Eugene considers new rules to fine or impound vehicles, crack down on car camping

Eugene city councilors are considering rule changes to make vehicles easier to impound or fine, just 10 months after a Register-Guard report highlighted how the city of Eugene impounds hundreds of vehicles every year, many of which double as peoples' homes.

Kelly McIver, spokesperson for the city's unhoused response, said the rules would "apply to any vehicle operators who violate the code, regardless of housing status," but at both the November work session and Tuesday's public hearing for the proposed rule changes, councilors' conversations centered around car camping.

"I've got a number of (car campers) in my ward that basically move between three spots," Councilor Randy Groves said. "We should lead with compassion, and that's the safe sleep sites and places like that. But the bottom line is we also need to have accountability, responsibility and consequences."

According to data from Lane County, 3,574 people were unhoused in Eugene in January 2024 and 2,446 (68%) of those people were unsheltered. For unsheltered people with cars or RVs, the city funds 33 spots of St Vincent de Paul's car camping program. Lane County funds six more. Joel Gorthy, spokesperson for the nonprofit, told the Register-Guard that this program has a 324-person waitlist as of Monday morning.

In June 2021, Eugene established stricter parking rules in response to complaints from home and business owners who didn't like to see cars camping near them. The city limited where people could park recreational vehicles overnight and required people to move at least two blocks every three days.

Unhoused people and their advocates criticized the rules and the resulting car and RV impoundments for being punitive and adding greater cost, stress and instability to people who are already struggling.

Heather Marek is an attorney for the Oregon Law Center, a nonprofit that provides free legal aid to low-income Oregonians. Marek often represents unhoused Eugene residents who had their car or RV impounded.

"(Parking rules) don't alleviate the causes of vehicle residency and homelessness, which are just lack of housing and poverty. And so the ordinances have no deterrent effect because people can't help but violate them," she told the Register-Guard.

According to a Register-Guard public records request, Eugene impoundments increased from between 14 and 52 per month in 2021, to between 42 and 116 per month in 2022. According to a city staff presentation, the number of complaints the city received about people camping in vehicles decreased from between 800 and 1,300 per month in the first half of 2021 to between 200 and 500 per month in 2022.

That staff presentation, and a public records request Marek shared with the Register-Guard, showed similar numbers for 2022 and 2023. Marek also pointed out that of the $43,420 in parking fines the city had given out for "storage on the street" from January 2022 to mid-November 2023, just 15% had been paid.

"If people can't pay the fine, if they can't avoid violating the law, it really brings to question why we're imposing them," she said. "Fines affect people's credit (and) affect people's ability to get into housing."

But at Tuesday's public hearing, councilors and the one resident who came for public comment focused on a desire to limit car camping's impact on housed Eugene residents.

"It's a big problem. You have a lot of RVs," Councilor Emily Semple said. "They usually leave garbage behind … and I hope that we can help this situation."

The proposed code changes would:

• Add a once-per-day parking time limit. Currently, people are allowed to park in a two-hour parking space, move at least two blocks, and later park again on the first block. This rule would make it illegal to park more than two hours total on the same block face within one day if that block face is in a 2-hour parking zone.

• Make RV parking near residences an impoundable offense. Currently, it's punishable by a fine to park an RV in front of or across from a house, hotel or apartment complex between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. The proposed code would let the city impound RVs caught violating this rule three times within a 90-day period.

• Make parking in front of a mailbox punishable by impoundment without warning.

• Empower neighborhood and parking officers to impound RVs if they catch the owner draining a waste tank onto a street, sidewalk, accessway, shared-use path, stormwater drainage system, or wetland. This is already an impoundable offense, but the proposed change would expand who has the authority to carry out that impoundment.

• Remove the rule that the city can charge no more than $2 per hour for on-street parking.

• Increase the city's maximum parking fines and double fines that aren't paid within 30 days. These maximum fines vary depending on the violation. "Prohibited Stopping, Standing and Parking," which includes most of the above rules, would have its max fine increased from $100 to $500.

The city council is tentatively scheduled to vote on these code amendments on March 11.

Alan Torres covers local government for the Register-Guard. He can be reached over email at atorres@registerguard.com or on X @alanfryetorres.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Eugene city council considers stricter parking regulations