Signs of the times: No overnight parking. Violators will be Towed. (Or more likely, harassed by security guards or police and forced to move on.)
Lawyers argue that parking lots need legal protection from trespass, theft, vandalism, etc. This applies to any lot whether it is owned by government, a private corporation or an institution.
Homeless people who live in cars need a place to park their homes. City streets? Those that do not prohibit overnight parking are likely to quiet streets, overlooked by anxious, curtain-tugging neighbours. In any case, nightly ‘move along now’ encounters with the law are all but inevitable.
The City Council in Janesville, Wisconsin is currently tackling the growing population of people who live in their car, which some do not recognize as a legitimate residence. The legality of this issue is far from settled.1 Regardless of the legality of a car as home, it is becoming the only solution for a growing population of people who are ‘homeless’ — doubly so if they need a roof over their head and transportation to an inadequately paying job.
The difficulty facing Janesville: balancing their compassion with the consequences of insitutionalizing a ‘micro-trailer park’. One hand, the city wishes to provide car-dwellers a decent night’s sleep uninterrupted by a security guard’s flashlight. On the other, official blessing for homeless overnight parking raises issues of bookings, departure enforcement, toilet and washroom facilities and more.
Read more in the GazetteXtra: City, task force looks at ‘safe parking’ for homeless who live in their cars
And, in case you miss the link in the Janesville article, the following article discusses some practical implementation challenges in homeless parking areas in California. Read more in the Los Angeles Daily News: For homeless people living in their cars, Southern California churches, temples open their parking lots
Footnotes
- For more on this issue try: Car Living Skyrockets In Seattle. Is It Affordable Housing Or Homelessness?
