The Society of St. VIncent de Paul in Eugene, OR has a novel approach to alternative, affordable scater-site housing for the homeless.
Sites Provided for Cars With Homeless

By JOSEPH B. FRAZIER

Associated Press Writer

October 2, 2001, 5:37 AM EDT

EUGENE, Ore. — An old van sits alone in a downtown parking lot near a Dumpster and a toilet. It doesn’t run and is sorely in need of care, but it is home sweet home to Kathy Obert, a 60-year-old homeless woman.

She is one of scores of people who live in old cars, vans or recreational vehicles on sites set aside for that purpose by the city of Eugene, a leafy university town with a progressive reputation.

Eugene appears to be the only city in the country with such a program, according to the National Coalition of the Homeless.

Camping on the streets of the city of 137,000 is prohibited. But for the past three years, city officials have been making an exception for homeless people who live in vehicles.

The city has supplied 15 sites where people can stay for up to 90 days, a limit that is flexible. About 60 more sites have been provided by churches, businesses and nonprofit organizations.

Each site is provided with a portable toilet and a Dumpster and is limited to a maximum of three vehicles.

The program is run by a Catholic relief agency, St. Vincent de Paul. The agency coordinates with city officials to find places for homeless people to park the vehicles they are living in.

“For every space in the parking program there are 10 applicants,” said William Wise, who works with the homeless for the agency.

The number of homeless people living in cars is hard to calculate, said Richie Weinman, the neighborhoods and affordable housing manager for the city, but he estimates it is well over 100.

Even though current Eugene regulations stipulate that homeless people who live in cars and vans must park their vehicles on designated sites, those who don’t are only told to move on if there are complaints from neighbors.

“The police are compassionate about this,” Wise said. “They don’t want to write a ticket or take a homeless person to jail or tow their homes, but they can’t ignore the complaints of the other citizens, either.”

A van owned by Lori Harward, who is around 60, is parked illegally with two other home/vehicles on an isolated street in west Eugene’s industrial area.

A bed is tucked in crosswise in the back. There is a card table. Strands of costume jewelry hang from a hook.

“I’d rather be in my van than have to adapt to other people, or to my kids, God forbid,” she said.

Eugene officials chose their current approach to the homeless car dwellers because strict enforcement of the no-camping ban was failing.

“It was a cat-and-mouse game,” with the car dwellers just moving on to some other location, Weinman said.

There are few complaints against the legal car-dwellers because they are scattered around in groups of one to three, instead of being bunched together in large groups, said Weinman.

They also must follow certain rules, including no drugs, no alcohol and no pets.

Gary Donahue, 37, lives on an undesignated site in a 1983 Audi. He’s been there for 2{ months, since arriving from the San Diego area.

“I was really depressed in the beginning, sleeping in my car,” he said. “But I’m finding more and more people in this situation. Some sleep in the bushes. I’m grateful I have a car.”

Randy Mellen, an unemployed welder around 50 whose vehicle is parked across from an industrial concern, has complaints about some of his fellow car dwellers.

“Most of the campers are good but some are terrible slobs and leave garbage everywhere,” he said.

A bigger concern is thugs who harass, intimidate and even attack the homeless.

“Some of the nastier people out there drive by and throw things, and shout all kinds of obscenities” said Mellen. “On Halloween people shot at us with high-powered pellet guns, and someone threw a pumpkin through one of our rear windows.”

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Copyright (c) 2001, The Associated Press