Arpisme: “Sounds like the vandwelling community needs a "co-op" of sorts. One that a group of people put money into to obtain a small house or apartment so they all have a home base address to satisfy the bureaucrats, a place to store some stuff and a place to crash for a bit when they're not wandering. Would be easy to keep in touch with each member (cell phones) and you'd know when the place is available or not. You could even have a "caretaker" live there by offering cheap rent or ? so there is someone there all the time. Jus' thinkin' out loud. There's gotta be a way to do it!”
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DannyB: “A while back this topic came up. Buy land or RV park and sell / rent them to CRVL members. It went nowhere as soon as all the realities were considered. Little things like who is going to pay for it. How do you discipline people who want to trash the place when they own the land that they are on. Who is going to pay for the management, etc. You will need rules like HOA's have. The question is who is going to follow them? And when they don't, what do you do.”
One person would probably have to buy the land, and if it became too much of a headache, they could simply close it down, and no one would really be worse off than they were before. If I won the lottery (unlikely), I would do this in several places. You wouldn’t need to set up the rules like an HOA – more like a regular RV park. And don’t get a HOV-mentality martinet as manager.
When people arrive (maybe CRVL members, specifically), they sign an agreement to basic common sense rules. Maybe a refundable cash deposit for X number of visits, and after that they’re ‘qualified’ at all of these ‘parks’. Maybe have a time-limit at each site, but it would be okay to move from one ‘company’ location to another.
While access to potable water would be nice, you wouldn’t really need any dumps -- they have to leave BLM and FS land to dump, so this would be incentive to keep their rigs operating, and not have them grow roots like the people at Slab City. If they’re troublemakers, simply refuse re-entry when they try to return. Maintain a private Do Not Accept database list of trashy people (and their rigs), available at all associated sites.
*** And the members should refrain from telling every SOB piece of wandering trash they meet about the place(s) *** In fact, maybe references could be a requirement; if someone was telling every idiot they met, ban them from entry, too.
p.s. Back in the Byzantium days (c. 657 BC), they maintained a very stable economy. When a man wanted to be a banker, he needed several references from other bankers to be considered. Then he had to take an oath that he would not adulterate the gold and silver coins (like the Romans did) or cheat people, and if he did, he would agreed to have one of his hands cut off, in addition to being kicked out of the system. The Byzantium economy lasted for 800 years because they wouldn’t tolerate the greedy idiocy that is in play today (on all levels). I don’t think anyone could get away with cutting off hands (*sigh*), but operating a camp founded on references and basic decency would go a long way toward creating stability.
