Bend councilors debate issue of curbside car campers

One of the impacts of Bend’s housing crunch can be seen on the streets of neighborhoods, where some of the area’s homeless park vehicles and live out of them, often moving them only to avoid being towed away.

That prompted a discussion between the police chief and city councilors Wednesday night about whether a shorter time frame before a tow truck is called in would make things better for residents, though most acknowledged, with little impact on the underlying causes.

Police Chief Jim Porter said the city ordinance requires that vehicles not remain in one place on a public right of way for more than five days, or it can be towed at that point. But with community service officers involved, to keep patrol officers on higher priorities, it’s a complaint-driven process, and actually can take much longer to resolve.

“We mark it after 5-7 days,” Porter said. “We return after another seven days, see if it’s still there, then return seven days later to tow (the car). We actually give them a 14-day grace period.”

So after three visits, the car can be towed on the fourth.

Chronic cases involving people who move from one spot to another around the city, to avoid being towed – a variation on the downtown “game” of shifting parked cars due to the two-hour parking limit, but with more serious issues of urination on lawns, among others.

“It’s a symptom of our times, people living out of their vehicle,” the chief said. “They know we wait five days to move them. We do try to avoid seizing these vehicles. If we seize them, they become homeless.”

Porter noted in a memo that some other Oregon cities wait shorter periods before stepping in to remove vehicles.

But Councilor Nathan Boddie repeated a stance he’d shared earlier – that a crackdown wouldn’t solve the real problem.

“I think (street) camping is a problem, it’s an eyesore,” he said. “But what we have is the chief of police and city attorney addressing what is essentially a homeless problem. That is the nut that needs to be cracked.”

“I don’t believe they are parking on front of a home because they like it – they’re forced to. As much as I’d like to fix the homeless problem, I don’t think we can make it illegal to be poor and homeless in Bend.”

The van or RV plugged in beside a house is not generating complaints – it’s the “unsightly, old, dilapidated vehicles,” Boddie said. “I think we need to help those people, not make it illegal to be in Bend.”

Colleague Victor Chudowsky said, “I totally agree it’s a larger problem,” and noted that other agencies, not the city, deal in social services.

“We’re not going to be able to address that problem of a person living in a van, but should take steps to alleviate the problem for the person whose home they’re living in front of,” Chudowsky said. “For that reason, why not shorten this period of time by which we can actually move this person along?”

“I totally agree it’s a bigger problem, but it provides some sort of relief for the homeowner where people are camping.”

Mayor Jim Clinton asked what the breakdown is between people camping in a car vs. a broken-down or unoccupied vehicle that stays in one place too long. Porter said he didn’t know but would find out.

Councilor Sally Russell said she’s “very sensitive to the homeless, social issues in our community,” and suggested looking at the issue from a zoning perspective, in terms of allowed uses. Colleague Doug Knight said the use is incompatible with a residential area, where homeowners have made one of the biggest investments in their lives and are “concerned about the value and safety of their neighborhood.”

But the idea of allowing such uses in commercial or industrial areas prompted Boddie and others to note how larger cities have tried that, with serious problems resulting.

Knight suggested residential parking permits could help control the problem, but Clinton noted that the city of Portland and its mayor just got sued by a coalition upset by allowing homeless to camp along city streets.

“I don’t see any simple solutions,” the mayor said. “I don’t see changing the time for parking (before being towed) doesn’t do much about the fundamental problem. We just need as a city to address the (homeless) problem with other agencies that have a role. No simple change in rules will solve the problem. If we move it to commercial areas, it’ll be 10 minutes before we hear from commercial properties.”

Whatever happens, Knight said it should take three weeks – “one-third of a summer” – to get a long-parked car removed.

When City Manager Eric King sought some direction on how to proceed and whether to tighten the timelines, Russell said, “I want to think about this. I think there might be more effective ways.”

But there was no debate when Boddie brought forward a proclamation sought by the American Cancer Society’s “Tobacco 21” campaign. Councilors unanimously agreed to join about 140 other communities and urge that state and county officials raise the legal age for tobacco purchases from the current 18 to 21.

Boddie, a physician, said, “I see multiple patients every day in my clinic suffering from tobacco-related illness. I never see anyone happy – all are in various stages of trying to quit. Invariably, they started smoking when they were young.”

Near the end of the meeting, long after several young visitors and a teacher from the Bend International School asked for another proclamation, councilors agreed to declare the second Monday in October “Indigenous Peoples Day” – though some councilors said it was not to replace Columbus Day, for those who see more heritage to celebrate than events to scorn in that chapter of the world’s history.