The RV's on Latham are creating a safety hazard for cars trying to exit the Target parking lot onto Latham. These massive RV's are parked right up to the parking lot entrance and there is no visibility of oncoming traffic in either direction! The City needs to do something about this before there is a serious accident.

I think they plan to close Target so...problem solved.

There are a growing number of RV's on Ferguson Drive as well.

Perhaps overnight parking on certain streets should be limited to holders of permits, issued by the city. Many cities with parking issues (whatever the cause) have adopted this approach.

I support the approach of designating places for this kind of parking to be allowed, and with required City permits (at no or low cost to the applicant). I don't see Ferguson as problematic if selected as one location. Likewise for Crisanto. It's well acknowledged at this point that we have a housing affordability issue, and this situation is just one result of that reality.

Didn't one of the council members have a great idea to look at Shoreline Amphitheater parking lot as a temporary location as it's currently empty? Or better yet, why don't some the large corporations/developers set aside part of their under utilized parking lots for such parking? Since their expansion, without having to contribute to the housing certainly impacted more affordable housing.

I have mixed feelings about this. More and more jobs / employers are coming to Mountain View - LinkedIn, Google, etc. These all help by increasing our city payroll, tax revenues, the success of local merchants, our position of influence in Silicon Valley - all good things. The downside is that housing is becoming increasing more expensive (greed?) and difficult to find.

One result is that people are starting to live in their vehicles / trailers. If the City of Mountain View really wanted to "take care of all the folks" they would consider designating a park / parking area and provide bathrooms / showers and security.

Why should Mountain View go to the trouble? Because these people are part of our community. These people matter. These people are important. It would not cost Mountain View much to do this and would make a tremendous difference to their quality of life. Why not try it? As President Harry Truman used to say, "Well, if it doesn't work . . . we'll try something else."

What about the Shoreline Amphitheater parking areas? If they set up the food trucks & water & sewer tanks as well, a mini-city could be borne & there wouldn't be the traffic issue of massive vehicles on small streets. win-win

There is a lot of level land out in the Moffatt field area. Cant the city find a spot out there for these RV campers and set up a low rent system for sanitation and laundry etc??? We seem to be so heartless about this.

While I would not like an RV on my street, I am just lucky to have arrived here 40 years ago when prices were reasonable. I could never come here now living on a retired teacher income. Then, one could buy a home with monthly payments under $200.00. Now the same home we lived in sold for $2 million+.and the house payments are what??? My own grown children cannot afford to live here now.

so how about the city negotiating with the Navy or whomever and get some of that federal land set aside for the temporarily homeless. And then work on building some low income housing with all the tax money collected on those $2 Million houses.For permanent housing.

Without some form of housing subsidy we will be without cooks, waiters, janitors, gardeners, and also teachers , firemen, and other folks who keep us going..

I've been living in my old, small car over 5 weeks now.

The most difficult part of the day is forcing myself to get up for work in the morning. I'm very cold and my fingers are so cold, it takes enormous will power to get them to move.

When it started to get more cold, I was in a quandary. If I opened the windows for air, it'd get too cold. If I shut them, I would feel out of breath and I was scared of sleeping into death.

Finally, I just decided to keep them up. I decided that if I perished, it wouldn't really matter. I'm one of the faceless people doing work where for the most part, I'm just forgotten. People don't remember my name. In at least one of the jobs, I feel I'm constantly getting squeezed to do more work for the same pay.

Now when I feel out of breath, I just ignore it. Since I've slept so many nights with the windows up, my guess is that my body has adapted to hypoxia - if it can even be extreme enough to call it that.

I can't remember if I wrote about this, but when I could smell my own odor from my clothes never getting washed, I decided to go to school. I could see that this life could potentially go on forever like this. I could be 60 years old and still doing this.

I'm scared of applying because the online example tests are so hard, I don't even understand them. But the online application to school won't let me finish unless I enter in the standard test scores.

After my decision to study and go to school, I felt hope and happiness every time I learned something new. Soon, however, I discovered that I had no time to study. This shouldn't have been a surprise because as it was, I barely had time to take care of myself.

For a while, I looked at pictures of RV's on the internet and imagined having one. But it'll take years before I can afford one. And by then, Mountain View might have buckled under certain pressures and will have kicked out all the vehicle dwellers.

So even though I don't have a RV, or van - I can say from personal experience that it is sad and suffering to be living not in a house. It smells bad. It's humiliating when I open any of the doors, because I feel people might see my blankets and know I don't have a house.

We're in a society, I feel, where most people equate intelligence and worth with money. So because I don't have any, I feel worthless, humiliated, and sad. And I think people that are in vans and RV's probably feel the same, or some of that. Because if I thought getting a RV would make me feel wealthy and happy - I'd max out all my credit cards to get one.

No... when people talk about the people and families sleeping outside like we're just some parking lot nuisance, or an eyesore that should be swept to another place - it makes me feel sad. Because those people are already suffering.

You just don't know. You really don't know.

I suggested this before and have a new twist I just remember:

Chippewa Falls has a FREE RV dump station and a spigot of their famous water to refill your RV tank.
Longmont ( In Boulder County )CO, has a permanent Campground on the site of the Boulder County Fairgrounds. Toilets and showers included.
It would be only a weeks time for city workers to add a dump station and spigot to the Shoreline parking lot. You can chase out the RVs when you have a concert and let them back in later.
Moffett Field should stay aviation oriented. Just close PAO and divert those aircraft to Moffett Field and you have an instant RV and rental solution!

I am pleasantly surprised that all of the commenters are so compassionate to our homeless RVers.

Yes, they need a safe place to live and let live. It sounds like City Manager Dan Rich is moving in the right direction by removing restrictions on car-camping on Crisanto near Rengstorff Park, and increasing police and ranger patrols in the area. Also by having Mountain View police officers handing out informational pamphlets on laws that apply to people living out of their vehicles."

It's a good start Dan Rich! Hopefully, you can find some land with bathrooms, showers, and police patrol for these RV/car campers so that they can have a good nights rest and not worry about harassment or safety.

I presume these RV people are not all former MV residents, nor current MV employees. While I sympathize to an extent, I also would not like MV to become the destination of choice for all RV residents in the Bay Area...or from even further areas.

If MV comes up with a location, how about "licensing" it somehow for displaced MV residents and current MV employees?

Why is everyone assuming the people living in cars/vans/RVs are homeless? Isn't that bigotry? Some people live more than a reasonable commute away (due to housing costs) and stay in the area during the work week. Please let us treat all people as first class and find a safe solution (I like the idea of unused parking lots, at least for overnight). Creating a "mini city" with bathrooms/showers and safety patrols is a fine idea. And charge a low overnight fee if needed to subsidize it.

As a former Mountain View homeowner I have moved to Palo Alto, but
I have to say I am proud of Mountain View for its attitude on this issue.
In the Palo Alto Online the comments on "car camping" are just downright
cruel and nasty. There are lots of areas on the street that seem OK for
RVs to park in. Perhaps the city could review places where it would not
bother anyone and put up some kind of signs that say it is OK to park
in a certain spot for a week.

Some kind of discussion and plan would be needed for if or when RV
parking became a problem, but as some of the comments indicate these
situations are really people who need some help and extra consideration.

Now I am wondering if I moved to the wrong city considering the nature
of many of the Palo Alto comments. Palo Alto did not used to be this way,
and Mountain View better watch out if this is the natural evolution of the
cities in this area that they don't turn into Scroogeville as Palo Alto seems
to have done.

If you cannot afford to live here, well move to some area where you can. This is just turning into blight and any method of forming "encampments" will just result into ghetto enclaves that will require constant policing, and instead of helping it will serve as an attraction for non-residents to come here for the freebie. Liberal do good-ism always backfires, just look at the decades old mess up in San Francisco that has thrown millions to the "homeless" problem, only to end up with a greater mess than before. This has to be stopped, and stopped now before it gets further out of hand. The only solution is to force these street dwellers to move out permanently by invoking new laws prohibiting overnight living in vehicles. Don't worry, they will find an area in which they can afford in the States, not just here. Life is not warm and fuzzy as a lot of people would hope, and unless drastic steps are taken now the mess over by Target will only get worse, much worse. I am surprised at the stupidity of well-wishers that will sacrifice the living standards and well being of the city as a whole to incorporate blight, and I mean ghetto blight, that will invade are city streets unless we take firm action now!

@dennis - seriously? I really hope that you are just baiting for a reaction so here goes:

I suppose you don't eat out at any restaurant, nor do you employ gardeners, nor house cleaners. You probably don't wonder about who might be cleaning the buildings that you work in, where your kids go to school or where you shop.
Well, *surprise* - many of these people may be working 2 jobs to support themselves and families and ARE really trying. We recently had our floor finished and 1 fellow slept in his van during the week rather than driving 4-5 hours each day commuting back and forth from his affordable home as he couldn't find one here. Before you generalize and lump everyone together perhaps you might walk in their shoes.

Permits (working in Mountain View for example) and charging a small fee for a safe space to park seems like a reasonable solution to offset some basic services.

Please make it happen Dan Rich! And perhaps the City council could actually make a difference.

There's lots of place in Mountain View and Palo Alto too for that matter
where you do not even notice RVs ... like over around Independence St.
in the backstreets of the business section around Costco. Plenty of
other places where someone parking doesn't cause a problem or an
eyesore. [Portion removed due to disrespectful comment]

@dennis

You have succeeded in getting my ire up. I failed to mention people that I have met working in manufacturing, various skilled trades, and even at the local gym that work 2-3 jobs and still cannot make rent let alone a mortgage.
Should they all move somewhere else? Hmm - what do you do for a living? Are you hiring?

It was interesting to see the response to my rant, and it is well founded if you look at the picture through a short sighted and personally compassionate lens. How about an analogy from San Jose where several years ago "homeless" people started to set up camp by the largest creek in the city. Ill sighted compassion turned a blind eye to what eventually became a mini-city encampment that polluted the area with what eventually became eight tons of debris. Finally what could of been stopped at the start became a huge problem that cost the city thousands of dollars. Sure there are nice little streets like Independence Ave., but just how accommodating would you be if going to work one morning there was a camper type vehicle parked in front of your house and the owner was urinating in the gutter. Foolish people that want to save the world are endless in their diatribe without fully looking at the big picture of what would truly be down the road as a result of their own guilt looking at the plight of others that yes could find other places to live. No one is forcing them to live in an area that happens to be one of the highest priced places in the country to live. And as compassionate people that you are it is easy to assume that all the "homeless" are ethical hard working people and turn a blind eye to the thought that many of them are nothing more than vagrants. [Portion removed due to disrespectful comment]

Dennis, your comment is completely dishonest. And the oblique name calling is itself foolish.

San Jose was a completely different situation where homeless people set up a camp city in the middle of the city in a location known for crime, drugs and prostitution.

The question in Mountain View is RV encampments? Do you know what an RV is, or that RVs have bathroom facilities in them so there is no one urinating in anyone's yard?

What more, the area that I used as an example was a location that was all brick walls and the backsides of businesses in a commercial zone, where no one parks and where no one's front yard is. That is one or many areas RVs might park. Do you know in most of the country Walmart allows RV'ers to park free for a few nights in their usually huge parking lots too.

You really cannot admit there might be spots that RVs can park without bothering anyone? I got out to the Baylands a lot, and I have seen an RV parked out there that probably costs several hundred thousands dollars out there on Terminal Ave by Shoreline. Let's not thoughtlessly conflate multiple issues.

Because pretty much that is what I see when I drive around the area, both Palo Alto and Mountain View. Responsible RV owners want more than anything to blend in and not be a problem for anyone and are polite to the police and residents.

I also did not say that things could not get to the point where there were problems. It is a situation where good judgement must prevail. For example, someone suggested setting up a camp where minimal rent was charged. I think that is problematic because as soon as someone sees a way to save money on living expenses more people will want to do it until it is filled up, and then what?

I think you are one who is foolish when to try to defend your opinions you must distort and twist other's argument and call them foolish instead of honestly discussing the problem. Currently, I don't see problems caused by RVs except for the fact that if they are legitimized it may be more than there is room for.

Again, I thought we were talking about RV's, or can we at least not mix subjects and talk about RV's and the homeless, and criminals, and the mentally ill as different issues instead of lumping everything together? Why is it so hard for people with your opinion to just have a calm conversation about a subject without throwing everything into the kitchen sink and trying to set it all on fire to scare people?

I don't think anyone mentioned that they thought campers in front of anyone's house is acceptable. Can you stick to the real comments instead of just making them up?

The fact is that it's a problem when peolpe have to make high multiples of the minimum wage to be able to live here and work here. That means most people's children will not be able to live here. When a studio apartment costs over $2000 a month that means that means anyone living there needs to be making 5 times the minimum wage just to survive. Less than that means people are just slowing dying, they don't have reliable transportation, health care, education, etc. Your life and most of ours is subsidized by the forcible philanthropy of poor people. Go read the book Nickel and Dimed [Portion removed due to disrespectful comment]

A real RV is a mobile home, many of those that are parking on the said streets are not RV's but pickup trucks with living quarters sitting atop the bed. Many of these do not have toilets and the disarray of some of them is so bad they have plastic sheets draped and duct taped due to the vehicle being in dire repair. It will get worse and worse no matter how liberal your thinking is. Most of these people are not having any impact in city services and the far majority of people that have low income jobs commute from outside the city. What law or right says that one must live in the community they work? What I have been hearing in response to my point is nothing but idealistic hogwash. It is idiocy to think that if left alone the problem will decrease or go away, once again it will get worse, far worse. And once you set up mini cities of "vehicle homes" that will require waste hookups (hey where do you think the current vehicle residers dump their waste?), policing, etc. that will attract people in their "RVs" from miles around. Right now we don't have enough police for the city itself. And who is going to pay for utilities, etc. and what qualifies as a mobile home? Do you think the vehicle owners will pay fees, no, it is all free to them. And why have so many of these vehicles gotten towed if their owners are such hard working and up right citizens, or in many cases; non citizens. Get real people and wake up to the realities of issues like this no matter how ideological you are.

[Portion removed due to disrespectful comment]
There's plenty of police in Mountain View, maybe not enough for your police state yet,
I'll grant you that. You're making up about 98.5% of that.

Mountain View Voice: What's the correlation between the rise in the number of people living in RVs and the number of housing complexes that have been closed due to new development? New development where the sales or rental prices will be out of reach of those who have been displaced? Why is the city council surprised this is happening? What did they expect would happen to all of the people who have lost their housing arrangements due to all of the new developments? Have many people have been displaced in the past year?

@really hard worker, why do you continue to stay here when it is so difficult? There are MUCH less expensive areas to live, why do you stay here?

@mvresident2003 : I think it simply boils down to the fact that there are many jobs available in the Bay Area, while jobs may difficult or impossible to find in cheaper locations. As the recent tech boom created many high-income jobs, it has also created many lower income jobs to provide tech workers with services: waiter and waitresses, cleaners for homes and businesses, people stocking shelves at stores, etc. Unfortunately, cities like Mountain View and Palo Alto haven't created enough housing to accommodate these workers. Someone like @really hard worker is likely choosing between living in a car and enduring a megacommute (which might be several hours in traffic) to cheaper housing far to the west. One of the maintenance workers at my company commutes in from all the way out near Sacramento, and others may have it even worse. He would rather work closer to home, but he hasn't found a job near home that can support his family yet. Also, keep in mind that someone like @really hard worker may not have enough cash on hand to risk buying gas to, say, drive to somewhere cheaper like Las Vegas and trying to find a job there - coming up empty handed could be devastating.

The same thing has happened to an even greater extent in North Dakota - as the oil boom created jobs, people who couldn't find work in other parts of the country spent what little they had to travel out there, but there was no housing for them. So many people in places like Williston, ND are living in cars, trailers, etc. in parking lots.
Web Link

Housing in Hawaii ( all islands ) is going through the same problem with minimum wage earners becoming homeless.
Denver metro areas are starting to see prices jump as well.
So this is not just a West Coast problem.
The seasonal workers for the Aspen and Winter Park Ski Areas need the employee housing to do their jobs, so long term renters and local RVs got booted out.
I-25 traffic is now like 101 traffic 20 years ago. Yet more building is being done for I-25 north of Denver that looks like DALY CITY.
Start by city crews building a dump and water station and allow temporary parking at Shoreline.
Then let RVs overnight park at Wal-Mart like they can do all over the country.
Think about reclaiming the unused buildings at Moffett Field for cheap housing until affordable housing is actually built.

The best solution is requiring a $22.50 minimum wage but that is never going to happen

I wonder if Dan Rich and the members of the MVCC would be willing to have a 1/2-doz or so RV's lined up in front of their homes?

Palo Alto has ( had? ) a similar situation at the Cubberley school site where I did my rehab. The complaints rolled in and some vehicle squatters were evicted.

The unaffordable rents and people wanting to work are only a symptom of the problem. I am only proposing a band-aid fix; affordable housing is what is really needed.

Russia solved it's housing problem with a " block of flats " with small cubicles and a common bath and shower on each floor.
Hawaii is working on converting shipping containers into compact housing.
If the RV is certified as a house, living on a spot of Shoreline and moving back and forth to the Wal-Mart parking spot takes care of their other immediate problem; housing and keeping a job.

I have lived on Crisanto Ave since 2003 and, yes, the rent has gone up. I could move to avoid that extra expense; but, I have not and instead, just pony up the money.
As I have watched Crisanto Ave fill up with various types of vehicles over the last few years, (yes, this is not new) the idea that those of us who choose to stay here and bear the expense, have to suffer the presence of those who choose to neither move, nor pay rent, is absolute insanity. The idea that my residence must be soiled by these folks who refuse to face reality is indicative of a gross failure of city government to protect those who do respect the public commons.
I can tell all of you that, based on direct observation, the 72-hour rule is NOT being enforced on Crisanto Ave. It has not been enforced since I moved here. Up until now, it has not been necessary. But, now that it is, the city really needs to be held accountable for not enforcing the rule that ANY vehicle must be moved no less than one tenth of a mile every 72 hours.
Sargent Saul Jaeger has stated in the Mountain View voice in the 10/23/15 issue that this is being enforced. I do not think it reflects well on the city to make false statements such as this. It makes the City of Mountain View look like they're hiding something to grossly misrepresent their enforcement levels in this case. I have attempted to speak with Sgt Jaeger with no success.
Some kind of designated area for these people to park on a limited basis for a nominal fee (cheaper than rent, but not FREE!) makes sense. But, be careful! If the folks on Crisanto Ave are any predictor, the overall caliber of those who will take advantage of this public benefit (yet another one) will be disappointing to anyone who is nearby. There will be bleed-over impact to the surrounding neighborhood, as those who currently endure this can attest.

@mdavis23, I would have responded earlier however I have had issues logging in. I agree, there are many jobs available in the Bay area. But you miss the point that many of these jobs are in areas that have a MUCH less expensive cost of living than here.

My question continues to be why would this person subject him/herself (degrade would be a better word) to living in a car when there are many other options available. In fact I feel as if this person is in need of help, in a different way, perhaps someone to counsel them on life choices.

I say this with all due respect, his/her comments concern me. "Forcing myself to get up in the morning" "online tests are so hard" "I feel worthless humiliated and sad". These are strong statements that have nothing to do with the housing issue but everything to do with someone who is calling for help, who doesn't know how to cope. And I would hope that someone here could offer help or suggestions on where to go

Does anyone know how much it cost to live in a motorhome? I have recently had to live in a motorhome I'm clean a shower I'm not ghetto in fact you wouldn't even know I lived in a motorhome unless you see me leaving it or I told you. Living in a motorhome is not cheap it is constant upkeep and maintenance gas is ridiculous most motorhomes get maybe 5 miles to gallon and the older ones or even more work a lot of them parts are hard to find my tires for example are some weird non common size that is really hard to find and one tire is over $300 I work only make $12 an hour working part time but the fear of losing my place where I reside due to complaints if you would or parking restrictions I'm afraid to work full-time or get another job I also have a dog which is even harder to find a place to even rent or a room to rent as they will not accept my dog and I'm not going to get rid of my dog just to rent an apartment or room for some ridiculous amount of money because my dog is like my baby who would you give up your child and just so you can live in a house? I agree that there should be more leniency on RVs parked on the street and I also believe that the people staying the RV's should respect the street and the community that surrounds it. Yes I do have a regular size bathroom with a shower I do not use my toilet though I choose not to if I have to use the restroom I will walk my happy but to the nearest gas station or Park bathroom to use the bathroom. My motorhome is a 1977 so it's not the greatest looking motorhome but I am working to fix that and make it look nice repainting and whatnot. So please don't stereotype everyone living in an RV because some of us are just like you only with less money. I really hope that measures are taken to accommodate people that have been displaced into motorhomes I for one would love some peace of mind not having distress or worried about coming home from work and my home being gone.