to continue it or make changes. Candidate Patricia Lopez said she thinks the city could have done a better job in creating the program.
“It is impossible for these families to go and park there and then move out in the mornings,” Lopez said. “How can anyone go through a program of transitioning them out of their RVs and into housing when they must worry about moving every day?”
Lopez said she’d like to work with both the RV dwellers and those who live near the RVs to come up with a better program.
Lopez was a force behind urging the council to find a place for the RVs to park after the city, on Nov. 15, banned parking on the 1100 block of Weeks Street because of concerns that rain would send waste from the RVs into the storm drains and eventually the Bay.
