The City of Olympia will allow people experiencing homelessness to apply for a permit to live in their vehicle.
Under the new pilot policy, people who obtain a permit can stay in cars parked at private residences or the parking lots of faith-based organizations. The permit lasts for six months and can be renewed. There is no application fee.
The policy follows advocacy from a group of Olympia residents including C.C. Coates, a former union carpenter who said she started living in her van after becoming disabled.
“Elders and disabled people are being turned out on the street in record numbers,” Coates said during a council meeting in late August. “Meeting this moment with compassion and allowing people to stay in their RVs or their vans on church property and/or private property is a step in the right direction.”
Olympia’s city code previously prohibited camping in vehicles in one spot for more than 24 hours.
Coates said she was surprised to learn that the City of Olympia had forbidden her lifestyle “pretty much wholesale.”
Under the pilot, one vehicle is allowed to park in a private driveway, and up to two are allowed in a church parking lot.
The property where a vehicle is parked has to provide bathroom access. To limit the impacts to the neighborhood, outdoor storage and garbage are not permitted. RVs are not allowed to connect to a septic system.
The six-month permit “allows us to visit the site, see that they’re meeting the conditions,” Olympia Community Development Director Tim Smith said during last week’s meeting. “If there’s violations, then we would work to correct those. We would work with the property owner and the inhabitants on those issues."
City officials say they will monitor the pilot to see how it goes.
“This is a pilot program, so periodically it will be evaluated to determine whether it should continue, or be permanently codified within our code,” Smith said.
Olympia declared homelessness a public health crisis in 2018. The city is home to an encampment known as “the jungle,” which is one of the largest homeless encampments in the state.
The camp had a population of 290 people when the city started a by-name list in May to track residents. During an August council meeting, city officials said 18 people have since moved off the property and that the city is starting to increase police presence as it works to close the camp.
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