Homeless migration to RVs creating problems

[Durb]

There seems to be a trend for the homeless to get an old RV and live on the streets. County officials admit their hands are are tied as they do not have proper laws in place to deal with the problem. Nor do they have the proper funds. Our county estimates it costs $3,000 to tow and salvage an abandoned RV. Private landowners with RVers squatting on their property are also having problems. Towing companies will not remove the rigs as they know they won't get paid.

It looks to be a growing problem without an easy financial solution. Will we start seeing salvage taxes on our RV registration renewals?

[Grit_dog]

bid_time wrote:

Orcadrvr wrote:
There are hundreds of old, decrepit RV's on the street in Los Angeles.
I see them virtually every day.
It is not "fake news" around here.
Maybe in your location it is different.

Thanks for validating my point with your personal observation. There are an estimated 83,000 homeless people in LA. "Hundreds" is less than 1%.
By the way, the homeless must really love LA, you got 15%± of the US total all in your one little city.

Boy I wish I could ship just “1%” of those needle chuckers and their cousin Eddy mobiles to your little slice of heaven in Michigan......
Since it’s not at your door, it’s not your problem? And by that logic, your cool and we are liars?
My 16year old works in downtown Seattle, and I’ll take homeless over gangs any day with respect to personal safety, but he literally sees someone piss or take a sht on the sidewalk about every other day he’s there.

[Grit_dog]

bid_time wrote:
This whole thread is built on a unproven and likely false narrative - homeless people are buying RV's and living on the streets. The incidence is probably less then 1%. In other words "Fake News"

Take a drive out west to the big cities and then report back on your fake news opinion.

[colliehauler]

CA Traveler wrote:
Regardless of the % of RVs they are large, parked on the street and hence are a different type of community impact. And most news reports include pictures of RVs which sets a negative perception in the public's view of RVs.

Very poignant, then people wonder why cities pass laws that affect the average RV traveler such as parking bans, Walmart bans.

[CA_Traveler]

Regardless of the % of RVs they are large, parked on the street and hence are a different type of community impact. And most news reports include pictures of RVs which sets a negative perception in the public's view of RVs.

[bid_time]

Orcadrvr wrote:
There are hundreds of old, decrepit RV's on the street in Los Angeles.
I see them virtually every day.
It is not "fake news" around here.
Maybe in your location it is different.

Thanks for validating my point with your personal observation. There are an estimated 83,000 homeless people in LA. "Hundreds" is less than 1%.
By the way, the homeless must really love LA, you got 15%± of the US total all in your one little city.

[ppine]

The majority of homeless people either suffer from substance abuse, around 70% or mental illness. Some people just have economic problems. For the last group, being homeless is temporary. Not so for the first two groups.

I know people that live in old motor homes and therefore have empathy for them. Do not be so quick to judge people.

[time2roll]

'homeless' is a group of problems. Need a separate solution for each.

[JRscooby]

westernrvparkowner wrote:

Grit dog wrote:
However, the homeless crisis is less about all that, IMO. IDK what the causes are. All the mentally ill congregate in certain cities??
People getting lazier? IDK
It's sure as heck not the economy and hasn't been for a long time.

The recent phenomenon of old RVs becoming urban homeless shelters is, every year there are more/newer RVs that still are "useable" but not road worthy. (Back in the whatever 70s-90s, there weren't the number of RVs that were old, because it was a newer industry.)
Makes sense, I'd live in a leaky RV with a bad engine before living under a bridge!

I think you may have hit the nail directly on the head. It is probably made even worse by the fact that disposing of a used RV usually involves a cost. You can take a car or truck to a wrecking yard and get a few bucks. An RV, not way. They don't want it. Take it to a landfill operation and they are going to have both requirements and conditions (no paper inside, No refrigerant in the refrigerator or AC units, only take them on the third Wednesday of certain months, etc) and will charge a fee, which in my experience is in the hundreds of dollars. Better to give it away and it eventually makes it way to the homeless communities usually by someone who thinks they are doing a good thing.
The homeless problem is one without a solution. Like others have said, most are either mentally ill, highly addicted to drugs and alcohol or just plain willing to live that life. Our society is not willing to involuntarily commit the ill and addicted. We can't suddenly make someone want to work and pay rent. We increasingly decide as a society to not rigorously enforce vagrancy laws and the like and when we do, it just moves the problem, it doesn't provide a solution. Even giving people housing doesn't work, our history with public housing proves that.
For most communities that have severe homeless problems the actually driving force is climate. It's more pleasant to be homeless in San Francisco than it is in Chicago. And once again society has decided that changing climate is also bad public policy, so homelessness in cities such as LA, San Francisco, Portland etc. will continue without an answer.

I think you are overlooking the large percentage the homeless that are employed, but with low pay, student loans, high cost child care for unpredictable hours, rent is out of their budget.

[westernrvparkow]

Grit dog wrote:
However, the homeless crisis is less about all that, IMO. IDK what the causes are. All the mentally ill congregate in certain cities??
People getting lazier? IDK
It's sure as heck not the economy and hasn't been for a long time.

The recent phenomenon of old RVs becoming urban homeless shelters is, every year there are more/newer RVs that still are "useable" but not road worthy. (Back in the whatever 70s-90s, there weren't the number of RVs that were old, because it was a newer industry.)
Makes sense, I'd live in a leaky RV with a bad engine before living under a bridge!

I think you may have hit the nail directly on the head. It is probably made even worse by the fact that disposing of a used RV usually involves a cost. You can take a car or truck to a wrecking yard and get a few bucks. An RV, not way. They don't want it. Take it to a landfill operation and they are going to have both requirements and conditions (no paper inside, No refrigerant in the refrigerator or AC units, only take them on the third Wednesday of certain months, etc) and will charge a fee, which in my experience is in the hundreds of dollars. Better to give it away and it eventually makes it way to the homeless communities usually by someone who thinks they are doing a good thing.
The homeless problem is one without a solution. Like others have said, most are either mentally ill, highly addicted to drugs and alcohol or just plain willing to live that life. Our society is not willing to involuntarily commit the ill and addicted. We can't suddenly make someone want to work and pay rent. We increasingly decide as a society to not rigorously enforce vagrancy laws and the like and when we do, it just moves the problem, it doesn't provide a solution. Even giving people housing doesn't work, our history with public housing proves that.
For most communities that have severe homeless problems the actually driving force is climate. It's more pleasant to be homeless in San Francisco than it is in Chicago. And once again society has decided that changing climate is also bad public policy, so homelessness in cities such as LA, San Francisco, Portland etc. will continue without an answer.

[Orcadrvr]

There are hundreds of old, decrepit RV's on the street in Los Angeles.
I see them virtually every day.
It is not "fake news" around here.
Maybe in your location it is different.

[bid_time]

This whole thread is built on a unproven and likely false narrative - homeless people are buying RV's and living on the streets. The incidence is probably less then 1%. In other words "Fake News"

[Grit_dog]

However, the homeless crisis is less about all that, IMO. IDK what the causes are. All the mentally ill congregate in certain cities??
People getting lazier? IDK
It's sure as heck not the economy and hasn't been for a long time.

The recent phenomenon of old RVs becoming urban homeless shelters is, every year there are more/newer RVs that still are "useable" but not road worthy. (Back in the whatever 70s-90s, there weren't the number of RVs that were old, because it was a newer industry.)
Makes sense, I'd live in a leaky RV with a bad engine before living under a bridge!

[Grit_dog]

westernrvparkowner wrote:
There is virtually no way a home you purchased 28 years ago has not appreciated in value provided you have done reasonable maintenance. I just don't believe you have your facts correct.

In general, you're correct. Buy a home, it's an investment, right?
BUT there are plenty of areas in this country that home and property values have been steadily decreasing for many years now.
Not talking ups u downs of the economy, talking steady decline.
One area I'm very familiar with and has not been financially prosperous for us, or the folks that live there is Northern WI.
I built a house there, nice custom log home, 2600sf + walkout unfinished basement on 2+ acres, on a lake close to town, power/phone/cable, paved road.
Cost of building the house was right at $200k labor, materials and subs. Cost to build it with fee/markup would have been about $240k.
House was completed exactly 19 years ago.
The next year it was assessed for $335k!! Woohoo, great, right?
Well that was BS. It steadily declined from there. About 5 years ago the tax assessment was down to about $290k. Still BS. Finally got the township to drop it to $225k but it took some serious work, badgering, applications, providing sales data, etc. I did this all because noone would buy it with such a high tax value.
Finally sold it a couple years ago. Took over a year to sell, got about $200k. $197k to be exact because the buyers knew it was them or noone, so they low balled, then re-nigged, then walked away, then came back etc until they squeezed everything out they could.

Oh, and it was well maintained, highest quality building materials, 40yr shingles, well kept wood work, top $ wood windows, R32/R50 insulation, 200A service. Only thing it lacked was fancy landscaping and a paved driveway.

Matt Colie, sounds like he got hosed by the UAW and the economy in SE Michigan. Not unlike other areas WV, AR, upper midwest, where thriving industry died and those that didn't leave die with it.

If we'd stayed in N WI 19 years ago, we'd be alive, we'd probably be debt free similar to now, but our net worth would be about 20% of what it is currently. Seriously.
Beautiful place to live if you're retired, already have money or don't want to have money....

[westernrvparkow]

Matt_Colie wrote:

colliehauler wrote:
Prices have always increased on homes in the long run. Supply and demand. A lot of homes in small towns with lack of jobs can be bought dirt cheap. For a retired person who does not depend on employment this can be a good deal. There are several list of states and towns that are the best places to retire along with the most expensive places to retire. Illegal immigrants compound the housing issue but certain people choose not to address the issue. Until these people are voted out I don't see things changing.

I don't know where you live, but we have been buying this house from the bank for 28 years. We bought when the market was pretty stable, but then came the depression that the prior administration built a fire under. (Anybody that has looked at the county's history would know that the same things that were done by FDR that extended that depression for an additional three (maybe more) years is what was done again.)
Today, I could sell out home and not get back what we paid for it in cash value (not even thinking about the interest over near 30 years). Everybody wants a piece of the rich old people that only worked hard for years to live so "easily" now.
If you perchance think I may be a little bitter, that just means that you are observant.

There is virtually no way a home you purchased 28 years ago has not appreciated in value provided you have done reasonable maintenance. I just don't believe you have your facts correct.

[jplante4]

IMHO, we can go a long way in solving the affordable housing problem by taking care of ourselves first. I'm not talking about isolationism, just prioritizing where we spend tax dollars.

It's not just tax dollars either. Celebs walk by Americans living on the street on their way to shoot a commercial to jerk our tears with pictures of deformed poor kids in some other country. Or the people who won't give a street person a few bucks on their way to stand in line overnight to spend $700 on a frickin' phone.

We can't solve it all, but we can at least help those who are down on their luck with a leg up. I had one as a young person and it made the world of difference to me.