Makeshift RV camps spark concern

Like many local households, the Reyes family is faced with dwindling options to continue living in Mountain View.

Last month, the family of four lost their Ortega Avenue apartment, where they had lived for 10 years, after their property owner increased their rent by 35 percent. Jose Reyes said his job at a Palo Alto restaurant didn’t provide enough income to keep living there, but he was equally worried about moving to a cheaper area. His family had planted roots in Mountain View, and his 10-year-old daughter was starting a new year at Castro Elementary School.

So the family got the best deal they could find on an RV, packed up their belongings and for the last three weeks have been living out on the street. Eventually, the Reyes family hopes to find a permanent home, but until they do, they are making this lifestyle work, he said.

And they aren’t alone. On a recent visit, the Reyes mobile home was one of about 13 RVs and trailers camped out near the back lot of a Target store. The spot is one of several encampments in Mountain View that have apparently grown in recent weeks as a byproduct of the local housing crunch.

People living in their RVs throughout the city has become a more visible issue, according to Sgt. Saul Jaeger of the Mountain View Police Department. While Jaeger didn’t have exact numbers on the number of RVs parked in the city or number of complaints filed about them, he said the recent congregations of RVs in residential areas have caused an uptick in public concern.

The cause isn’t totally clear, but there could be some contributing factors. Some areas of the city have recently barred overnight parking, Jaeger said, and a combination of construction and new developments in the city could have squeezed the RVs into these more visible locales. But it could be simply a socio-economic issue, as rents continue to push out residents and cause a split between the haves and the have-nots, Jaeger said.

Besides the stretch of Latham Street between Escuela Avenue and Showers Drive, lines of RVs have cropped up along Crisanto Avenue near Rengstorff Park, as well as around the Americana Apartments near the Sunnyvale border. At a community meeting last week, Mountain View police Chief Max Bosel told residents that the department has also fielded complaints about RVs parked near the Grant Park Plaza. These clusters of RVs do create a significant quality of life issue in the city, he said.

“It’s a challenging issue (and) it’s becoming more prevalent,” Bosel said.

Neighborhood concerns

The Latham Street encampment is right in front of the Avalon Towers, where a one-bedroom apartment rents for about $3,000 a month. Residents say they are sympathetic to people down on their luck; however, they say having people essentially live on the street is fast becoming a source of noise, garbage and safety problems for the area.

About a year ago, there might be one or two trailers parked on the side of the road, but nothing like this, said Ellespeth Ingham, a nearby resident who posted an open letter to the City Council complaining about the issue. RV-dwellers have been dumping trash as well as other waste along the curbs, she said, adding that she no longer feels safe walking alone in the area.

“I’m not a city planner: I don’t know what these people are supposed to do, but I know they’re not supposed to be here,” she said. “This is not a suitable shelter.”

In 2013, the city of Palo Alto responded to similar complaints by passing a ban on sleeping in vehicles overnight. Its city council overturned the ban in November 2014, in part because a similar ban enacted in Los Angeles was overturned by the the U.S. Court of Appeals in the Ninth Circuit.

RV and trailer owners have relatively few options in this area for sanctioned campgrounds with hookups. Earlier this year, Mountain View officials approved plans to shut down a 30-space RV park off Fairchild Drive that will be rebuilt into new row houses that are expected to sell for $900,000 apiece.

Reyes said he tried to get a spot at RV camps in Redwood City and Sunnyvale — the latter one had a list of 100 people waiting for an opening.

People living in the RV encampments say police come by regularly, but officers haven’t forced anyone to leave the area. Police have reportedly warned RV-dwellers they need to relocate every 72 hours, per the city’s parking rules. Residents say occasionally a camper trailer will get impounded and towed away, but that was reportedly due to expired registration tags.

Jaeger said that police cannot come in and forcibly remove RVs from the area, but they can enforce existing city laws. The vehicles have to be moved at least one-tenth of a mile every 72 hours, which police are actively enforcing, and residents in the RVs cannot dump their sewage into the street, obstruct sidewalks, leave empty bottles or urinate in public. And for the most part, the newcomers to these Mountain View neighborhoods are abiding by all the laws. They move their vehicles, they keep the area clean and they aren’t getting into fights, he said.

“But there are also people that are drinking and fighting and littering and urinating in public. That’s what’s garnering the attention,” Jaeger said.

Like others living on the street, Mark, who declined to give his last name, said he would gladly rent an apartment in the area, if he could just afford it. The 55-year-old has been living in his trailer for about four months. He tried living at homeless shelters, but he disliked being lumped together with people in the throes of substance abuse or who could have criminal backgrounds. Plus, most shelters didn’t allow him to bring along Tasha, his 3-year-old mini Doberman who peeked her head out of the trailer.

“You have no idea how quickly you can be out on the street. It could be sickness, divorce, bankruptcy or anything,” he told the Voice. “I’ve been working as long as I can remember, and there’s nowhere to live on my budget.”

Mark described himself as someone stitching his life back together following a rough divorce and other struggles. Minus the space, his trailer was outfitted with most the trappings of home: a small bathroom, refrigerator, bunk bed and a burner for cooking meals. He holds down a janitorial job and tries to keep a low profile about his living situation, he said.

Temporary solutions?

City Council member Lenny Siegel told the Voice that it’s a difficult situation, and that the city needs to find a solution that will meet the needs of both neighborhood residents as well as the people living in trailers.

“I’m torn. Most of us would not want this in front of our house, whether we live in an apartment or a single-family home, but these people need a place to live,” Siegel said.

Calling it one possible solution, Siegel suggested at the community meeting that the city could establish a temporary RV park in the vacant parking lots outside of Shoreline Amphitheatre during the winter months. That way, the trailers would be out of the way of Mountain View neighborhood residents, and people living in the RVs wouldn’t have to keep moving their vehicles every three days. A nonprofit or a company like Kampgrounds of America could come in and manage the park, Siegel said, offering services like bathrooms to the temporary residents.

Siegel stressed that this would be a temporary solution while the city figures out a long-term strategy.

Santa Clara County officials appear to be on the same page as Siegel. Last month, the county Board of Supervisors approved a comprehensive list of homeless housing initiatives, including pilot “safe parking” programs. Ky Le, the county’s director of the Office of Supportive Housing, said the program would give people living in their vehicles a safe place to rest overnight, and would provide security and access to basic services like showers and restrooms. He said it should have a “relatively minimal” impact on nearby businesses and residents.

In September, Le told the Voice that the city of San Jose had identified a city-owned parking lot to become one of these homeless parking locations, and that the county could pitch in funds to get things up and running. The county’s Housing Task Force recommended that the Board of Supervisors establish at least one safe parking location in North County, but it’s not clear where it will be located.

It’s also not clear to city officials exactly who is choosing to live in trailers in Mountain View. Siegel said he assumes all of them are employed, or else they would have no reason to reside in the city, but he was unsure if all of them are homeless. He said they could have homes in far away areas like Modesto and are just staying in RVs when they’re here to work. Earlier this week, a story about a Google employee who was living out of a box truck rather than pay for housing generated wide attention.

“Many of them are probably similar to the people we’ve been hearing in City Council meetings (affected by) rents going up,” Siegel said.

Whatever the solution may be, Sgt. Jaeger stressed that the RVs are not just a police issue, and that both sides need to weigh in if the city takes action.

“This requires input from a lot of stakeholders and the community, and that includes the people who live in their vehicles and the people who live in these areas,” Jaeger said.

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