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Finding Solutions for Car and RV Dwellers

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A group of community partners and homeless service providers are partnering to design solutions for people who live in RVs and cars. They organized a San Mateo County Safe Parking Working Group to ensure that car and RV dwellers have safe and stable locations to park their vehicles without being penalized or criminalized by their communities. The working group acknowledges that more permanent housing solutions are needed. Yet, the 2019 homeless count report indicates that in 2017 there were 415 car and RV dwellers and in 2019 there are 678. Car and RVs dwellers are now more visible to community members and decision makers, which is leading to more complaints from residents and businesses, and in turn, local jurisdictions are increasingly penalizing car and RV dwellers for overnight parking and/or littering, according to the Working Group participants. Instead of penalizing them, the Working Group is aiming to find sound solutions to help these residents find more stable and safe parking locations until they find more permanent housing solutions.