<p>Yea, Eugene, St. Vincent DePaul’s Overnight Parking Program to help mobile homeless work on getting better living situations.</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - A Solution to Mobile Homelessness Can Be Found at St. Vincent de Paul in Eugene, Ore.](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cocze0zxAE4]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cocze0zxAE4)</p>
<p>Any thoughts?</p>
<p>I watched the video. These people (and it seems to include campers as well as automobiles) are not squatting; they have the permission of the landowner.</p>
<p>I think St. Vincent DePaul and the landowner are providing a valuable service to these people. I’m sure it is difficult to find places to safely park and sleep. Living in a car is better than living on the street. It is sad these people find themselves in that circumstance. I wish them luck.</p>
<p>Another great thing is that there is a caseworker who works with each person/family to get them benefits & help them get into a better situation. Just having huge #s of people living out of vehicles is NOT what this program is about, but it is seen as a win/win stopgap measure WHILE they are working on IMPROVING the situation.</p>
<p>Agreed. They mention Venice, CA. Huge problem with this in Venice. I know a professional couple who live there. They say that there are homeless people living in cars all over the streets and that on a regular basis they have people defecating on the street in front of their home.</p>
<p>One winter night I fell asleep at BFs house and then woke up and went to the post office at 3 AM. (Working nights, such odd things are possible) I was impressed with the people hovering over the grates downtown, the woman in the PO who stated she was homeless, and was worried about her car not starting that very cold night. Went to the 24 hour grocery store across the street and noted a homeless shopping as well as parked population in the grocery store. It made me realize that many homeless folks perhaps sleep during the day, and then work on survival at night. My city has shelters, but not everyone wants to use them. And the shelters fill at times. </p>
<p>Makes me think that allowing the building of shacks or having a ‘poor house’ that provides shelter might be kinder than what we do to the indigent.</p>
<p>Many of the homeless shelters we have in our state CLOSE during the day, so folks have to leave & can only return for their evening meal & bed. There are many homeless in beaches, parks, sidewalks, near libraries and on medians. I think our warm weather attracts them, perhaps with the hope of easy living and low cost and then they find it is hard to find jobs and even tougher to get benefits. Many also have a tough time getting a ticket to return home to loved ones.</p>
<p>These challenging fiscal times are a great threat to the most vulnerable people. We served many of them today at a job/wellness fair. They provided bus transportation to bring folks in from many places across the island.</p>