Car Camping in Seattle

This story was originally published for a journalism class in June 2015

For some it is described as a lifestyle choice, but for others it is a last resort effort to maintain their own existence. Car camping, described by Seattle city attorney Brendan Brophy as “homeless living in their cars, vans, RV’s or motorhomes for extended periods of time.” Free Parking in Seattle is about as easy to find as a sunny day in the winter. Defined as “Unrestricted Parking Zones(UPZ’s),” these zones require no parking passes, zone passes, or parking fees. They provide the much needed free parking that many residents of the city need. But free parking often comes with the cost of traveling a great distance on foot to get to your destination and the only safe place for a visiting vehicle overnight is a UPZ. While the majority of the parking in Green Lake is zoned, which requires a parking pass to park for longer than 2 hours between 7 am and 6 pm, and pay-to-park 2 hour zones, there are some stretches of road that have no restrictions at all and these are becoming temporary living spaces.

Garth L’esperAnce has been living in an RV for the past year and a half while he continues to work as a metal fabricator and electrician in his machine shop in Georgetown. Spending about 60 hours a week in the shop, L’esperAnce has found it difficult to keep up with the rising rent in Seattle. Discovering a love for machine fabrication during his first two years at Washington State University, he returned to Seattle to cultivate the skills he learned in school.

After three years of success in the industry Garth, with the help of two of his coworkers, opened a metal fabrication shop of his own. Struggling to maintain the balance between business and residential bills, L’esperAnce was forced to decide between his personal comfort and his passion for fabrication, “I found myself at a point where I was spending more time at work than I was at home and it didn’t make sense to keep paying rent and utilities, which were continuing to go up every year.” Having no other options, Garth took a loan from some close friends and was able to get his new home, the RV.

Leaving his apartment behind, L’esperAnce parked his RV in an unrestricted parking zone in Georgetown near his shop, but after nine months he received a notification from parking enforcement alerting him that he needed to move. “I know one of the owners here at Smash Putt through the studio my shop is in and he offered me this space while it is open.” Fearing that the business owners will continue to report him for parking in the industrial areas of Georgetown, L’esperAnce is currently looking for a new area to park his RV.

The best places to park cars that you are sleeping in are off main roads, away from the constant rush of other cars and headlights reflecting off of every surface, and some of the best places to have this quiet, dark evening is in Green Lake. Spanning more than three miles, the area circling Green Lake is filled with low traffic, free parking zones. These spans of road have been the discussion of the community of Green Lake and Ballard for the past few months. At a Green Lake Community Council meeting on May 13, residents spoke of their tolerance to car camping as having a breaking point. A man in khaki shorts and a blue polo stood up to offer his comment, “I’m fine with people parking on the side of the road near the park, but when they park in front of my house for days at a time it becomes a problem that I don’t want.”

Green Lake Community Council chairman Paul Kostek said the community needs to do their best to reach out to the individuals affected by homelessness in the area, “We need to get out there and meet them where they are at, see what kind of assistance they need.” car camping is a growing issue among residents in Green Lake, but it is one that needs to be addressed with understanding and solidarity. Among other concerns such as littering, a perceived lack of safety has been the primary concern among the community voices.

In his presentation at the Community Council Meeting, Brophy said “The majority of the individuals who are coming to this area to park their cars are allowed to park for up to three days in an unrestricted parking zone.” He also says that the enforcement that is done to these vehicles is based on how often the offenders are reported to police. “72 hrs is usually enforced by parking enforcement but is usually complaint based by a resident or business owner.” The resulting enforcement is limited to issuing parking tickets and requesting the car be moved at least one block within the next 24 hours. However, there are limits to what the state can do to someone who has taken up residence in their car.

According to Brophy, “the state can't just go in and remove them from their home if its just a parking ticket.” While there are fines imposed for parking in restricted zones, most towing companies will not tow a vehicle when someone has taken up residence in it.

Kostek explains that there are many different ways to meet these individuals where they are and provide them the assistance they need. “We need to help people address whatever issue they are facing, and get them the resources to move into a place of their own, find employment and counseling. This will take this efforts of the City, community groups, churches and concerned citizens.”

Among other basic needs, L’esperAnce has discovered that finding parking for his 20 foot RV has been one of the the bigger struggles that he’s had to endure over the past year and half. Preferring to stay closer to the industrial areas for the first nine months of his homelessness, Garth spent his time moving between UPZ’s in Georgetown. Due to the evidence that business owners in the area are calling the police on him, he has chosen not to keep parking there. L’esperAnce is extremely grateful for the parking space he has now at Smash Putt, but doesn’t know where he will go at the end of July when this opportunity expires.

The Compass Housing Alliance provides supportive services including affordable housing programs, family programs, and emergency shelter in the Seattle Area. Along with providing those services, the Compass Housing Alliance also operates The Road to Housing program, which aims to meet the needs of car campers in Seattle. Providing a safe free space to park, The Road to Housing Program seeks out churches to open their lots overnight for the aid of car campers. There are four churches that currently participate in the program, Our Redeemers Lutheran Church, Woodland Park Methodist Church, Crown Hill United Methodist and Lake City Christian. Each church provides parking spots, a bathroom or portable toilet and access to the church building when weather gets bad.

Along with providing a sanctuary for the cars to park, the churches provide a much needed welcoming presence these individuals need. Brophy advocated for neighbors getting together and making sure they are aware of the problem. He also urged the community to “get to know them, maybe learn about them a little bit about them, maybe some neighborhood help will develop.” It isn’t hard to imagine what a better place the world would be if instead of sending the cost of a cup of coffee a day to a distant country to save a life, we took it upon ourselves to walk that same cup of coffee out to the sidewalk to meet our new neighbor who has fallen on hard times.

Spending his days creating custom metal works, and his evenings in the fenced up parking lot of his friend’s bar, Garth L’esperAnce has been able to rely on his community to provide him safety in this trying time of his life, but others are not as fortunate. There are many different ways that community members can get involved with this problem. The Road to Housing Program is in need of safe areas for cars to park. These sites usually host between 3 to 5 vehicles at a time, which can be cars and or RVs. Currently, there is a high need for safe places to park RVs like Garth’s and the Compass Housing Alliance is doing the best they can to try and meet the needs of these affected individuals, and gives them something they desperately need, security, safety, and comfort.