Homeless in an RV

I wrote a blog over a year ago about homeless living in RVs. The following article was in the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, January 22, 2009:

Tough economic times have spilled onto the streets of Venice, which has become a favorite place to park for scores of otherwise homeless people living in cars and campers. The practice has ignited a mini-uprising among residents living in the pricey coastal community.

The number of cars and recreational vehicles has swelled so much over the last year that Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who represents the city's coastal areas, has proposed creating special zones away from neighborhoods where people can sleep in their vehicles. "The community has been going ballistic," Rosendahl
said. "They can't park their own cars. Some of the folks who live in their cars and in campers defecate and urinate outside and create other issues of quality of life and health."

His proposal, similar to programs in Santa Barbara and Eugene, Ore., would allow the cars and recreational vehicles to park in select "municipal properties, parking lots of churches or community-based organizations, industrial areas and other areas that would have minimal impact on residential communities."

. . .

Up to 200 people are living in campers or cars in the Venice area, which has many residential areas where overnight parking is not restricted, the councilman said.

Times are getting bad . . .