RVs are their homes. Is there no room for them in SLO County? | Opinion

There is only one place in San Luis Obispo County where unhoused people can park their RVs, campers and cars and stay there 24/7 — free of charge.

Yet after nearly two years, that place is shutting down.

San Luis Obispo County is phasing out the Oklahoma Avenue safe parking site, though it won’t close until other housing arrangements are lined up for the remaining residents.

The county gave several reasons for shutting down the site:

• It was a pilot program that was never meant to be permanent.

• The site lacks hookups for water, sewer and electricity.

• Nonprofit agencies weren’t interested in running it.

• Some of the older units aren’t up to code, putting residents at risk. (A woman died in a fire there in February 2022, when she was trapped inside her RV.)

• And finally, the program did not succeed in its original goal, which was to serve as a stepping stone to permanent housing.

SLO County (was) ahead of the curve

Those are all valid concerns.

Yet the county is underestimating the value of what it provides at Oklahoma Avenue.

SLO County was ahead of the curve in offering a safe parking facility that’s open 24 hours a day and allows RVs.

Many safe parking lots around California don’t allow oversized vehicles — which means RV dwellers have to park illegally or find a property owner willing to take them in.

Also, the vast majority of safe parking lots in the state are open only at night, which means residents have to go elsewhere during the day — not an easy task in communities where most parking is either metered or short-term.

How can people concentrate on improving their situations — meeting with case managers, filling out housing applications, applying for jobs, accessing services like counseling and health care — when they have to worry about schlepping from one parking place to another all day long?

Some areas of the state are just now offering what San Luis Obispo County already has — but is in the process of closing. While it’s committed to finding housing for the remaining residents, it isn’t accepting any new RV dwellers.

That’s taking a step backward.

Why not build on what’s already there, rather than closing down and starting from scratch?

Or at least work on opening a similar facility elsewhere, if the Oklahoma Avenue location isn’t suitable. If necessary, charge a reasonable fee — preferably based on ability to pay — to defray expenses.

Consider the alternative: If people living out of their RVs don’t have a sanctioned space, they’ll park illegally at locations across the county — compounding their own problems and creating a nuisance for nearby neighbors who don’t want their streets overrun by caravans of campers, which has happened before.

Instead of designating an area where people can park at little or no cost, the county seems fixated on getting everyone into traditional housing, which generally means a studio, small apartment or perhaps a tiny home.

That’s an unrealistic goal. Housing is scarce in San Luis Obispo County — especially affordable housing. And not everyone is interested in living in a traditional home. That shouldn’t make them outcasts.

If San Luis Obispo County truly wants to alleviate homelessness, it should expand the definition of housing to include a range of alternatives.

And if RV living suits some people’s long-term needs, why not accommodate them with a no-frills, low-cost park? That’s got to be less expensive than building apartments or converting hotel rooms.

‘Vehicle triage center’

Yes, there are potential pitfalls.

For instance, in 2020 the city of San Jose set up an RV park and provided refurbished FEMA trailers for $1.3 million.

“But sewage backed up, there were electrical problems and elderly people picked to live in the trailers because of pre-existing health conditions had trouble accessing the site,” CBS News reported. “Only 37 people lived in the trailers for three weeks before the city pulled the plug, blaming escalating costs.”

And a “vehicle triage center” in San Francisco that opened a little over a year ago also has been plagued with problems — the biggest being the lack of electricity for RVs.

But elsewhere, San Francisco made it work.

During the COVID pandemic, the city operated an RVpark at another location with federal funding from Project Room Key. A writer for Salon called it a “runaway success story.”

Unfortunately, many of the programs are temporary, which is inviting conflict.

Even if the sites are less than ideal, of course people are going to be upset if they shut down — because it essentially takes away their home.

San Luis Obispo County is doing the right thing by finding replacement housing for current residents of Oklahoma Avenue.

But the issue won’t go away when the site is closed. Some residents will continue to live in their RVs, even if it means being ticketed.

It’s time to expand our definition of “permanent housing” to consider non-traditional shelters as well — and we strongly encourage the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors to head in that direction.