First 'safe lot' for homeless living in vehicles opens - includes lots of rules

[Liberal_in_LA]

Danny Fletcher waxed ecstatic last week about the temporary Interbay motor-home lot recently set up by the city of Seattle.

“I love it. This is beautiful,” said the 32-year-old Army veteran. “Every day I get to wake up, use the bathroom and feel human again.”
Danny Fletcher, 32, left, and Joshua Madrid, 23, talk inside Madrid’s school bus parked in a temporary RV lot in the Interbay... (Erika Schultz/The Seattle Times)






He was referring to the port-a-potties placed in the middle of a row of 17 motor homes, right next to the dumpsters — another welcome convenience for people who have long lacked a way to dispose of their trash.

Even then, Fletcher remained guarded about whether he would move to one of two permanent “safe lots” the city plans to open in Ballard and Delridge as early as Friday. “If my stomach says don’t do it, and my dogs are not happy with it, I’m not going to go through with it,” he said.
Cautiousness erupted into full-blown revolt this week, after social-service providers hired by the city came around the West Amory Way lot with a three-page document outlining rules for the new areas. No use of cooking stoves, propane heaters or power sources in the RVs, no unauthorized guests, no alcohol, drugs or smoking of any kind in vehicles. No exit or entry into the lots from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/theres-no-freedom-not-all-homeless-living-in-vehicles-welcome-citys-safe-lots/

SEATTLE -- A new safe parking lot opened in Ballard Friday for people living out of their RVs. The lot is located outside the former Yankee Diner.

The city paid to tow three RVs from a temporary lot a few blocks away and plans to move 20 to 25 vehicles over the next couple weeks.

"It was a blessing," said Wanda Williams, who was the first homeless person to move into the parking lot with her Winnebago. "I cried. I have a home for once."

The city provides 24/7 security, access to limited electricity, bathrooms, hand-washing stations and even a coffeemaker.

A detailed code of conduct was released Friday by the mayor's office, outlining a long list of requirements and rules for homeless families living in the lot.

The rules include:

No drugs or alcohol
No dumping trash
No open flames
Residents must also work with a case worker who will monitor their status in the parking lot and help them secure housing outside of the site.

http://www.king5.com/story/news/local/seattle/2016/02/19/first-safe-lot-homeless-living-vehicles-opens/80635638/



An RV is towed to a newly-opened safe lot in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood on Feb. 19, 2016.
(Photo: Dan Cassuto / KING 5)

[a kennedy]

1. Thought this article was great, hope posting here is appropriate.....

A teen is helping out the down-and-out in more than one way.

Emily Duffy, a 16-year-old from Limerick, Ireland, has invented a lightweight sleeping bag that improves the quality of life for homeless individuals.

The idea, which Duffy explains in the video above, came to her when she was doing a fundraiser for a homeless shelter.

“I wanted to develop a sleeping bag that would solve some of the problems with existing cloth bags,” Duffy told The Irish Times.

The bag, dubbed “The Duffily Bag,” utilizes inexpensive materials in impressive ways.

The Irish Times reports that Duffy replaced cloth, which becomes damp when it rains, with metallic bubble wrap. The material is lightweight, waterproof and the trapped air bubbles help increase warmth throughout bag. A fire resistant coating was added to the bubble wrap and waterproof metallic tape seals the seams. The exterior of the bag also boasts reflective strips that increase visibility at night. Velcro openings throughout the bag allow the user to quickly enter and leave the bag if necessary, and an added pouch meant to keep clothing dry turns into a pillow once filled.

Duffy tested a prototype of the bag herself.

Full article here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/emily-duffy-sleeping-bag-homeless_us_56c5ef13e4b0c3c55053f958

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. Video

[tabasco]

2. Humanity is alive in Seattle.

A very good idea for the community as a whole.

[hunter]

4. Everybody thinks they know what people living rough SHOULD do...

... they don't often get around to asking people what they need.

A sense of ownership, a few belongings, and self governance are a big, big deal.

Sure, it's some people's nature not to follow any rules, and some people are mentally ill or suffering drug addictions, but a whole lot of people who are homeless did, at one time, conform to the written and unwritten rules of this society and got screwed over anyways.

They are not looking for more rules to follow handed down by some higher "authority."

The first thing anyone needs, before anything else, is a place to simply be.

[hfojvt]

5. well they are trying to create a safe space

When some people would like a place to just "be" they would like it to be a place away from a bunch of drug dealers and people on drugs acting strange. Also if the place becomes packed with vehicles and some stupid with a flare gun burns the place to the ground, then people will be upset and the city, having created the space, will be blamed for that.

The homeless shelter where I volunteer has all kinds of rules as well as a whole lot of volunteer staffing. As I understand it, they cobbled the rules together from what other homeless shelters had been using.

[hunter]

6. There are people who think the world would be a better place if everyone followed "the rules."

That world is never going to exist.

Personally, I'm the sort of person who acts strange when I don't take my drugs. My motivations to take my meds or not are very complex. Forcing me to take my meds isn't the best option. How would you do that? Lock me up? Why? On or off my meds I'm mostly harmless.

Some homeless are going to adapt to a community with solid rules and someone "in charge," but some are not. My crazy grandma could afford some pretty good "assisted" living places (in her case "supervised," but the more affluent you are the more euphemisms you can afford for the less pleasant realities of life) but she never could follow the rules in those places and would end up living with my parents, who owned a small farm of anarchy, endless chaos, and occasional high drama. One of my brothers carries on the same tradition, different farm, similar levels of noise and anarchy.

One thing I'm certain of is that the "War on Drugs" has caused a lot of misery. There shouldn't be any environmental niche for drug dealers, most especially the violent sort of drug dealer selling drugs of questionable purity to addicts, nor should there be a niche for abusive and corrupt law enforcement which invariably ends up protecting the biggest, meanest, gangsters, even if that's not their intent.

We can't force all the addicts of alcohol and other drugs to become sober, but we can minimize the damage.

I think a parking lot or a homeless shelter isn't too much to ask, but it's certainly not enough, especially if strict rules are required to stop members of the community from burning the place down or otherwise endangering others.

When does "shelter" become a prison or a social pressure cooker?

[REP]

7. Some of the rules do have the whiff of "for your gooderism"

No smoking cigarettes. No drinking a beer. While the given reason for the no-smoking rule may be fire prevention, it along with the no drinking alcohol, no "unauthorized" guests, etc smacks of one group of people deciding that they know what's best for another. Whether or not that's true - undoubtedly there is a person or so who needs help with decision making in that group - most adults find it extremely offensive to be told what they can and cannot do, especially in their own property (their parked vehicles).

Giving people a safe space to park their vehicles and have access to toilets, running water and other things is a good thing. It would be even better if the social workers would get it to know the residents and ask them what kind of help they need or suggest things that might help them instead of demanding they find housing in x days.