This throws a bad light on RVs. News from Seattle

[Gr8ful]

Always a few mess it up for all.

 

[Overland One]

Always a few mess it up for all.

Well stated.

 

[wayne49]

Doesn't put any maintained, working, livable RV parked responsibly, in a bad light.

 

[rvwandering]

Homeless people living in RVs, vans, trucks, or cars are not the same as nomads living in RVs, vans, trucks, and cars. This is a problem of homeslessness not a problem of RV ownership or van, truck, and car ownership.

 

[Gr8ful]

Sadly most people who watch the You Tube will not realize there is a difference I'm afraid.

 

[Overland One]

Sadly most people who watch the You Tube will not realize there is a difference I'm afraid.

That's my concern as well. Many people watching this on the news will likely lump all of us in together not knowing any better.

 

[bullfrog !]

There is good and bad in every lifestyle. Rich or poor doesn’t really make a difference other than the rich can afford to pay the bail, the fine and walk away while the poor suffer in jail til they are tried and have served their time and come out to much worse situation. Give you an example an owner of a several hundred thousand dollar houseboat doesn’t worry about pumping out the boat’s black tank properly as his time on the lake is too valuable and besides he can buy favor. Poor guy with kayak and a tent gets ticketed and a mandatory court date because his groover got full and he dug a cat hole behind his camp below the high water mark where he’s not suppose to after eating spoiled food. Happens, ain’t right but it happens. Not everyone that lives in an old motorhome is cooking drugs, many are just doing the best they can with what they have to get by. A lot of them don’t get by and their problem becomes everyone’s problem. Just saying!

 

[LoupGarou]

Its getting harder all the time trying to dance within the different social economic circles without stepping on someon's toes.

 

[Morgana]

"Homeless" to "nomad" seems like more of a continuum than an either/or. Where would you draw the line? Based on how much money the person has? how new their vehicle is? how well they can afford to keep it up? how they got into the life in the first place? how long/successfully they've been in the life? their attitude? who they know? whether they've been in a Bob Wells video? where they cr@p? (You might be surprised who cr@ps in the street. I know I've been -- surprised, that is.)

Even if one person decides where they want to draw the line, how would they get others to agree?
and how would they measure it?
and how would they communicate it to the vast majority of people who don't participate in or think much about this stuff, who if they see an ass-hat in a rundown RV (or a shiny one) are not going to make fine distinctions?

Homelessness is primarily a problem for people who have lost their homes. Whatever inconvenience the rest of us are suffering from the behavior of some homeless people is minor in comparison. Homelessness is not bad behavior, it is a stressor that can tempt some people into bad behavior. I think it's important to maintain that distinction.

Wasn't this whole forum originally created for people facing homelessness? And isn't that (or the risk of it) still a pretty strong focus here (e.g. the evergreen $700-a-month thread)?

 

[WanderingRose]

Rv’ing, vanliving, car camping, nomadism, chosen houselessness, and involuntary homelessness are all on a continuum, and I don’t believe these kinds of encampments at one end of the spectrum necessarily impact or will create discrimination toward those at the other.

Other than the increasing restrictions on where one may park, when, and for how long, which affect all of us,

I think we all need to be sure to do our part not to contribute to problems.

 

[Overland One]

"Other than the increasing restrictions on where one may park, when, and for how long, which affect all of us" (Quoted from Wandering Rose, quote function did not work as I tried several times)
This is exactly what I would be concerned about. That has already happened in my area. I used to camp, for free, during the off season up at one of the campgrounds by a nearby lake. (it is a State Park and they normally charge $25/night and you need reservations as it is very popular during the season) Well last year, a group of people moved in up there and refused to leave. They tore up all of the bathrooms (which are closed off season) and littered the entire campground with trash, and threatened the rangers who told them they had to leave. It took several months to get them out of there and, yes, now the State decided not to allow any more free camping up there in the off season. So, that one small group of people ruined it for all the rest of us that enjoyed that campground. I am not saying that all homeless people are like this, not at all. I am just sharing a real world backlash that happened because a few people acted like idiots and now that area is off limits in the off season and that is a real shame for them, and the rest of us. Thousands of us enjoyed that campground for fishing and free camping every year from about Sept. to April and about 12 people caused it to be closed. I do not think it is wrong to be concerned that this may happen again elsewhere.

 

[john*thomas]

There are many people posting here about "camping" on the streets. I would assume many are because they can't afford anything else.

It rolls downhill I suppose. Everyone has to have someone to look down on I guess.

 

[WanderingRose]

I do not think it is wrong to be concerned that this may happen again elsewhere.

It is happening elsewhere, just not on the scale as Seattle and other, climate-hospitable areas where living year round is possible.

I am in an older BVan, been all over the country and have never once in 16 years felt discriminated against.

It all comes down largely to how we conduct ourselves, maintain our rigs and our campsites.

Clean, tidy and respectful of others goes a long way.

 

[tx2sturgis]

'Houseless' is not the same as 'homeless'. The media does not seem to understand the difference.

Houseless means you choose to not live in a 'stick-n-brick'.

Kinda like Elon Musk. The media often reports him as a 'homeless billionaire', but really, he is just 'houseless'...he sold all the ones he owned.

He rents a couple of places and often couch-surfs with friends.

 

[maki2]

Well it is definitely not casting any new light. News stories can create a sudden sensation that makes it appear to be something brand new going on. But the city of Seattle has been hauling out derelict motorhomes and cleaning up various homeless encampments for many decades.

 

[Morgana]

tx2sturgis said
"Houseless' is not the same as 'homeless."
(Weird, my quote button stopped working too)

A word I've seen lately that I like is "unsheltered."
It's more precise and it doesn't carry so much baggage.

 

[RonDean]

Reminds me of many moons ago, when I spend a lot of time on a motorcycle with a few friends. We were judged as though we were the worst biker gang and turned away more than once. It just wasn't worst the hassle trying to reason with some people, so we just moved on down the road. I don't think the homeless - nomad spectrum (yes, I agree it's a spectrum - like most things) is that different. Right now I am fairly comfortable, but I know how slim the boundary between nomad and homeless could be.

If I could discuss this issue with those that might judge us unfairly, I would point out that this situation is more of an indictment on our society than it is on a lot of poor people just trying to get by in a place that only wants them to take minimum wage jobs and otherwise stay out of view. Where else are they supposed to go? How about we, as a community, provide decent living spaces within the budgets of the poorest among us without demanding they solve all their personal problems first? Then I'll be willing to start judging the home-poor that try to upgrade from a tarp to a tent to a beat up wreck of an RV. We may see the towed off Rvs as junk, but I'll bet there are a lot of people now living under tarps that thought they were pretty damn swanky.

 

[WanderingRose]

How about we, as a community, provide decent living spaces within the budgets of the poorest among us without demanding they solve all their personal problems first?

Absolutely.

Meet basic needs, first, and go from there.

For many of the homeless, this is the leg up they need to become otherwise self-sufficient.

And, yes, I am digressing a bit, but all of this is related.

 

[bullfrog !]

Please no politics but no one has addressed the problems most which are at a federal level that are causing people end up on the streets. Many have had the opportunity but all they seem to do is criticize rather than doing the things that need to be done to solve the problem. People that propose laws or programs that make things better for everyone or at least is trying to, doesn’t matter to me who gets the credit, will get my support. Those that are only worried about advancing themselves or untrue popular beliefs need to go or find solutions to the problems they were sent there to solve. We don’t need people there to make more problems, there are plenty there that have proven they are good at that.

 

[maki2]

I wonder how many threads in this forum have recycled this very same conversation over and over again?