The Seattle City Council and Mayor Ed Murray will officially announce their plans to open “safe lots” for homeless people living in RVs today, according to a source inside city hall. The idea, which has been recommended by homelessness advocates, rose to new prominence earlier this month after neighbors railed against RVs parked in their neighborhoods at a community meeting in Magnolia. The residents called for the city to open a lot and then issue a “moratorium” on all RV parking in Magnolia, Ballard, and other neighborhoods. Erica C. Barnett first reported news of the city’s plans last week.
This afternoon, Murray will send an emergency declaration—part of the ongoing state of emergency on homelessness—to the city council ordering the creation of two “safe lots,” which would operate similar to city-sanctioned homeless encampments, with codes of conduct and nonprofits offering oversight and case management to the residents.
The mayor’s office is eyeing two locations for the RV lots: one on city-owned land in Ballard and the other on a piece of property in Delridge that the city is in the process of purchasing from the Washington State Department of Transportation, a source in city hall said last night. Combined, the lots will hold about 50 vehicles total. The startup and operating costs, including garbage service, will come from the $7.3 million the mayor and city council have allocated to address the state of emergency.
The city’s plan will also include increased enforcement by the Seattle Police Department of parking rules that limit how long people—including those living in their cars—can park on streets in different parts of town. The county is expected to make a similar, but probably more vague, announcement about safe lots today.
Seattle City Council member Sally Bagshaw, who has been advocating for the lots, told MyNorthwest.com she envisioned something “KOA-like.”
“This is not free parking forever,” Bagshaw told the site, “but while people are getting services they need, it’s a space with a roof over their head.”
It’s an argument that echoes the reasoning behind city-sanctioned tent encampments. (Speaking of the encampments, the city has yet to open its promised third tent encampment. Expect to see mention of that in today’s executive order, including possible language that could allow the city to issue a permit for a new encampment before holding a public meeting on the issue. That’s allowed under the state of emergency.)
Bagshaw and Council Member Mike O’Brien, who both attended the Magnolia meeting, have been at the forefront of this issue, but it’s hard to imagine anyone on the new city council opposing the mayor’s plan.
Rather, expect members like Kshama Sawant (possibly joined by some homelessness advocates) to argue the mayor’s office isn’t going far enough. They may also criticize an enforcement crackdown, arguing that those living in vehicles parked on the street who don’t move to the lots still have limited ability to pay parking fines or impound fees.
Last year’s one-night homeless count found 1,138 people sleeping in cars and trucks in King County, 776 of those in Seattle.
In late 2014, a task force made up largely of homelessness advocates and focused on unsheltered homelessness recommended that the city undertake an effort to open lots where people living in vehicles could park safely. That group extended their point to enforcement, too.
“It is suggested that the city not tow or boot cars the police suspect are used for housing,” the task force wrote, saying that the city should instead “give them repeated warnings and information about Road to Housing [a program connecting people living in vehicles to services], and to grant leniency (or forgiveness) of tickets for unauthorized parking and expired license tabs. (Or the city could set up an ‘interest‐free, pay later program’ whereby people could pay when they are stably employed and housed.)”
I’ll update as we get more details about all this today.
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