The epidemic of “houseless” people who live on the streets in mostly old or dilapidated RVs continues to grow. In this case, they line a stretch just off U.S. 101 in Novato, California, for two miles in one of the wealthiest counties in America, where the average home price last year exceeded $1.4 million.
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Like many other communities around the USA, the price to buy or even rent a home or apartment is out of reach for many residents. An RV is increasingly the best option, short of pitching a tent alongside a freeway or on a city street.
Low-income residents in Marin County say that they have been left with nowhere to go as a cost-of-living crisis grips the region.
Officials have speculated that because the encampment along Binford Road gets support from the community, it has a reputation as one of the last remaining areas where people sleeping in their cars won’t get hassled by law enforcement.
Information for the article and photos is from the Daily Mail.
Watch the video below to learn more.
##RVT1104b
love the smell of urine in the morning
Raise awareness here: I’m born and raised just outside of Marin. I’ve worked in real estate, health, and education around the greater bay area. There is a systematic issue here somewhere, stop blaming, start observing and asking question, start thinking compassionately creative.
I was also a landlord. I cared that people had a home. I didn’t raise rents even if I “could have” because that makes people struggle. I kept a spare room open in my own home, for helping others get on thier feet. I never charged over $300. Often I simply wanted some help in the kitchen or garden and maybe $100 to help with bills.
I don’t use drugs. I lost homes and businesses to fires and covid. Some injuries and health issues as side effects of sudden losses have left me disabled. Being suddenly homeless makes it near impossible to get mail to even start to get back on my feet. One needs a mailing address to recieve help or get a job.
This camp looks clean, like these people are doing thier best.
Sounds like mismanagement to me. Real Estate, Education, Health Care, Landlord? No fire insurance? No health insurance?
I too have done and continue to do a lot to help elevate others and will continue to do so but where and how remains my personal choice. Anyone who says more taxes will help solve the problem, is the problem.
Have you no compassion man? Do you not realize your day of reckoning is near, when you will cry out to God, begging for his compassion and mercy?
I prepare my soul daily for judgement. Compassion is not linear.
I see no compassion in our open border policy while others believe it is open as a sign of compassion. I believe it is govt subsidized human trafficking. I believe it is akin to slavery. I believe it will make the scenes in the video/article worse.
Your compassion could be my fools journey. My kind of compassion may not suit you. You do not know my journey, you do not know my story. You do not know where or how I give.
We both identify a problem but more of the same is not the solution. More gold corrupts this fools errand further. Like dung on tomatoes, the weeds grow faster too.
they not homeless they got a car or a mobile home they receive help of the government 🤔🤔
They don’t pay taxes. Don’t deserve help. Why help those that don’t help themselves. Free loaders.
If you buy a soda, gas, a bottle of water then you are paying taxes…
Or, if you shoplift a soda, gas and a bottle of water, you are not paying taxes. In fact shoplift $949.00 twice a day sell it on the street for 20 cents on the dollar to finance your drug habit. Welcome to sanfranfreaksho.
Oh come on! While I’m certain that not all homeless are upstanding citizens neither are they all terrible thieves. Many people who can’t afford the housing are working and living in RVs. It’s certainly easier to make them all be villains. That way it’s all their fault and no one needs to think of solutions.
I’m not blaming them. I’m blaming the system that puts them there and whose only solution is to moly coddle them. Possibly, 20% need help mentally but can’t get it. 20% need to be forcibly committed to a hospital. 20% just need a job and will acheive some upward mobility and like it or not 30% need to go to jail for few years and the last 10%….. well who knows but I’m willing to invest in that model.
Just sayin Kelly.
BTW, I answered, very respectfully I might add, your Finland example which is actually one of the examples I thought would come back.
Have a good evening.
Yeah, I’ve not had time. I just reacted when you responded to someone who mentioned that if they buy soda, etc that they pay taxes, by basically insinuating that a common scenario was shoplifting so they weren’t paying taxes.
I’m all for spending more money to help the mentally ill and to get them into mental hospitals to get them help and then releasing them after they are stabilized, or keeping them if they can’t stabilized or aren’t willing to take their meds.
Since many people who are mentally ill try to self-medicate by drinking or by abusing drugs getting them into treatment in addition to psych meds is important. For those who don’t have any mental illness but have drug issues I’m all for getting them into treatment but not repeatedly.
The problem is that there’s not a lot of open beds in mental hospitals and treatment centers. There’s also a need for outpatient mental health support. All of this takes money. Tax dollars. Call your representative and senator. Otherwise it doesn’t get better.
The amount of hate here and the lack of compassion is disheartening. I have got to stop reading comments on the articles. It is making me want to unsubscribe from rvtravel.com
I for one enjoy the discourse in these comments. As a matter of fact, I’m gonna throw in another 20 bucks to rvtravel, it’s well worth the entertainment.
I know. I love this forum and will toss another payment into the receptacle soon.
I dont choose the subject matter but if it is possibly on the fringe of current societal issues, I won’t nod in agreement any longer like a bobblehead.
I agree with as many reader posts as I disagree with. I’m just more entertained by the lunacy. The LOL stuff. 😅🤣😅🤣
Fyi they are not homeless if they are living In campers ijs
They’re not homeless. They’re full timers!
JUST KIDDING!
Jeeze people. Get a sense of humor!
That was funny. LOL. My sense of humor is intact, thank God for that.
Hope your evening with the real stuff, the important stuff, was perfect.
I wish I had a camper so I can be “homeless,” I don’t even have a vehicle
All the people in here with so much negative words, instead of this being a homeless bashing rally you could all use your very smart witty minds and brainstorm solutions. One of the main social changes over the last 50 years, we stopped loving thy neighbor, stopped helping people, we’ve grown insensitive to others…..
Actually, we’ve quit listening to others we disagree with. We try to silence them. We no longer discuss a variety of ideas and work pragmatically towards a result. We view others with different views as the enemy. It is wokeism, forcing people to believe what is not true. Only say approved things or be silenced.
Mostly,
It is tribalism and it has to end.
You seem to be the one trying to silence everyone. So focused on red vs blue. Sad.
Personally I think that Airb&b and VRBO is the reason that housing has increased so much. There’s been a strong surge in buyers from investment companies to turn houses into “hotel rooms”. You can rent them out for 1-2 weeks a month and be money ahead. So – where do all the service workers live? Where do the previously “middle-class” workers live who can’t “work virtually” like post office employees, bus drivers, etc? Where I live if someone has even a single rental house they are almost ALL turning them into Airb&b.
I agree. AirBnB, VRBO, part of the problem. A very large part of the problem is the businesses fleeing the crime and it is becoming circular like the chicken and egg. The more businesses that flee, the less jobs available. It has to start with crime. There is no other starting place than making the city safe again for business to thrive. It will take a backbone in leadership to put criminals on jail. Give police some power back and start prosecuting crimes.
I am all about solutions but unless the root of the problem is viewed without tribalism, no solution and a full collapse of our society is imminent. Maybe the other tribe can be heard because the singular tribe’s solutions don’t seem to be enough. BOTH WAYS.
Air B n b is ruining good neighborhoods. Who wants some big party loud noise moving into your neighborhood, or next door for a week or longer. Good hotels won’t put up with what’s going on nowadays, why should good homeowners..
But isn’t that what you’re doing? Slamming every thought that doesn’t align with your self-described “red” views? It seems as though you are just using those people’s views as fodder for your own personal enjoyment while using every cliche in the book (ie – virtue signalling, wokism, Marxists, etc). Just because someone has different views than you doesn’t mean that they are on the complete opposite end of the spectrum of views. Plenty of very good, prosperous, hard-working people share their views. It doesn’t make them the enemy.
Exactly and this is a contuation of the last 2 posts to you and Sven. My side are not the silencers. Canceling people that disagree with the Climate Change philosophies of the day. Canceling people that think only 2 genders exist. Canceling people that think criminals belong in prison. Canceling people that disagree with child castration. Deleting history we don’t like does not change history. History happened.
I try to silence no one. I would prefer civil conversations but unless both sides voices and opinions are welcome without demonization, it won’t happen.
I would prefer to engage productively but until I the woke Marxists that demand i use they/them pronouns and agree that men can really truly be women, it doesn’t change.
That is the silencing I fight against. What silencing do you fight against?
To be clear Kelly B, which red views do we or me force on others? We don’t care what your or anyone blue thinks or does as long as it has no negetive impact on us. We are just not going along with being forced to agree with “gender fluidity”, “Climate catastrophe”, “teachers rights greater than parents rights in schools”, electric vehicles, no gas stoves, solar for all, green new agenda, etc.
It is not the red forcing anything on the blue, it is the opposite. The lefts ideas are the ones pushed under threat of law or canceling. Ideas so good you need laws to make sure people go along.
Said the Chief.
Sven and Kelly B, yes, you are both correct but with one simple distinction. I and many people that agree with me are pushing back on 3 years of being Gaslighted. A time when the left shut down our posts on Facebook and twitter. Shut down the speech of the doctors we trusted. When the MSM told us that over $2 billion in damages in the summer of 2020 from burned down cities was a satisfactory response for the awful murder of druggie named George Floyd. Deplorable, and rascists to this day on ABC ‘s the View. BTW. You don’t know my skin color. Who cares what it is. I did not chose it.
When the federal Gov’t openly announced plans for its ministry of truth. When we are told more than 2 genders exist and we must agree or be labeled as transphobic.
As soon as the left stops silencing views they don’t like and accept people with different ideas and views are welcome again, my tribe will lower its Tomahawk.
I’m pushing back, and maybe your not left wing zealots, but it is a push back against big Gov’t and being silenced. Kind if like the civil libertarians if the 70s. ACLU ring a bell.
I respect your opinions but mine won’t take a back seat.
But the problem isn’t that you won’t be told how to live your life. It’s that you’re telling others how to live their lives.
Book banning….how about letting the parents decide instead of removing them?
Teaching about how the past treated blacks and indigenous people (and also Irish, Jews, etc) isn’t okay because it might make kids feel bad about how their ancestors (perhaps) treated them. So what? If kids can be proud of what their ancestors did why isn’t it okay if perhaps they feel sad about what their ancestors may have done? It’s the emotional equivalent of every kid needing a trophy so they feel good about themselves. Kids are resilient. Should kids of German and Italian descent not learn about the holocaust?
I can go on but I think that you get my point.
I totally agree with you about the crime. I’m tired of cities and states telling the police that they can’t do their jobs. My paternal grandfather, 2 uncles and 3 cousins were all Seattle cops. I do understand that side.
I think that there’s middle ground instead of both sides trying to dictate what is “allowed”.
Your a conservative and you just don’t know it.
In order:
I’m not telling anyone how to live their lives.
I disagree with banning books.
Every book in a library that is available to a child under 16 should have consent of the parents. Books with any sexual topic or religious elements should need a permission slip for kids to access them. Teachers are not the parents. They get no say, zero, in a child’s gender identity, period. Virginia is a good example of the justice department labeling parents terrorists for protecting their own kids from predators.
On history, our history is ugly at times and even the most unsavory of topics needs to be learned and discussed. I take no issue with teaching history and have no idea how you put that in my box. I see the left whitewashed history, not the right. IE: Columbus but moreover, why are we tearing down statues of our founding fathers. That’s censorship. That is canceling of history.
Obviously we mostly agree on the issues, just not who the truly agrieved party is.
Cont.
So again, give me a specific red idea or policy being forced on others by the right. You have it backwards, IMHO, the right didn’t force vaccines, the right didn’t shut down schools for an extra year for no need, the right didn’t shut off social media for disagreeable but factual posts. The right ain’t trying to make anyone use “they and them” pronouns. The right isn’t forcing people to say we have more than 2 genders. The right isn’t forcing school kids to learn about drag queens. My list for you goes on as well yiurs did for me but im sure you get my point.
Who exactly is censoring you ask? Maybe check with the doctors that were right about natural immunity but were silenced for a year.
Lol! You have more energy than me.
A very conservative guy from Louisiana that I met while metal detecting in England told me (add the accent it makes it better):
“Kelly, I don’t think that you’re a liberal. I think that you think that you’re a liberal but I don’t think that you’re a liberal.” I realized that he didn’t really know any “liberals” and he knew that he didn’t like liberals but he liked me so, ergo, I’m not a liberal. Lol! I really like him and hopefully he’ll be on the tour again. The 3 guys that I had breakfast with each morning, him included, were all Vietnam vets and had interesting stories.
I consider myself a moderate. I’m center-left as are most of the people I know. We just don’t make good newsfeed on the conservative channels.
I’ve never heard about any school kids being forced to hear from drag queens. I’ve only heard of voluntary storytelling in libraries, or bookstores, etc. Where did any school force that? It’s a lie if you heard that. Parents are the ones who take the kids to those. When I grew up we had a kid show with a guy dressed as a clown (J.P.Patches) who lived at the town dump. His next door neighbor was Gertrude, who was played by a guy wearing a wig. It was a great show and much beloved. With some of the laws being passed by the social police in Red areas he would be arrested today.
Red idea? How about making abortion illegal including allowing anyone who wants to the ability to sue anyone who helped a woman obtain one by going to another state, even if they just drove them to the airport.
I think you hit the nail on the head. Abortion. Not sure about the airport drop-off part of your statement. It is abortion that gives the left its foothold and is an issue that will galvanize leftside voters. It will fail the Rs everytime if they can’t put a cohesive policy and message together.
I’m center right but have pretty big helping of libertarianism in the old sence of the label. Civil libertarianism more likely depicts me. The Crazies on both sides make me crazy.
I moved to the USA 34 years ago. Got my citizenship in a ceremony of 113 with 42 countries represented. Proudest day of my life.
Came here with dirt in pockets. Made my path with lots of sweat. What a country this is.
Where did you emigrate from? So do you have dual citizenship? I often wish that I had dual citizenship. Besides this country there’s other countries that I would love to have the option of moving to. England (because of metal detecting) and Finland because of my heritage.
God Save The King!
Moved here from Canada at a time when when a medical full body inspection was still required to get residency. Times have changed on that matter. Grew up in Saskatchewan, then some time Alberta. My American wife’s tomatoes got snowed on in August and that was it, we packed up everything we owned (it fit in the trunk of an Oldsmobile) and left for greener/warmer pastures. Heritage, Poland/England.
Here’s a solution: Prosecute crime, businesses won’t flee taking jobs with them when they go. Creating a safe business community thus filling up some of the 40% commercial vacancy rate, thus creating more jobs and a safe place to raise a family.
Problem solved. It will take time and a spine, any takers?
What we have been doing: Leave the mentally ill and drug addicted to fend for themselves and make $950.00 shoplifting a misdemeanor because it is compationate to not punish crime. Compationate to who? The CVS that locks toothpaste behind glass now?
Happy Mother’s Day to all mother’s! I was blessed to spend the day with my wife, our three children, and their families. I refuse to allow the negativity on this topic thread to cast a shadow on my day.
I read this newsletter for information, and entertainment about the RV hobby that I have enjoyed for 50+ years. Not to ridicule, or to be ridiculed by others.
The temperature of this discussion has gotten needlessly out of control, and I choose not to fan the flames any higher.
Now if you will excuse me. I have my REAL life to return to.
People living in RVs are not homeless. To suggest such downplays homelessness.
I have driven down that road. I see trailers with classic cars on them, an iroc z convertible, and a corvette amongst other things. Give me a break on the boo hoos for “homeless”. In the old days there was no help and if you needed to get ahead in life you sold your stuff and you moved to a different location or another state. Funny how 60% of the “homeless” in the US are in Cali. Go figure. A lot of them make $200 a day cash by sitting in front costco or somewhere similar. You think they pay any taxes to help with the homeless problem? Give me a break.
So your saying California is a magnet for the homeless. That people travel to California for the free lunch, syringes, drug availability, shoplifting without consequences up to $900. Oh yeah, and the weather. That California has 12% of America’s population and almost 60% of the countries homeless. Things are going pretty good in the Golden State. At least the taxpaying citizens aren’t moving out…. to say ….. maybe Florida, Tennessee, or Idaho? Maybe if they decide to pay that $1 million bucks each in reparations things should get better. What a joke. Comedy of the absurd. Laughing full throated at the bleeding hearts. 🤣 😅🤣😅🤣😅
How else does one get to live in the wealthiest county in California??
Besides, I don’t consider people who live in an RV homeless. I think it’s a perfectly fine home.
Lived in one myself for a number of years.
County may be wealthy, but Novato definitely isn’t, used to frequent it quite often. More like a dump, just like Central San Rafael
Look you close minded person my house burned and my insurance found a way to not pay..I went through hell and 1 camper..1960 model.. and a nice vintage RV …both destroyed by insured home/ car owner types, and got screwed by that institution all you homeowners swear by. But I have a 3rd RV now and used it for a year and a half then found a house to remodel to get of the curb..so to speak.. well I finished,the house sold so quickly I’m back in my RV in 12 days not the agreed on 30 days…all the time other than redoing that house..climbing trees for my living. Oh I’m 56.. and never asked anyone for money. And even got under payed because the Homeowners thought they could do that because….SO WHAT YOU WROTE…IS EXTREMELY INSULTING AND WILL DEEM YOU EXACTLY WHAT YOU SEEM TO LOOK DOWN ON..I look down on the poor people that haven’t been tested yet.. like yourself… and all the other people that think they are indistructable..I AM. MOSTLY..WE ARE INDESTRUCTIBLE AND PROVE THAT EVERYDAY….
I’m sure most of those folks are the poor servants who work at doing all the dirty deeds for those who own a house. Minimum wage will not pay the rent and buy food.
Really? That’s what your going with? That’s the new servants quarters for the SF rich. Got it.
Novato is ghetto, but I guess since it is in a rich county, the assumption is it is wealty as well. I live in Santa Clara County where you can rent a beautiful bedroom for 900. Crazy how rent is, food too.
Exactly. It is not a Right to live anywhere you want to whether you can afford it or not. I want to live with a harbor view in Newport beach but oh yeah, I also want to live in house not under a tarp.
We all have a right to live where we want to, as long as it falls within our means.
It’s funny that the narrator making comments about the new possessions some people have. It’s not funny the bias she holds for the homeless. Not everyone homeless is a drug addict, chose to become homeless because of laziness, or has mental health issues.
I cared for two ailing parents : one with muscular dystrophy and the other with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. I gave up working full time to care for them so they could stay in their home. They died two months apart. Odor those 10 years I didn’t contribute to my Social Security . Our oldest sibling , 11 years older than myself inherited the muscular dystrophy. His home burned down in a fire, I moved to care for him, and when he passed, I couldn’t afford rent on my own, gave up all my possessions , and became homeless. I also gave up a work from home business that was just starting out. I put everything in the business and had no where to go. We are not all lazy and worthless.
Just hopes this opens one’s eyes about the homeless.,
Absolutely correct. The system’s safety net needs to catch people like your parents, your sibling and yourself. Unfortunately it catches everyone in the same net and puts them into the same box. One size fits all is not the answer for the 5% that fit your homeless crisis. We can’t pay for the 95% that are drug addicts, lazy, mentally ill and unemployable in order to ensure the 5% like yourself are taken care of the same across the board. The mentally ill need to be institutionalized and get the help they need so they are not avthreat to themselves or others. What were doing now doesn’t work.
You have my truest respect and admiration for the path you chose with your parents and I wish you only blessings in the future.
Yes, this is so true. If it was not for my other children and my parents I could be homeless. Lost my house in fire 2018 that I bought for my disabled son. We went through that then COVID-19, then before the house was built my son passed. No social security and Medicare was taken out of my checks because I was Mom. I purchased life insurance to protect my children as single parent. I forgot about me. I could easily be out on the street….
It only takes a medical emergency in your family to break you….
❤️👏
How are they homeless?
I know for myself I would definitely be living there as well in my van. It’s safer, and being a single homeless woman living in my van, I would feel much safer there.
How are you homeless if you are commenting on the article? Are you on a phone? A computer? Are you paying for that phone or are we the tax payers paying for your phone? The tax payers are all paying the brunt of your cost in California. Are you sitting there on a street corner getting $10 or $20 dollars every 3rd or 4th car passing like I see frequently? $200 to $300 a day in some cases all tax free? Give me a break with the pity party.
Hey Mr. Woodbury, as long as they have an RV they are NOT homeless!
Maby some are challenged as to means for lot rental. But then again that is why any RV can be used where there arent any utilities. That is what there were made for.
Maby it would have been a great thing if the ‘Grid’ would have crashed in the year 2000.
At least we would all be useto being back to the basics by now. We are too spoiled, becouse this IS the greatest COUNTRY in the WORLD! But the people running it act like a bunch of spoiled kids.
Try parking your RVs in Beverly Hills or Malibu..the compassionate virtue signaling elite there would have you towed in minutes..if you could even get through there gates.
Overnight parking generally is not allowed in public scenic areas. Makes sense to me, unless we want our scenic areas to look not so scenic.
Find a back street somewhere and no one will care much.
yeah but if you park a semi tractor trailer you get a ticket 502.00 as the police told me when l called them they don’t get towed because if they did (rvs) they would just sit in the impound yard unclaimed and take up space as opposed to a working individual who pays taxes and fuels the economy, gets screwed over because counties know that a tractor trailer is working vehicle and that the owner or owners will pay whatever amount to have it returned…the response from authorities is that RVs are not commercial vehicles and therefore not subject to being towed or penalties 🙄🤔🙄🤔
Yes! This is also true with theft. If they steal from you and its under a $1000.00 nothing happens to them. But if a responsible person pick up to find a persons phone well maybe think about it 🤔 first.
We found the person who stole my husband’s phone right in front of him and nothing happened.
I often hike in the open space areas near where the picture was taken. I have never had any problems doing that and the areas are somewhat separate. There is also a park and ride nearby.
I’ve seen the RV encampment grow as cities passed ordinances like the one in nearby San Rafael: “RVs may not park on public streets citywide (except when a temporary permit has been issued by the Parking Services office).” That would make it hard if I were RVing and wanted to stop at a favorite restaurant, get a donut, or look at the mission site. Would they rather people camp in a tent somewhere?
I don’t have a solution. I used to manage a food program in a more rural area of Marin and even then most of the clients were locals who were being squeezed out by rising costs.
In California, Reagan closed many mental health programs which sparked one of the first of the homeless on the street.
Failure to comply with low income housing mandates, treatment, and other issues combine.
Yes! Reagan did close down the federal/state hospital systems while I was working in them. Now the group home situation is much worse than any hospital I worked in ID or NV.
Now we have mentally low, mentally ill, criminal, drug, alcohol abuse all rolled into the dirty littered homeless encampments.
Many drug addicts recieve a SSI check via direct deposit to bank.
of course, spot savers are provided for when the need to use a dump station occur… or does the town provide a honey wagon, water and gas service?