Editorial: Sausalito plan for campers needed an update

Sausalito Councilmember Jill Hoffman is right, urging City Hall to “remain agile” as it deals with people living in long-parked cars and campers on city streets.

The council recently voted to change its longstanding law that prohibited trailers and campers from being parked on city streets longer than 8 hours. The law has been on the city’s books since 1985, but state law requires signage and the California Vehicle Code sets the limit at 72 hours. So does another section of the city’s municipal code, which sets a general 72-hour parking limit.

To make the law consistent with the state’s regulation, the council recently voted to scrub the 8-hour rule from its books. The council also added language to its code to address people living in their vehicles.

The agility that Hoffman is recommending is partly in response to concerns that San Francisco’s crackdown on homeless people living in RVs parked on its public streets and lots is leading those evictees to drive across the bridge to Sausalito.

Is the city prepared?

Hoffman expressed her opinion after Councilmember Steve Woodside voiced his worry about “some unintended consequences,” among them safety issues caused by the parking of oversized vehicles along the city’s narrow streets. He also worried some of the RVs being sent packing by San Francisco may wind up parking in Sausalito.

Over the past five years Sausalito has grappled with homelessness, including the creation of a camp that included one-time live-aboards pushed off Richardson Bay by enforcement of its long-ignored 72-hour anchorage limit.

The city spent years and millions of dollars dealing with the camp. It was an unusual and difficult challenge for a small town.

Like other municipalities, Sausalito’s attempts to remove the camp were blocked by a federal court ruling that the homeless could not be evicted from public property if no other housing was reasonably available. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned that ruling and Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered cities and counties to dismantle homeless camps.

That’s easier said than done.

When it comes to people living in their vehicles, Sausalito need only look up Highway 101 to Novato’s Binford Road where the county has been trying for years to remove more than 100 homeless campers, including offering to buy their vehicles if they move into permanent housing.

Many have been removed, replaced by cement barriers to prevent others from filling their vacated parking spots. Many are still parked along Binford, as time runs down on the county-set three-year goal to clear the road of overnight campers.

The council’s vote on parking brings consistency to its regulation and is a help, bringing greater legal clarity to the matter. It should also help make the city less vulnerable to another costly lawsuit.

The council’s vote was 4-1 with Councilmember Melissa Blaustein worried that the ordinance “criminalizes things like keeping a sleeping bag in your car.”

She praised the city police force for the compassion they use in handling situations involving the homeless.

Overall, the issue comes down to the public purpose of city streets and parking areas. They are for public use; not a place for someone to live. There are obvious public health and public safety issues involved, as well.

Marin’s “housing first” model, replacing emergency shelters, requires housing to be available. The need has been greater than the housing that’s available.

Hoffman speaks from experience. She’s dealt with the issue. It was arduous and expensive. She’s seen the cost to the city, public safety issues and the goal of finding solutions that address the societal problem with compassion and effectiveness.

City staff said enforcing the longstanding 8-hour limit was problematic. The need to change it, bringing it into conformance with state law, makes sense.

If Woodside’s concerns come to pass, it’s better to have rules that are enforceable and won’t open the door to spending more taxpayer money on lawyers and plaintiffs’ awards.