‘I followed the rules of what the city wanted me to do … and here I am still on the street,’ says RV dweller
Shanna Couper Orona, who has been homeless for years in San Francisco, has all but lost faith in the city.
The 45-year-old former Sacramento firefighter who currently suffers from a persistent back pain, has lived on the city’s streets, been in and out of a navigation center, spent a year as a “guinea pig” for a homeless tiny village experiment, and now she lives out of an RV on the Mission-SoMa border. Mission Local randomly knocked on her door. And she opened it.
“I followed the rules of what the city wanted me to do — got on every housing list I can possibly get on — everything,” Orona said. “I did it right, and here I am still on the street.”
And now, after receiving ceaseless complaints from housed residents about people living in cars and RVs, the city has announced plans to rid the streets of vehicle dwellers — usually those residing in campers and large vans.
Mayor London Breed, with Supervisors Ahsha Safai and Vallie Brown, is directing the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing to form a team that will effectively disband groups of RVs while offering their inhabitants services like a shelter bed.
For those not necessarily in need of services, the department is handing out information on where to legally park vehicles around the Bay Area. It is also considering footing the bill for repairs for dwellers whose vehicles have broken down, or giving them enough gas money to leave the city.
“It is exactly like the encampment resolution team, which has helped dramatically decrease large encampments in the city,” said Jeff Kositsky, the director the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.
The initiative is already underway, according to Kositsky. The so-called “vehicle encampment resolution team” has cleared a group of around a dozen RVs and vehicles in Bayview’s Chrisp Street, he said. Of those people, Kositsky said, one went to the hospital, several to a navigation center, some went to family and friends, some drove off, and some abandoned their vehicles.
“It certainly wasn’t perfect, but neither was the encampment resolution,” Kositsky said. But he emphasized that “Nobody was told to leave without being offered assistance.”
Orona is skeptical. “It’s funny because it’s a little ridiculous,” she said. “A lot of the people like myself that were swept up in all the sweeps — some of us were able to find a way to live, and that was getting an RV.”
“Basically, I feel like they’re putting us back on the street,” she continued. “We’re doing what they wanted, and we’re getting no chance, no nothing.”
Kelley Cutler, a human rights organizer with the Coalition on Homelessness, said the recent RV initiative will foment issues similar to the encampment resolutions, weeks-long processes where outreach workers attempt to shepherd tent dwellers into shelters and other services.
“You still have to go to the basic numbers,” she said. “Look at the waitlist for shelters, the navigation centers — for everything. Unless there are new resources available, our current system is maxed out.”
‘Reluctant Commuters’
Others dwelling in vehicles in the Mission District, however, are not necessarily faced with the tough decision of giving up their vehicle or living on the street — but have found this to be a viable solution to living in the city cheaply while they maintain day jobs.
It’s unclear what kind of demographics are represented in the 432 inhabited vehicles the homeless department counted in October — 25 percent of which Kositsky said were tallied in the Mission and Castro neighborhoods. But he said his department is assessing a 10 percent sample of vehicles in various neighborhoods to create a “typology of need” that can then help the department formulate solutions.
He added that the department believes there is a population of more hardcore homeless individuals living in “metal tents,” vehicle substitutes for sidewalk tents. “Those are the folks who are our target population,” he said.
But others, the department believes, are either stranded tourists, or so-called “reluctant commuters” — “those who have jobs and could pay rent somewhere else,” he said. “That issue needs to be addressed through the sharing of information.”
And, he added, “I think there needs to be a law-enforcement component” — not for the department’s “clients” but those who have the choice to leave.
On Tuesday, 26-year-old Elena Vensel was doing maintenance on her van in a neighborhood in the Mission where vehicle dwelling is common (she asked us not to specify out of fear of law-enforcement action). She has a full-time job at a restaurant in the city, and came to San Francisco for college.
She lives in the van with her partner, who she said began living in it two years ago. Her partner was not present but she said she started living in the van sometime in February. “I could afford a room in the city in a shared household,” she said. “At this point, I enjoy living in the van and not paying rent.”
Vensel said, this way, she can save money and pursue her interests without the constant stress of worrying about the city’s astronomically high rent. “I was kind of discouraged looking for housing, because it is really unaffordable,” she said, noting that until recently she had been living with family until she had to move out.
“Just uprooting everything to move to a place with cheaper rent is a decision that I can’t make on the fly,” she said.
Vensel said she thought the city’s plan was “pretty dumb.” She and her partner, she believes, have been quiet and respectful of the neighborhood, and have received no visits from police or complaints from neighbors. “Most people living in vans, RVs, and vehicles are operating just like someone living in an apartment,” she said. “Most of us have jobs and a 9-to-5 schedule.”
On a recent Tuesday, Mission Local knocked on more than a dozen RVs parked in and around the district; the inhabitants of several of them deigned to open up the doors and speak to us.
Daniel Smith, 44, was home at his RV in a neighborhood largely composed of office buildings. Smith said he’s been living in the city since June, and he chose the lifestyle because finding an affordable rental was difficult. He came to San Francisco to be around his friends and find a job copywriting, but hasn’t yet found anything permanent.
He has a master’s degree in economics.
“I used to live in New York, and I’m still gobsmacked by the rents out here,” he said.
Smith said he did not know what he would do if an outreach worker knocked on his door. “It doesn’t grab me right away,” he said of the city’s potential offer, noting that he will wait for a sign that prohibits his RV to park in the area before he takes action.
Crossing Streams
The same day that Mayor Breed announced her intention to tackle “vehicular homelessness,” Supervisor Hillary Ronen shot out a press release stating her intention to introduce an ordinance establishing a so-called “vehicular Navigation Center” within six months.
That would create one or more parking zones with bathrooms and showers, where the vehicle inhabitants work with city outreach workers to access “benefits, housing and other services.” It would have prioritized people “with ties to San Francisco through work, family, or recent residency, and who currently live in their cars or RVs in residential neighborhoods.”
Ronen said in a statement that she was motivated by the lack of motion by the mayor’s office, as well as continual frustration from residents in her district. She, indeed, faced the ire of residents in the Portola early last month.
But the District 9 Supervisor held up the legislation upon learning of Breed’s plans to take charge. “Hearing that mayor is making it a priority was music to (Ronen’s) ears,” said Carolyn Goossen, one of Ronen’s aides.
It remains to be seen whether this tune will be so well received by those having to pick up and go.