Salinas >> With the clock ticking on the start of enforcement of the latest overnight parking ordinance, many wonder where the slew of RVs will go as it seems the problem shifts from one place to another.
Last week, Salinas joined a few other county cities by passing an ordinance that prohibits the parking of oversized vehicles overnight on city streets.
“The assistant police chief stated on (June 19) that the police department may have a 30-day grace period to issue warnings and to gain voluntary compliance before enforcement begins,” said Christopher Callihan, Salinas city attorney, in an email.
Enforcement may be a criminal citation, an administrative citation, or the vehicle being towed, according to Callihan.
In the last few years with the passage of similar ordinances in Marina and Seaside, RVs could be seen taking up residence on Lapis Road just north of Marina in rural Monterey County.
When people started complaining — much as Salinas Councilman Steve McShane said the citizens and businesses pointed to the health and safety issues surrounding the practice on Salinas city streets — the county began enforcing its ordinance prohibiting overnight camping on county roads.
But people moved to neighboring Monte Road further north before being cited out. Next, the problem could be seen intensifying in one location as a long line of RVs started parking on Griffin Street off John Street and Highway 101 in an industrial area of Salinas.
The Salinas prohibition not only applies to RVs but any vehicle or trailer or combination thereof, which are in excess of 20 feet in length or seven feet in height.
Prior to the 4-3 passage of the Salinas ordinance, which was hotly contested in council chambers, the Monterey County Safe Parking Program in Marina was swiped at by Supervisor District 2 John Phillips who said “I don’t think (it) has been very successful.”
His remarks came during the June 4 county budget hearings during which he also stated, “the other one that I frankly won’t support is the safe parking (program). I don’t think (it) has been very successful. How much money we put in, and now we’ve just moved the problem. I think we need a bigger area, a more focused area some of us have been working towards that, but I think we just pushed the problem over to Salinas and now Lapis Road is cleaned up, but we got everybody along the freeway in Salinas.”
Supervisor Phillips’ remarks prompted a response letter from Michael Fechter, program director for the safe parking program in Marina.
Fechter said the letter and subsequent meeting with the supervisor provided the facts about the program.
“Supervisor Phillips has a deeper understanding of our successes and why they are successes,” said Fechter. “I met with him and he sees housing as the real crisis here and access to mental health services.”
The District 2 supervisor said that he believes the cities and county ought to be working on the homeless issue together. “In some ways we’re working in silos,” said Phillips.
He believes the issue became visible when Marina and Seaside adopted their ordinances which brought people out to Lapis Road to live in their cars, trucks and RVs. In the last few months before the launch of the safe parking program, people were allowed to camp overnight on Lapis Road but needed to vacate the area during the day. Phillips said that just does not work for someone who uses their vehicle as their home.
Phillips is thinking about a bigger area on Fort Ord where people could pull in, maybe a fenced area, and bring in port-a-potties and trash dumpsters.
The supervisor said there are places on the former Army base but every one of them will surely be a problem for someone.
“I think that if we’re telling them to get out we ought to provide some place for the ones with no alternative but to live in their RV,” said Phillips.
District 4 Supervisor Jane Parker, who has been a long-time advocate for homeless issues, said in her comments about the civil grand jury’s report on homelessness, “We will continue to struggle with these complex expensive downstream problems until the public will shifts to demand upstream solutions.”
Parker said she encourages concerned residents to join in advocating for affordable housing, living wage jobs, parent education and support for families, caregiver social security credits, life skills training for youth, among other policies.
The Board of Supervisors is committed to partnering with cities and non-profits to coordinate and provide solutions, she said.
As of June 4, the Monterey County Safe Parking program had 14 guests, one shy of full occupancy. Five have found live-in work through the Monterey Parks program that allows RV dwellers to live on park property in exchange for performing work. Nine have found permanent housing through the safe parking program, five have found work through program assistance, 32 guests per week are directed to benefits improving their physical and mental health, and the program is coming in under budget and without incident.
“We are certain to have many new guests as we continue to graduate guests into work and housing,” said Fechter in his letter to the Board of Supervisors. “Without the type of one-on-one counsel and support that we provide, it is doubtful than any of our guests would have been able to make the advances in their lives – work, housing, and health – that have occurred in just 20 weeks.”
Lauren Suwansupa, Monterey County contract monitor for the safe parking program said Fechter’s assertions are correct.
“This program has shown to be valuable in that it provides another option for those in our community struggling with homelessness and sleeping in their vehicles,” said Suwansupa. “We see that homelessness is an issue in which there is not one-size-fits-all answers and this program is filling a need. We continue to work with location issues that would allow the program to operate with longer hours and in more regions of our county.”
Fechter is counting on the county to allocate at least $50,000 toward the program in the 2018-2019 budget. “But we need about $105,000 to run the program in Marina as it stands so we’re looking at a shortage of $55,000,” he said.
June 25, 2018
Monterey Herald
By James Herrera
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