MOUNTAIN VIEW — As the city continues to battle over its oversized vehicle parking ban in federal court, RV dweller advocates say the number of people living in vehicles has increased since last year, blaming it on the effects of the coronavirus pandemic that has dealt economic hardship to many.
In a recent letter to the city council, the Mountain View Coalition for Sustainable Planning and Mountain View Housing Justice said volunteers conducted a count in November of apparently inhabited oversized vehicles on public streets and found it has gone up to 206, a 7.8% increase from last year’s count by Mountain View police which showed 191 RVs.
Mountain View Housing Justice member Edie Keating said in an interview that about a dozen volunteers divided the city into sections and drove around counting the number of RVs on the street on a single day before the Thanksgiving holiday. Despite efforts by the city of Mountain View to increase services for its homeless population via the safe parking program and other supportive housing initiatives, Keating said “there hasn’t been a magic answer as there are still homeless people living in RVs.”
“We believe the increase is primarily the result of the economic hardship experienced by many in our community, exacerbated by the pandemic, despite the record-breaking profits of local tech corporations and the high salaries of many professional employees,” the letter to the council says.
But the city said in a statement that it doesn’t recognize the volunteers’ count.
“We are unaware of the volunteer activist groups’ counting methods and cannot substantiate or validate their numbers,” Mountain View spokeswoman Lenka Wright said in an email.
The count came in the middle of a legal battle between the city and six Mountain View residents who live in RVs and say they fear they could lose their homes and possessions if the ban remains in place.
Filed in July in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, the suit had its first hearing in late October before Magistrate Judge Nathanael M. Cousins where attorneys for the city requested the case be dismissed and lawyers speaking on behalf of the city’s RV dwellers asked for a preliminary injunction to prevent the immediate displacement of hundreds of low-income residents.
Days before volunteers fanned out across the city for the count, the same US district court judge gave a mixed ruling on Nov. 8 declining to grant a preliminary injunction on the city’s RV parking ban. That allows the city to enforce the ban despite there being no “enforcement currently unless there’s a public health or safety threat,” Wright said.
In not granting the injunction, Cousins ruled that the city’s parking restrictions on RVs won’t likely cause immediate harm to residents. And he threw out some of the dozen allegations in the suit that the city’s parking ban is unconstitutional.
“If the preliminary injunction is not issued,” Cousins said, “it is not clear that plaintiffs will suffer any cognizable harm.”
But Cousins also denied the city’s motion to dismiss the case, arguing that some allegations made by RV residents warrant a jury trial. Cousins wrote that the city asserted that there remain plenty of places for plaintiffs in the suit to park, but he argued they are correct in worrying about fines and tows.
“Because this is the city’s motion, the court must accept as true plaintiffs’ allegations that the remaining streets and safe parking program do not provide enough parking to accommodate all of the vehicles affected by the oversized vehicles ban,” Cousins wrote. “Thus, plaintiffs sufficiently allege that they cannot avoid the towing costs by merely moving their vehicles. In conclusion, the complaint states plausible claims for excessive fines.”
The ruling prompted RV dweller advocates to offer some alternatives to city staff in their letter this week as a way for officials to offer some level of relief amid growing uncertainty related to the lawsuit.
“Limbo is not a peaceful way to live,” Keating said.
Advocates suggested that the city publish a map showing where oversized vehicles may park for 72 hours in Mountain View, add road markers showing which street segments are legally available for RVs, remove “no parking — 2 a.m. to 6 p.m.” signs, expand the safe parking program and consider the creation of an “RV park” within the city, which advocates say would be less costly than other alternatives.
“We are faced with the reality that vehicle dwelling has become an essential alternative for meeting the immediate housing needs of some low-income individuals and families,” the letter says. “By identifying ways to support these households and improve their living conditions, we will build a stronger, more inclusive, and more just community.”
In response to the city’s statement not recognizing the volunteers’ count, Keating said “when the city chooses to obtain its own information, I’m confident they’ll see the same results.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com