I've been living out of my car since the beginning of this month. I can't believe this much time has passed. I feel it's only been a few days I've been doing this. (Yet, for some reason, I pretty much have no memory at all of ever living in a house. It's inexplicable, but I feel upset when I see my ex-house in my mind. Why?)

Initially when I was getting close to final eviction, I was scared of a couple things about car-living:
1) The police would be mad at me
2) Some thugs would rob and kill me, or beat me up

Now I don't really worry about that. No one has broken into my car. Also, I don't even think the police know I'm sleeping in there.

One time though, a car hit me pretty hard. That hurt! The driver probably didn't even know someone was sleeping in it. I think the driver was drunk, cuz that particular night, I was sleeping in front of a bar.

Once my co-workers found out, some of them admitted that they too sleep in their cars occasionally. This is because the rent costs are so high now, they are already in "untraditional" types of living arrangements:

One lost his place, and recently spent 3 months outside until he saved up enough to live under a house-roof again.

Another got too tired to go home between shifts.

Then another can't pay much rent. At the place he now lives, he has an early "curfew." Once he misses it, he has to sleep outside.

Recently, I heard some other associates mention that they knew a girl who just went through a hard time at home. She sleeps outside now too. But she's going to the military soon, so she'll have a place to sleep at night. Right now, she's training - it seems she wants to be in the best shape possible to serve our country. I hope she is safe until she goes to the military. (Wow, that is weird to say, "I hope you're safe until you go into the military").

Really, this whole picture is turning into an apocalyptic sci-fi horror anime context. But it's real life, right under the nose of the wealthiest people in the world.

If I were the Mark Zuckerberg or Larry Page-type, I could imagine feeling unsympathetic toward the men on the street. I could think:
They're homeless because they didn't study hard in school,
They're alcoholic or drug addicts,
Mentally ill,
They're criminals,
They blog too much on the Voice.

But kids having to grow up on "the streets of Silicon Valley"? Do you know what that does to their psyche? Wouldn't that long term stress cause serious mental and health damages? Living on the street is a very slippery slope to other more severe trauma.

For me, the aspect I hate most to living in my car is waking up repeatedly from the cold. Right now I don't have any savings. In fact, I'm in debt.

Once my debts are paid off, I will save for a better and maybe larger vehicle. My car has been at the repair place repeatedly - I still can't get the trunk to stay closed. It opens itself while I commute between jobs.

So I think when I get a bigger vehicle, I'll have more room for more blankets. Then I won't be so cold anymore.

HOWEVER, ONE ASPECT THAT HAS BEEN REALLY GOOD about living on the streets is:
1) Not having room for food in the car
2) Not having a refrigerator

Last night, I was wondering why I felt so sluggish. I realized I had not eaten all day.

This morning when I looked in the mirror at work, I could see I was getting visibly thinner. Sometimes, I get so hungry that I dig around my backpack or car for any piece of candy, etc.

Even just a week after losing the house, I lost 5 pounds.

I suppose when I had a home, the refrigerator was irresistible to me. I had 4 jobs that could work me from 4 am to 10:30 pm (not counting time to get ready and the commute). So at night it felt so good and necessary to eat.

Now when I get hunger pains, I look around the workplace for food. If I can't find any, the pains go away within minutes, or even hours at the longest. But sooner or later, my focus goes somewhere else.

I know there are foodbanks where I can get food, but now writing this, I realize it is good I don't have time to pick up food there. I believe the stress from homelessness would compel me to eat even more than when I had a house. And the cortisol would make me balloon.

For years I've admired the look of being fit.

If I don't die or go crazy from lack of sleep, suffocating in my car, or getting killed when a car hits me while I'm sleeping (you won't believe how fast the fancy SUV's zoom past me at 2am)... I'm going to look really good. I'm really looking forward to that.

I should exercise too. But when I've lost a lot of fat, even a little exercise will make me look really tone - I think.


!!!


Someone out there... Please organize and do more for the children. Silicon Valley is all about improving lives. We can't let kids grow up homeless in SV. It sounds... it's not acceptable.

I've posted before. And I feel I get many responses that are really saying, "You are dumb because you don't move away." Or, "You're dumb because you waste time commenting instead of making more money."

That's fine. I'm dumb dumb dumb and I deserve to be homeless.

But not the kids, man. When there are families living on the street, there needs to be immediate and extreme action.

Streets of gold.

Streets of silicon.

@MV Voice - Kudos, Great article

I'm curious about this :

"Some areas of the city have recently barred overnight parking"

I've noticed such signs popping up but mostly in non residential areas.
What's the process? Who triggers it? Who decides? and who pays for the signs?

I think it will be great if city can look into controlling the price hike of apartments and houses. Something has to be done to make housing affordable for majority of our community.

Shoreline is an important habitat for burrowing owls, and winter is critical part of their mating/nurturing season:

Web Link

Burrowing owls don't have a choice about their habitat -- RV people (and all the pets they have) can live anywhere.

Don't ruin our burrowing owl habitat with homeless people/animals.

One could clearly see the stress on Mr. Reyes's face.
Take note Mountain View City Officials. You let the people down. In support of gouging landlords. You care more about your manicured dog parks then the residents.

You support the anything Google, yet turn on residents.

[Post removed due to promoting a website]

[Post removed due to promoting a website]

Thanks for the NHN info. I just left another vm for you. I think you tried calling me a week ago, but I was at work and couldn't pick up.

Your email does include the "NHN" right? I sent an email about an hour ago.

I can text msgs. And I sent another email too.

It's not life or death matters - but I had questions about food and possible electricity.

Thanks for helping people !

@ReallyHardWorker, may I ask what industry you work in?

What a sad situation.

Converting the vacant parking lots at Shoreline to a temporary RV park is an excellent idea.

This is a vexing problem, and part of my Sylvan Park neighborhood sees it with permanent parking places for RVs next to American Apartments. It does not seem fair to the people who bought the homes to have someone living across the street without paying for it, but the problem of having too little money for those expensive homes isn't lost on me, either.

If we are to open any area as the official place for people to park, it seems like it would be easy to have this become the permanent solution; if there were an alternative permanent solution, someone might have found it already. .
• A temporary lot could never be large enough
• To be fair, what about those people who don't have enough money to buy an RV? If we open something like Shoreline Amphitheatre's parking lot for RVs, doesn't that disadvantage homeless people who can afford only a tent? Shouldn't anybody be allowed to stay there?
• And for someone like that Google engineer who wants to save money and is just making a lifestyle choice, is it fair to have him stay there, using a space that someone with less money needs?

I don't have any answers to the high cost of housing. And I don't have anyone to blame for it either — if you sell your house at a high price, very few people can afford it and it makes Mountain View expensive. This has been true in Manhattan for longer than here: you need to be wealthy to have a place to live, and rent control there works only for the lucky few who got the controlled apartment, so some people live very far away or share an apartment.

A vexing problem, indeed. But temporary lots won't help.

RV Living:
I've been "on the streets" in PA and MV off and on for 8 years. I'm a 67yo male. I was born at PA/Stanford Hospital those many years ago. I went through the grades in PA. I've 27 years working high tech on the peninsula. This has always been my home.
I am a massage therapist now. I have my own office space in MV and that is about all I can afford. I have good months for income but it just isn't consistent. Every couple of weeks I pull my 5th Wheel up to Trailer Villa in Redwood City to dump my tanks and get fresh water. There is no place to do that in PA or MV.
It would be nice to have a space - a flat space - to park my RV. Parking on the streets with a 4" drop by the curb makes for very uncomfortable seating and sleeping. And getting passed by VTA at 35 mpg rocks the boat significantly.
I hope that my income becomes more steady and enough to rent a room in a house with a backyard, put my RV into storage or sell it.

@bjd

I work in various fields.

Do you have connections for me to get a job that pays enough I can finance a property?

I also have ideas that could generate a lot of money / business. And help the community. But they require both time and energy that would force a reduction in my hourly paid work. I don't have the resources where I can take a risk like that.

Even though it's mentally and physically painful (even worse with having to sleep on the street) to work so many hours a day, I feel obligated to continue this pace of work because I have momentum.

Fresh and easy is closings. People in this neighborhood understand, especially Rengstorff neighbors. Maybe a temporary place to park there when it closes also, I hear fighting, hear and see transactions, have seen people urinating in bush in front of apt, and that is not even from RV dwellers, just people living in small space or no place to live.

I've said this before: Hawaii has been looking at shipping containers for a temporary solution for the homeless.

Web Link

Note the cost.

However, the problem is RV parking. If the RV is like mine, 72 hours was the limit of my holding tanks before they must be emptied. Yes, we stayed in Mountain View at my parent's house. We moved to a RV spot in South San Francisco to go play tourist. That RV site cost TWICE as much as the other RV parks in the West. $35/night 25 years ago. Fortunately, we could dump our holding tanks and fill our water tank.

Most RVs will have everything you need for living. A shower and a toilet, a heater and a stove a refrigerator and a sink. Both 110vac and 12vdc wiring and some carry generators for 110vac when not at a RV park or on the road.
They ARE certified for HOUSING.

So now you need sites similar to mobile home parks. Supplying 110vac 25 to 50 amp service, water and sewage hookups. Or a dump station and potable water fill up to fill water tanks and rinse out the holding tanks after you dump them..

So the real quick solution is to provide a local dump station link to the sewage lines, potable water and trash facilities. That takes care of the 72 hour parking limit and getting people to keep a happier relationship with their ( hopefully ) temporary neighbors.

This does NOT apply to people living out of cars or vans. You need sanitary facilities like showers and restrooms. A KOA kampground will provide them for a fee along with a laundromat.

I hope my experience with my RV parking in places all over the West will generate more solutions to the RV " housing " in Mountain View.

The Voice seems to lose the first post in the Town Square section.

I'll keep things short:

Build a dump station with potable water. Tell every RV user where it is. For people living out of cars and vans, a KOA Kampground site will provide a shower, toilet and laundromat facilities. With a fee.

Residents should not have to put-up with campers in front of their property because there is fecal matter, debris, crime, etc. (let's not fool ourselves).

The humane solution is to open Shoreline with facilities (bathrooms, showers, and dumpsters) to accommodate campers and only for a set period of time of say 6 months. Anything longer means people are taking advantage of the system.

Former Mayor Inks has the right perspective whereas Siegel and Showalter are using the plight of a few to incrementally install socialism.

Nobody has the RIGHT to live in one of the most expensive towns in the USA. The rest of us pay through the nose to live here, and if you can't afford it, there are plenty of nearby cities where the cost of living is substantially lower.

It's entitled people like Mr. Reyes who make me want to hold my nose and vote for Donald Trump.

i always thought rents could only be bumped up by 3%. lower high tech wages, bring up wages for blue collar and lower rents by 2000 less a month. any land owner who does not comply, 20 years san quentin.

Things like the safe vehicle parking area sound like an obvious action to take. Will it and it's residents be permanent? Will the vehicles themselves be safe for the residents and on the road? Will this attract like vehicle dwellers from elsewhere? And how will it be funded over time?

While working at Hope's corner (a saturday am breakfast and lunch program at Trinity Methodist church 1 block from city hall) for almost 4 years i have met many of the car and rv dwellers in mountain view. Many are families who have sifted down due to rising rents and low wages or lost jobs. Many have been long term city residents and want to stay because this is their home, where friends and family are and because they want their children in a safe city with good schools. They would rather live as they are doing than move elsewhere. Some are single individuals without a job or family who may live on social security, social security disability or supplement from the county. When we surveyed those who attend our breakfast the vast majority are local, some from elsewhere in california and just a few from elsewhere in the country. Some have college degrees or tech skills but after the great recession and lost jobs cannot get back on their feet.

Just where are they supposed to go?? The city of palo alto tried to run they out of town but their ordinance prohibiting vehicle habitation was withdrawn. the city of santa barbara has had a safe and secure parking program for many years with most residents eventually reentering society.

The county homelessness task force is starting to address the problems - with more motels and shelters and possibly safe parking areas and campsites.

Nearby neighbors have understandable concerns.

The police seem to be behaving cautiously, perhaps understanding from past experience that impounding a vehicle is a sure way to make people have to sleep on the ground.

We brought this to the attention of the city council several years ago
but there has been no action. This is huge disappointment and an embarrassment in the heart of silicon valley. No champion on the council has stepped forward.

For now i believe these rv and car dwellers would be wise to park on El Camino as advised years go through our police department that Caltrans has jurisdiction there and does not keep tabs on vehicle dwellers

That they are having to live in vehicles in the heart of one of the richest areas in the world says something about our system and our values

Just walking home from Target and saw a couple - OUTSIDE one of these RV's - lounging on their twin mattress. They waved and smirked as we walked by. WTH!? Please, MVPD and our city council and our mayor - help out your tax paying citizens, too!!! Enough is enough!

I believe most of the RV dwellers are people who have been out priced in the skyrocketing rental market. One of these families is my brother in law who lost his apartment on Rengstorff several years ago due to rent increases, and has moved his family from motel, to other family member homes, and now to the RV. It's a terribly sad situation and people are doing their best to survive day to day.

@Leencol
I hope your brother in law finds a job and lodging in an area he can afford. Or, rather than living on the street, perhaps he could move in with you?

@ the_punnisher

It could be years before I can get an RV. And maybe by that time, I'll have left BA.

But I was curious -

If I got an RV, how much gas would it take to keep a generator running to provide heat?

Maybe it'll make too much noise.

What if I use a propane heater? But is that safe?

I too made a honest living in mountain view for 10 years, my daughter went to Landels my wife worked in Los altos and I worked 50 hours a week in MV. Our story is very familiar, we lived at hidden gardens in 2004 rent was 950 then we went to Sunnyvale boarder to bigger place rent was 1300 then back to mountain view for school, brook side ...on sylvan best place ever rent was 1600 then 2000 then 2400 so moved again to Avalon near Caltrain crappy apartments rent was 2200 ...that's it!!!! Now I live in San Diego we all miss the Bay Area , mountain view was our cubby and loved it. Now I we pay 1200 and have beautiful place and love it... People, attention people!!!!!!!! You can move!!!!! Duh

There seems to be multiple links for this story. There are MANY comments, the most recent by "sepel" most interesting
Web Link

Perhaps The Voice can investigate and corroborate those comments?

The safe parking area sounds ideal. Open Shoreline parking lots!

What happened to the comments by "Sepel"? I'm curious why that was deleted? MV Voice, are you censoring comments? Understood if they're offensive but "Sepel"'s weren't. And it it's because they were untrue (which is actually what I am very interested in, were they true and if so there's a bigger story here) then you should post a denial, not just delete?

My RV was a self contained 23' Dodge 1977 Musket built on the Peninsula! My parents bought it used to haul the race car to Calistoga and points South. I bought it from them after the trailer started to pass it when the " borrower " did not tighten the ball hitch properly and the trailer took a chunk out of the side. I repaired it, resided it and got all the insides operational again.

The heater was an LP job that ran on two LP bottles of the slightly larger that the backyard barbecue type. It would last about 2 weeks or so if used in a mild climate. Yes, it was wired to a thermostat.
The refrigerator was a three way type: 110ac, 12v or LP gas. The stool and shower combo had a LP gas water heater that also sent water to the sink. The stove also ran off the LP tank. It had an oven too.
The water tank was around 50 gallons. Both Gray water and Black water tanks could only hold around 35 gallons and had separate dump valves with a common outlet.

From a legal standpoint, it had a set of special stickers that notified others that it WAS LEGAL HOUSING in the U.S. I went all over the Midwest on IT and Robotics job sites, including a 3 month stay at a job site in Texas.
I had to let it go when the engine burnt away several exhaust valves and needed an overhaul.
12 miles/gallon. up or down a mountain. Same on the open road. 36 gallon gas tank. locks with one key. A deadbolt on the one housing door. 4 person capacity for sleeping. Used working ones for sale in CO Craigslist for around $3500-$4000. Still plenty of RV parks or permanent/semi-permanent spots. I see them all the time with out of state plates during the summer. Or moving here towing a " dinghy ( a car ) with all the household belongings in it. A 1000 miles East on I-80 and 100 miles South on I-25 gets you to Denver. Rush hour on I-25 is like rush hour on 101 twenty years ago. Avoid 7:30 AM to 9:30 and 3:30 P.M. to 6:00 P.M. on Weekdays and forget it on any Sunday the Broncos are playing.

@ the_punnisher

What's "self contained"? And "LP job" ?

When you heated it, was it just localized, or did it heat the entire 23 feet RV?

Thanks

I WANTED to stay in Mountain View. but I saw where prices were going and only came back for therapy and medical help from Stanford Hospital.
Now I still stay interested in doings in MV and PA from the safety of our house in the mountains of CO. I've watched the changes, like " Dog City " and the loss of my High School( class of 1973 ).

You have some " mean streets " now. No compassion from City Hall. Mammon is now the God that rules your City. That is obvious to one that has lived there for many years and things are worse every time I visit.

I'll tell you an example of your difference:

Just out of the downtown of Chippewa Falls, WI, there is a FREE RV dump station and fresh Chippewa Springs Water to fill up your water tank!
Open anytime! Now compare that to the FEE BASED system the SFBA has for EVERYTHING. So how about changing the rules instead of handcuffing everyone ( and City Hall ) against the fearful word CHANGE.

One lousy dump station with potable water; even with union construction, it will only take ONE WEEK to create one! A Hint: even some highway " rest areas " have free RV dump stations ( but do not allow you to park there overnight ).

Another " not so " secret: Walmart ALLOWS RV PARKING IN THEIR LOTS! only when anyone like a town council FORBIDS IT, do those lots stay empty at night. That is why a typical Walmart has RV supplies in a section.
When I had to make a cross country trip, I stayed overnight in the Taurus SW and had no problem when I bought the special US mapbook sold at Walmart that listed the free parking across our Nation.
Hey, free security for Walmart!

Think outside the box and do not let CHANGE stop you!

LP = liquid petroleum. Tanks you see with many barbecues. Mine were slightly larger and they were not " built in ", so you had to fill them up like a barbecue tank.

Since the insides were very cozy ( you had to take down the table to sleep 4 people ) you heated everything behind the drivers seat. You dropped down a curtain or covered the windshield with a cloth for privacy. You changed clothes in the shower/toilet.

The walls were insulated & the heater was mostly used in the mountains.

Self Contained: Officially considered a residence. The basics that made any RV classified as fit for living in. A septic type system, heat, cooking, refrigerator, table and sleeping quarters gets those stickers next to the door. 110VAC installed to electrical code requirements is optional. Most campgrounds have the connections.

@ the_punnisher

"Think outside the box and do not let CHANGE stop you!"

Thanks for pointing out the power of City Council and their influence on local Walmarts.

[Post removed due to promoting a website]

Thank you Sgt. Jaeger for having the wisdom and compassion to say that you can see the concerns of homeowners but also see that homeless people need some place to be also. (Or am I quoting Lenny Siegel?)

Mostly though, I thank him for recognizing that homeless people are stake holders and have to be part of the solution decisions. That's extremely wise and extremely rare in the vision of most Santa Clara leaders in homeless affairs.

Homeless people (I'm formerly homeless) also make contributions.

There was a fire at Cubberley in 2011 in the early hours of the morning. In those days (before Jim Keene, Palo Alto City Manager) discovered that Cubberley was functioning as a "de facto" homeless shelter-- like it was a BAD thing! Poor misguided Jim) homeless people camped there, in vehicles and on the ground and used the showers and bathrooms until the neighbors got all that shut down while complaining that the homeless had no sanitary facilities and shouldn't be allowed to pollute the campus.

Some people (white neighbors) claimed massive disgust and fear for their children and got rid of the homeless campers and then had this great public resource just for their own rich selves and once again the poor had to give up their rights to the whiter, richer parts of the community. Just like in the country as a whole.

So anyway, back when we were permitted to camp at Cubberley, there was this early a.m. fire in the new library air conditioning machine that had recently been installed. A friend of mine, Andre Belton, used his cell phone to call the fire department. The lieutenant in charge of the fire scene estimated that Andre's action-- while most people ran away and didn't want to get involved--- saved the library $40 to $50,000 over letting the fire get discovered when people came to work or when neighbors woke to discover it.

Plus, some homeless people I know clean up-- much like the people described in this article-- they clean up more than the area they camped in. Then you know what happens? Other car campers compete to do more of a clean up that the first guy. Even the City has been motivated by a friend's clean up of the weeds at John Boulware Park in Palo Alto to come back with their big trucks and do a massive version of what he did with the weed whacker he purchased for the purpose.

Anyway, thanks for this quite good article--- although it contains lots of guess work about stuff that is known to people familiar with the world of the homeless and available to simple, straight forward research by those who aren't familiar. Those guesswork theories are all quite susceptible to checking out. It's called shoe leather journalism and used to be the rule in the world of journalism.

And again, Sgt. Jaeger, thank you You will rise high in the police department. Your vision is rare and clear.

Another unknown truth is that homeless people could actually save Santa Clara millions, if we were listened to.

Please come to the Los Altos Library's Orchard Room on Aug 29 from 7-9 p.m. to discuss and learn about housing issues, including Rent Control, what you can do if you are homeless or a more middle class person who is also being squeezed out and is fighting off being homeless. And most especially please come if you have issues with being hospitable to the least housed of our community. And REALLY REALLY come if you, like Lenny Siegel, have thought about it, are open to compassion, and want to know what's working and what you can do.

Chuck Jagoda, Homeless Advocate, Board Member of Heart and Home Collaborative Women's Shelter, Stop the Ban, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.