People living in their recreational vehicles and cars at a temporary parking zone set up by the city of Seattle in the Interbay neighborhood will soon have to move. The city plans to close that site because construction is set to start next door.
The city will set up another so-called "safe zone" in SoDo that will accommodate fewer vehicles, and that means some people will soon have to go back to parking on the street and moving every 72 hours.
"We knew that these were all short-term sites and knew that construction would be happening," said Sola Plumacher, a strategic advisor with the Seattle Human Services Department. "We weren't exactly clear on exactly which date, but the time has come."
Rick Swope is one of the people at the Interbay site who will soon have to find another place to park his RV. He’s 70 years old and in a wheelchair. His right leg was amputated 11 years ago because of a circulatory disease, and late this month, he will likely have to have his other leg amputated.
He’s been living in his RV for about four years. Before the police told him he had to move to this temporary parking zone in Interbay, he had been parking in the Magnolia neighborhood and moving it every three days to avoid tickets or having his vehicle impounded.
At the Interbay site, he said he's found a community and feels safe enough to let his cat roam free.
"Everybody knows Jake, my cat," Swope said. "He goes and visits everybody. I’ve left that door open I don’t know how many times."
Another RV resident at the Interbay location is a man who said his name is Robz. He said he lives off of about $730 per month in supplemental security income (SSI). That's a federal program that helps aged, blind and disabled people who don’t have much income.
He said people at the Interbay site are just scraping by and can’t afford rent in Seattle.
“It’s actually an economic disparity issue, I think, rather than anything else, because a lot of us here – there are several people who are disabled, on SSI, trying to get SSI – and we just want a place to live," Robz said.
Studio apartments in the Seattle metro area rent for more than $1,000 these days. He's applied for subsidized housing but said so far he's had no luck.
"Where does that leave me?" Robz said. "In an RV over here, that’s where it leaves me."
Robz said he’s planning to stay put at the Interbay site until he’s forced to leave. He and Swope both said they don't want to move to the site in SoDo.
Swope said he's worried about crime in SoDo and said there aren’t any grocery stores nearby. He’s on the waitlist for affordable housing units but said that will take one to three years. So his plan right now is to go back to parking on the street in Magnolia and paying a friend of his $15 to move his RV for him every 72 hours.
