Driving While Poor

by Vlad Pogorelov

I woke up this morning to the sound of someone banging on the walls and windows of my house. My dog Marina did not like it, of course, and started barking violently at the intruder. I got dressed and walked outside, ready to face a teenage prankster, a street hoodlum or worse. To my surprise, I saw a policeman in a white motorcycle helmet writing down my license plate number. “How can I help you?” I asked him.

“You’ve got to move,” he replied angrily, and proceeded in filling out a “red tag”—a notice informing me I was parked illegally and would have to move or risk a $53 fine as well as having my motorhome towed.

“But I just moved here yesterday,” I told him.

“Too bad,” said the policeman. “The Captain wants everyone out of here. You’ve got to move,” he repeated, marking my tires with yellow chalk. Then he slapped a pink sheet of paper on my windshield, got into his police car and drove away.

I had a sour taste in my mouth as I studied the official document issued by Bayview Police Station. Despite beautiful spring weather, my mood was low. I had a new headache now, as I needed to find a new parking space for my 25 foot long motorhome.

To be clear, I am not a stranger to those “red tags,” which can be issued by the Police Department and DPT to any vehicle which, in their opinion, appears abandoned or broken down, or is not moving for an extensive amount of time. However, there is another category of vehicles being systematically targeted by police, regardless of how often they move or change parking spots on the streets of San Francisco. These are vehicles that serve as houses. Such are the motorhomes, the RV’s, the school buses, the trailers and other vechicles which have been converted to mobile residences. These types of vehicles are considered enemies by police, and every effort is being made by the City to ticket and tow vehicular houses in order to make it impossible for those who live in them to remain in San Francisco. But despite of all of the police efforts to chase the vehicularily housed away, many more such citizens continue to arrive. And it’s not surprising.

I am a vehicularily housed resident of San Francisco. I started living in a motorhome about a year ago after being evicted by the Sheriff’s Department from my house in Potrero Hill. Being unable to find any suitable living space that I could afford, I had no other choice if I wanted to remain in the City. Since then I have been parking my house, mostly in the China Basin area.

Since the 1960’s, vehicular housing has been an established tradition in China Basin and Central Basin. However, because of massive gentrification of Potrero Hill, Dog Patch and surrounding light industrial areas, the habitat of vehicularily housed residents is being destroyed. Within the last 2 months I have been “red tagged” more than 10 times, sometimes receiving an official threat of “house expropriation” immediately upon arrival to my new parking spot.

The threat of being towed by the police is not an empty one. Almost every day I see police towing away motorhomes, school buses, trailers and vans for variety of bogus charges.

Last Monday, one of my neighbors was towed from Potrero Hill. He had received a ticket for having his motorhome on the street, and the very next day police forced him and his dog out and then towed his house. I saw the poor man standing on the sidewalk and cursing the police: “Thieves! You robbed me!” It is almost certain that he will never be able to get his house back from the City Tow, a legalized racket incorporated into the corrupt bureaucratic machine of San Francisco. Isn’t it ironic that our City officials headed by Da’ Mayor worry so much about the homeless, yet they tow people’s houses away, leaving more people homeless?

The bottom line is: in this time of skyrocketed rents, thousands are being evicted and are not able to afford “traditional” housing. To live in a vehicle is, for many, the only alternative. But despite the affordable housing emergency, the City and the Police are practicing an illegal “ethnic cleansing” against vehicularily housed, exacerbating the crisis. And they are getting away with these unconstitutional activities. It is clear that our new progressive supervisors must interfere and instruct police departments to back off from their policy of harassment. The problem of homelessness in this city will only increase as vehicularily housed citizens are forced to park their tired bodies on a cement sidewalk.

Driving While POOR part I

By Tiny

I was living in my car at the time -as I had been on and off for many years. It was almost midnight. I was trying to inconspicuously park in a light industrial zone near 22nd and 3rd Streets… the late hour silence was filled with the cacophony of urban nature, the clicking of small waves hitting the Bay shore danced with the 2-2 rythem of a baritone foghorn… And then suddenly… a canon shaped beam of light tore through the black fabric of night. Three shimmering white vehicles circled first and then stopped. There was a heavy click-click of door handles..followed by the crunch of heels hitting asphalt, the deep wumph of doors slamming, faint police band radio yelps grew louder until a pair of thighs appeared at my window swathed in too-tight khaki polyester. Bits of arrest sounds came through a shoulder radio as the thighs slowly squatted to reveal a white mustachioed face - facial pores glistening in the pale moonlight." Can I see your driver's license and current registration? - and you are going to need to step out of the vehicle..NOW," the officer demanded, his voice had serrated steel edges that sliced through the air

Thirty terrifying minutes later the car which had acted as a "house" for my mother and myself off and on for the last several years was being towed because the registration was not current and we had too many tickets.

The mouth of the tow truck opened wide, consuming its late night snack of our beat up 1986 Ford Fairmont - starting its meal with the hind portion - the tired wheels refusing to spin, even in midair, just sat in place resigned to their seizure, bouncing one last goodbye to me before the car was dragged away to its own form of vehicular hell.

I stood there in the black night, illuminated by one lone street lamp, the distant ships providing accompaniment to my streaming tears. unsure of where to go - unsure of how to put one foot in front of the other, and think up another form of survival in a long list of survival strategies

Poor folks who are evicted from their homes due to gentrification, and/or become homeless because of other circumstances related to poverty are often forced to live in their vehicles, if they are lucky enough to have one. Often people are afraid of shelters and would choose living in their car over unsafe group living situations, such as many of the Bay Area shelters.

Vehicularily housed Bay Area residents are constantly harassed by the police - but in most cases the police harassment stems from continuous "nimbyism" from both businesses and residents, i.e., in neighborhoods - urban and suburban- the cops are swiftly summoned when anyone even appears to be homeless or vehicularily housed. And in most industrial or light industrial zones businesses will constantly call on local officials and cops to ticket, harass and/or change the existing parking laws to make sure that no one is allowed to stay and interfere with their " business"
The reality is that people in this situation are very conscious of their hygiene, their trash and their belongings and never interfere with people or businesses, rather they try to keep to themselves so as not to be noticed

The coalition on homelessness and POOR Magazine are working on this issue with the goal of addressing the unjust laws that criminalize homeless folks, and as well, we are drafting a vehicularily housed bill of rights -which will be presented before the board of supervisors in San Francisco.

We never got our "house" (car) back, even though I attempted to go through the very arbitrary tow "hearing" which people lose most of the time, based on how the man running the "hearing" is feeling that day. That experience led to a chain of events that sunk my mother and I deeper into the vicious cycle of poverty. And it also wasn't the last time that I would be confronted by the police for what I call "driving while Poor" (DWP).

POOR Magazine and The Coalition on Homelessness will be presenting a Vehicularily Housed Bill of Rights at an Art-Action-Rally on Wednesday, May 30 at 12:00 noon at City Hall in San Francisco- To get involved with the Action please call POOR at (415) 863-6306

To report Driving While Black or Brown harassment call 1-877-DWB-STOP toll free 24 hrs