In the ‘highest income region of the universe’, people trying to make ends meet face a ban on vehicles from parking in the same spot for longer than 72 hours

In a Silicon Valley town where the median home value is $2.5m, next to a university with a $22.5bn endowment, not far from a shopping mall with Burberry and Cartier outlets, they present an eye-popping sight: dozens of run-down RVs and trailers parked in a line along a main road.

Their homeless inhabitants must live in a way that is, to put it mildly, not the norm for somewhere like Palo Alto. “I try not to use the restroom unless I have to because it costs money to go and drain it, and I don’t want an odor to build up,” said a man called Frank Aldama on Tuesday, with the forested outskirts of Stanford University visible through his screen door.

To keep the grungy carpet in the 30-year-old vehicle clean, he sprays it with Febreze every morning. And he is fastidious about the exterior, “so people don’t have a reason to want you to leave, other than maybe being an eyesore”.

The number of RVs in this part of Palo Alto has spiked this year, and no wonder. For Aldama and others like him, the city feels like a respite. Crime is minimal. Some trailers face groves of oak and eucalyptus trees, others look onto playing fields where parents cheer children playing soccer. But their toehold here has begun to feel tenuous.

Amid complaints from residents, Palo Alto has announced it will enforce a rule that bans vehicles from parking in the same spot for longer than 72 hours. The RV dwellers must accede – they have few other options. Silicon Valley was recently ranked the second most inaccessible region in the country for low-income workers trying to find a place to live. Palo Alto’s minimum wage is $12 an hour, but someone would have to earn $42.69 an hour to rent a two-bedroom apartment while having enough left over for other necessities.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Frank Aldama has lived in his RV for four years. Photograph: Alastair Gee/The Guardian

For many people, the RV symbolizes the freedom of the open road, but for those living permanently in their vehicles, perhaps brimming with belongings and containing rudimentary hygiene and cooking facilities, the horizons often seem foreclosed.

The county in which Palo Alto is located is committing $950m for affordable housing, but in the meantime, tolerance of the crisis sometimes ebbs, as in the neighboring town of Mountain View, where the presence of over 200 RVs has prompted complaints.

On Tuesday in Palo Alto, meanwhile, there were 40 to 45 RVs and trailers parked along a busy stretch of road.

Mike Becker, 52, said he arrived in the Bay Area at the age of 20 and began living in the vehicle a few years ago after his rent was raised and he lost a carpentry job. The RV was free on Craigslist and makes sense because if he rented a home, “I wouldn’t have enough to pay for food”. He added, “I’m stigmatized with the rest of the RVers. I get the sense they think we’re dirtbags.”

Nicholas Newbury, 35, emerged from a beaten-up trailer with a tarp tied roughly over the top for privacy and protection from the weather. “I’m not upset about it,” he said of the city’s plan, “but at same time, where else do they want us to go?” (He only sleeps occasionally in the trailer, which is not his; at nights he searches the trash on Stanford’s campus looking for cans to sell to recyclers.)

RV dwellers are often local, said Brian Greenberg of LifeMoves, an organization that helps homeless people move into housing. “There’s this myth that we attract people from all over the place, and it really is a myth. Most of the people are what I’d say are our people – they graduated from local high schools on the peninsula, in Silicon Valley. People aren’t as mobile as one would think.”

Another California city with a large homeless population, Santa Barbara, has opened a parking lot where people living in RVs can stay safely overnight, but Greenberg said his organization had opted against that idea. “Those things tend to become more permanent and take the pressure off finding a real solution,” he said. “You look at these vehicles – they have hundreds of thousands of miles on them, they’re not hooked up to septic, there’s frequently not running, fresh water, inadequate toilet facilities.” It is not a way to treat people, he argued, “in the highest income region of the universe.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nicholas Newbury: ‘I’m not upset about it, but at same time, where else do they want us to go?’ Photograph: Alastair Gee/The Guardian

Palo Alto’s decision to implement the 72-hour rule was prompted partly by complaints, though the intention is not to banish people living in vehicles, said city spokeswoman Claudia Keith. The city rescinded its ban on inhabiting cars and RVs several years ago. Instead, the goal is to remove vehicles that are abandoned or used as storage, and Keith suggested that the ordinance is relatively toothless. “They have to move half a mile according to the law, so potentially they could drive around the block, I suppose, and re-park,” she said.

Stanford, for its part, has “noted the additional parking of RVs” on its borders, said spokesman EJ Miranda by e-mail. “This is a reflection of the very challenging economic circumstances faced by many people in this region,” he said. He did not respond to a question about whether the university supported the move, but said that the city was acting in accordance with the law.

Aldama, 56, has lived in his RV for four years. His family purchased it for him after he emerged from a spiral in which he became addicted to heroin, went to jail, and lost contact with his children. His generosity of spirit is striking considering his circumstances. Of Palo Altans he said, “I don’t have anything bad to say about these people, they’ve been good to me since I’ve been here,” though he added: “I wish I had a place to park that’s safe like here, and clean, without being chased out.”

He has tried living in a cheaper town a few hours away and had a job at a gas station, but he was asked to leave the area when he was found to be residing full-time in the vehicle. He suffers from poor short-term memory, anxiety, and is kept awake by the cars that constantly rock his RV as they roar past.

Musing about how it would be to take a vacation, his features started to crumple, his face reddened, and his eyes glistened with tears.

“I don’t wish this on nobody,” he said. “A terrible way to live.”

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