City, county put pause on RV trial

Robert Summa, Appeal-Democrat, Marysville, Calif.
·5 min read

May 17—After deciding in April to partner on a temporary homelessness solution that was set to go into effect this month, Yuba City and Sutter County officials announced Monday that they are pausing the planned overnight vehicle parking area at county-owned property in Yuba City.

Because of confusion in the community about the purpose of the overnight area at the former Kmart lot at 850 Gray Ave., the city and county said they will be coming together in the next few days to "develop a complete plan to address and answer the questions" posed by the public.

Officials also said they will "reach out to engage members" of the community to "meet, discuss, and design the next steps" in addressing the homelessness crisis in the region.

"Community members will be jointly selected to work with the city and county to give different perspectives and to join together to find real solutions to homeless issues," the city and county said in a statement. "If we are truly going to make the quality of life better for everyone in our community, we must not stand opposed to each other. This is about the future of our community and the future for generations to come."

The plan, which was a 60-day trial approved by the Sutter County Board of Supervisors and Yuba City City Council, was to have an "overhead-lighted area on the west side" of the former Kmart building. Currently, 17 parking spots occupy that area. The city said the trial program for the overnight vehicle parking area was to operate from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. each day and have a security guard on site during that time.

Participating vehicles would have been required to leave the property each morning and have valid registration with the Department of Motor Vehicles, the city previously said. The site also would have included restrooms and a hand-washing station that was located within the gated and locked outdoor area of the property.

There also were plans to have a security camera and surveillance sign. The city previously said flashlights and fire extinguishers also would be supplied. There would have been rules established for the site similar to the overnight camping area on Second Street, the city previously said.

Because the overnight parking plan was meant to last just 60 days for a trial period, it also was set to be evaluated on a regular basis. The city previously said that "should the trial program show the need for a more permanent site for an overnight vehicle parking area, staff will work with county staff to develop an agreement that outlines the responsibilities of each party as well as the location."

Besides helping to clean up city and county streets and offering a safer location for homeless RV users to stay overnight, the other big part of the trial program was to allow law enforcement to enforce ordinances currently in place.

Sutter County Sheriff Brandon Barnes previously said because there is overnight camping and there would be an overnight parking area, law enforcement would be able to legally enforce camping and parking rules. To illustrate the need for an overnight parking area, Barnes previously spoke about the effect having the camping area has had on enforcement.

"If you were to go a year or so ago down to Second Street, it was a mess. ... We've put a lot of time and energy in cleaning that up and it was probably, I think at one point, costing us about $10,000 a month in cleanup expenses," Barnes said in April. "I have no desire to regress in that area. We passed an ordinance that does not allow for parking along there. But regretfully, I cannot enforce that ordinance because I have no place to direct people to go. So that becomes the major challenge."

Even though the overnight parking area was intended to be temporary, Barnes said he wasn't going to judge its success on how full or well-used it became. He said just having it there would have allowed law enforcement to help address homelessness issues in the city and county.

"I judge success on my end by whether or not I have the ability to enforce and do my job," Barnes said. "There are nights that there are maybe one or two people at the overnight camping spot. But that's OK, because when they leave in the morning it's still clean. We haven't expended a lot of resources cleaning it up and my officers have had the ability to go out and enforce illegal camping in the river bottoms and other areas of the county."

For those looking to help the city and county come up with a better solution to the overnight camping area and homelessness in general, officials are asking community members to send an email to cityclerk@yubacity.net and provide their name, address, and contact information. In the email, a brief explanation of 100 words or less as to why you want to serve on a homelessness task force should be included.

In April, Yuba City Mayor Dave Shaw said just sitting back and doing nothing was not going to solve the homelessness problem, especially for businesses around the Kmart site.

"If we do nothing, those problems are still there. If we do this, maybe by just having on site security there at night might save a few things of vandalism, a few fires, might drive people in. It might stop the issues behind the Kmart building," Shaw said at April's city council meeting. "... But we need your help and we need to know what's going on. ... What we're trying to do is figure out a way that we can solve this problem as a community. My heart goes out, but at the same time we have to address this. ... We gotta do something, because doing nothing is being as complacent as we were two years ago, 10 years ago. We have to do something."