5 ms·

The city now has 271 people with no access to an emergency shelter or transitional housing who are stuck on the street, living in cars or living in encampments

The city now has 271 people with no access to an emergency shelter or transitional housing who are stuck on the street, living in cars or living in encampments around the city. Slight tangent, but when I walk down the street at night I see car after empty car and think, why can't it also be a bed? If all of the seats could fold down flat and the car's engine could idle in a fuel efficient way, providing heating/cooling/climate control, it'd be a comfortable double bed. If the windows could have opaque blinds that slide over the windows when the car is set to camp mode for privacy and additional security from delinquents. It just seems like a wasted opportunity not to make cars that can become a bed when they're using all of this space already - it could reduce drink driving, make staying closer to work easier, provide shelter for people low on funds etc. Perhaps with the advent of driverless cars we could have this and be delivered to our destination upon getting out of bed. Perhaps a family of vehicles, one for each family member, could cart each individual to their destinations, pick them up, then at the end of the day merge the vehicles together to transform into the family home.

dev-da0 11y ago
I live in a compact-width van conversion (which fits in the tightest parking garages) with absolute privacy (curtains) in Mountain View (illegal to sleep in a car on the street, so stay on private property like parking lots) & Palo Alto (where it's currently legal to sleep in a car on the street). It's very comfortable and sleeps 3 adults or 2 adults and 2 kids. Living in a car (when it's obvioua) is unfortunately an invitation for continual police harassment. Been there, done that. Police in Mountain View bang on car windows if you were to sleep in any of the downtown municipal parking lots OR even on private property. They have zero tolerance for poor people and show no compassion whatsoever. There is even this one female officer whom enjoys Schadenfreude to such a degree that it is well past hubris; (she will tow your car even if it's on private property.) Better to live in a car or van where it's not obvious, (tint, curtains, etc.) because the junked-up cars and people obviously sleeping draw the most attention. Also, ask me anything. PS: During the day, it's impossible to tell that I live in my vehicle because it's very clean and everything's put away.
- fwn 11y ago
  I know it's off topic but that it's illegal to sleep in a car appears to me to impose the most cynical incentive structure I encountered in a while. I already did that several times in the past because I was seriously drunken. Edit: Also as a follow up question on your further writing: How do you handle very high or low temperature in a car? First I thought it's not a problem due to ACs, but as you pointed out that you've to hide your presence I can't really see that working. Very interesting post!
  - dev-da0 11y ago
    The Ninth Circuit effectively struck down Venice's enforcement of giving tickets to people whom appeared to be living in their vehicles. That case is why Palo Alto backed off on its towing and ticketing campaign. LA hates homeless people more so than Silicon Valley. But it's part of larger issue of subtle, shameful discrimination based on economics and status akin but different how African Americans were treated in the 1950's South. The homeless and poor need a Civil Rights movement. Even if it won't change attitudes of snobs and bigots, there is room for additional protections and tighter limits on police harassment. (There should be federal protections to providing food for the poor because it is illegal to feed the homeless in parts of Florida. In other parts of Florida, it is also illegal to use blankets or any other materials to protect yourself from the elements. Basically, these laws make it illegal for some people to be alive, and those types of laws have no place in America.)
    - steve19 11y ago
      Where do you personally draw the line between harassment and police enforcing the law? For example, if homeless folks cannot procreate without having sex in public locations, such as behind a bush in a public park, and we accept that banning procreation is unjust, does banning public sexual acts count as an unjust law?
      - amateurpolymath 11y ago
        Procreation is not needed for survival.
reddiric 11y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNC5Dn0Dtnc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNC5Dn0Dtnc
nugget 11y ago
Silicon Valley is a gold rush type of town. In these environments, people are willing to live very minimally in the manner you describe. Van dwellers all around MV and PA are proof of that. There's euphoria in the air and a sense that nothing else matters. But to the rest of the world, or even here if/when the gold rush ends, people (even very poor people) settle into their normal lives and start to demand a little more comfort and convenience.
- dev-da0 11y ago
  Demand? Sounds like entitlement hate of us vs. them that don't subscribe to consumerism in order to rationalize staying on the treadmill of unnecessary ostentation because "what your friends think?" Just stop until you have something positive to say that doesn't involve sweeping bigotry.
  - fwn 11y ago
    The economic meaning of demand is a very structural term. It doesn't relate to any legal or moral value like obligations, entitlements, transitory requirements or some perceived rightfulness of the intent. It's just the observable ambition of an entity (persons, companies, other structures that produce agency) to gain a good or service.
    - dev-da0 11y ago
      Oh, fair enough. Not all people want the same things, and their needs change as a moving target with stages of life. Someone people live more externally while others don't really care so long as enough of Maslow's HoN is met. I know a Harvard grad gal whom hates shopping more than I do.
  - nugget 11y ago
    Even those who don't subscribe to consumerism (myself included) have to admit there's a difference between living in a car and living in even a sparsely appointed 400 sq ft studio or 1 bedroom apartment. My comment was just an attempt to reflect on the psychology that allows people to sacrifice almost all living standards in the pursuit of a goal (something akin to ''if you understand the why, you can live with almost any how...'').
uhwhat 11y ago
Startup idea: an affordable compact mobile home [0] http://www.designboom.com/design/cornelius-comanns-bufalino/ http://www.designboom.com/design/cornelius-comanns-bufalino/ TukTuk Camper!
alkimie2 11y ago
That happens to be a feature of my first car, a 1961 Peugeot 403. Seats folded perfectly flat to form a 'camp bed'. Here's a blog where you can see it--it is found on the first page of the second set of the manual. http://peugeot403arg.blogspot.ae/ http://peugeot403arg.blogspot.ae/ Loved that car, but the engine and especially the cooling system struggled in California. The other problem was that the car seat rails were built for lighter Europeans. I was all the time bending the seat rails.
- 4ndr3vv 11y ago
  Direct link http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2EHKwzNylG8/TNB4CqwHtGI/AAAAAAAAAA0/cKvTVZUZCjk/s1600/06+-+Pagina+10-11.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2EHKwzNylG8/TNB4CqwHtGI/AAAAAAAAAA...
kqr2 11y ago
The sad reality is that a lot of homeless people don't even have cars and just take the bus back and forth during the night. http://www.businessinsider.com/hotel-22-the-dark-side-of-silicon-valley-2014-11 http://www.businessinsider.com/hotel-22-the-dark-side-of-sil...
panglott 11y ago
A related question is why all this space is being taken up providing government-subsidized parking for cars rather than decent housing for humans. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/business/economy/15view.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/business/economy/15view.ht... One major problem with living in a car is the lack of a toilet.

dev-da0 11y ago

I live in a compact-width van conversion (which fits in the tightest parking garages) with absolute privacy (curtains) in Mountain View (illegal to sleep in a car on the street, so stay on private property like parking lots) & Palo Alto (where it's currently legal to sleep in a car on the street). It's very comfortable and sleeps 3 adults or 2 adults and 2 kids. Living in a car (when it's obvioua) is unfortunately an invitation for continual police harassment. Been there, done that. Police in Mountain View bang on car windows if you were to sleep in any of the downtown municipal parking lots OR even on private property. They have zero tolerance for poor people and show no compassion whatsoever. There is even this one female officer whom enjoys Schadenfreude to such a degree that it is well past hubris; (she will tow your car even if it's on private property.) Better to live in a car or van where it's not obvious, (tint, curtains, etc.) because the junked-up cars and people obviously sleeping draw the most attention. Also, ask me anything. PS: During the day, it's impossible to tell that I live in my vehicle because it's very clean and everything's put away.

fwn 11y ago
I know it's off topic but that it's illegal to sleep in a car appears to me to impose the most cynical incentive structure I encountered in a while. I already did that several times in the past because I was seriously drunken. Edit: Also as a follow up question on your further writing: How do you handle very high or low temperature in a car? First I thought it's not a problem due to ACs, but as you pointed out that you've to hide your presence I can't really see that working. Very interesting post!
- dev-da0 11y ago
  The Ninth Circuit effectively struck down Venice's enforcement of giving tickets to people whom appeared to be living in their vehicles. That case is why Palo Alto backed off on its towing and ticketing campaign. LA hates homeless people more so than Silicon Valley. But it's part of larger issue of subtle, shameful discrimination based on economics and status akin but different how African Americans were treated in the 1950's South. The homeless and poor need a Civil Rights movement. Even if it won't change attitudes of snobs and bigots, there is room for additional protections and tighter limits on police harassment. (There should be federal protections to providing food for the poor because it is illegal to feed the homeless in parts of Florida. In other parts of Florida, it is also illegal to use blankets or any other materials to protect yourself from the elements. Basically, these laws make it illegal for some people to be alive, and those types of laws have no place in America.)
  - steve19 11y ago
    Where do you personally draw the line between harassment and police enforcing the law? For example, if homeless folks cannot procreate without having sex in public locations, such as behind a bush in a public park, and we accept that banning procreation is unjust, does banning public sexual acts count as an unjust law?
    - amateurpolymath 11y ago
      Procreation is not needed for survival.

reddiric 11y ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNC5Dn0Dtnc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNC5Dn0Dtnc

nugget 11y ago

Silicon Valley is a gold rush type of town. In these environments, people are willing to live very minimally in the manner you describe. Van dwellers all around MV and PA are proof of that. There's euphoria in the air and a sense that nothing else matters. But to the rest of the world, or even here if/when the gold rush ends, people (even very poor people) settle into their normal lives and start to demand a little more comfort and convenience.

dev-da0 11y ago
Demand? Sounds like entitlement hate of us vs. them that don't subscribe to consumerism in order to rationalize staying on the treadmill of unnecessary ostentation because "what your friends think?" Just stop until you have something positive to say that doesn't involve sweeping bigotry.
- fwn 11y ago
  The economic meaning of demand is a very structural term. It doesn't relate to any legal or moral value like obligations, entitlements, transitory requirements or some perceived rightfulness of the intent. It's just the observable ambition of an entity (persons, companies, other structures that produce agency) to gain a good or service.
  - dev-da0 11y ago
    Oh, fair enough. Not all people want the same things, and their needs change as a moving target with stages of life. Someone people live more externally while others don't really care so long as enough of Maslow's HoN is met. I know a Harvard grad gal whom hates shopping more than I do.
- nugget 11y ago
  Even those who don't subscribe to consumerism (myself included) have to admit there's a difference between living in a car and living in even a sparsely appointed 400 sq ft studio or 1 bedroom apartment. My comment was just an attempt to reflect on the psychology that allows people to sacrifice almost all living standards in the pursuit of a goal (something akin to ''if you understand the why, you can live with almost any how...'').

uhwhat 11y ago

Startup idea: an affordable compact mobile home [0] http://www.designboom.com/design/cornelius-comanns-bufalino/ http://www.designboom.com/design/cornelius-comanns-bufalino/ TukTuk Camper!

alkimie2 11y ago

That happens to be a feature of my first car, a 1961 Peugeot 403. Seats folded perfectly flat to form a 'camp bed'. Here's a blog where you can see it--it is found on the first page of the second set of the manual. http://peugeot403arg.blogspot.ae/ http://peugeot403arg.blogspot.ae/ Loved that car, but the engine and especially the cooling system struggled in California. The other problem was that the car seat rails were built for lighter Europeans. I was all the time bending the seat rails.

4ndr3vv 11y ago
Direct link http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2EHKwzNylG8/TNB4CqwHtGI/AAAAAAAAAA0/cKvTVZUZCjk/s1600/06+-+Pagina+10-11.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2EHKwzNylG8/TNB4CqwHtGI/AAAAAAAAAA...

kqr2 11y ago

The sad reality is that a lot of homeless people don't even have cars and just take the bus back and forth during the night. http://www.businessinsider.com/hotel-22-the-dark-side-of-silicon-valley-2014-11 http://www.businessinsider.com/hotel-22-the-dark-side-of-sil...

panglott 11y ago

A related question is why all this space is being taken up providing government-subsidized parking for cars rather than decent housing for humans. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/business/economy/15view.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/business/economy/15view.ht... One major problem with living in a car is the lack of a toilet.