A US answer to homelessness? Let them sleep in car parks

It is the driver who takes tourists on Jeep tours. It is the veteran who works as a carpenter. It is the person who works at the Whole Foods that sells sashimi-grade salmon for $44.99 a pound. They all live a precarious life sleeping every night in their cars parked somewhere around Sedona, Arizona.

It’s become a big problem for the tiny tourist town, which is why the Sedona City Council approved a programme last week that temporarily converts an empty parking lot into a place where families or workers or students can live while trying to find a permanent home.

Detractors said they feared the lot would eventually become an encampment of tents, which are not allowed under the programme.

“It’s a very slippery slope,” one resident wrote to the city.

But proponents argued that this is needed in a city that lacks affordable housing.

City officials say state protections for shortterm rental hosts make it difficult to provide such housing.

Council members voted 6-1 on March 12 to provide 40 first-come, first-served spots for people experiencing vehicular homelessness to have a safe place to park. If the effort earns enough signatures, the project will land on November’s ballot.

“When you have something as divisive as this, you could break this community. And I don’t want to see that,” said Vice Mayor Holli Ploog before lodging the sole dissenting vote.

Ploog said she didn’t like the process that led to the vote but said she would sign the petition to put the project on a ballot because she wants to know what residents think.

This is all happening in a city where temperatures drop below 0C and increase to the high 30s, but those against the project want the lot site to again host a music venue and not provide safety for those living out of their cars.

“They just [derailed] our project with no care for the working people,” Mayor Scott Jablow told The Washington Post on Monday.

He said critics spread misinformation, saying the project will draw people from throughout the country, but the programme is built to ensure that doesn’t happen: Participants must provide vehicle registration and proof of insurance along with a proof of employment or a school voucher.

Those who live in their vehicles have found refuge parking overnight in the Coconino National Forest, but recent changes curbed the length of overnight camping stays. Others just park in business parking lots or on streets, prompting police to shoo them away.

People living out of their cars face different challenges than people experiencing homelessness who live outside, an agenda item said.

They risk towing and impoundment (and the associated fees) while having an unmoored place to sleep. “They often maintain work and community ties not afforded to individuals living on the street,” city staff wrote.

There was an outpouring of emotion from both sides of the issue, as seen by the roughly 65 people who spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting. People also wrote in trying to persuade council members.

“The site is likely to become a magnet for chronically unemployed people who come to Sedona seeking an essentially free place to sleep,” wrote resident William D Noonan, adding that it will be home for “someone who works an hour or two a week for the opportunity to live at taxpayer expense in one of the most scenic homeless sites in the country”.

Another resident, Joanne L Makielski, wrote that it was unfortunate that it had to be considered, but it did. “These are people who work in our town and we all depend on them. We must support them. Denying this programme will not make our homeless population go away. Let’s give them a ray of hope.”

The city-owned site, 41 acres on the western end of Sedona, is vacant. It used to be a car park for the Sedona Cultural Park, an amphitheatre run by a private business until the early 2000s.

City officials intend to develop housing on the property, which is why they bought the land in December 2022, and this is supposed to be a temporary solution.

The parking spots will be on six acres at 75 Cultural Park Place, in the north-western corner of the property. It will hold 40 vehicles and two recreational vehicles a night, with room to expand. The spots will be delineated with recycled fire hose. (© Washington Post)