By Jason Auslander, Aspen Times

People now are sleeping in their cars at the park-and-ride lot on Colorado 82 north of Aspen nearly every night, Pitkin County Sheriff’s deputies say.

“It’s more than what it used to be before,” undersheriff Ron Ryan said. “It’s becoming common practice for some, and it wasn’t until somewhat recently.”

Pitkin County doesn’t have an ordinance prohibiting sleeping in a car by the side of the road or in a parking lot in unincorporated areas of the county. And while that can cause frustration among deputies who have to deal with sometimes thorny situations involving people sleeping in cars, it is unclear whether the problem is widespread enough to merit such an ordinance.

But Ryan doesn’t think a new ordinance is the answer. Still, he said if the problem becomes worse, sheriff’s department officials will figure out ways to deal with it.

“We need to make sure it doesn’t become a form of affordable housing and cause impacts across our transportation hub,” he said.

People sleeping in cars at the Intercept Lot, at the Snowmass turnoff from Colorado 82, has been an issue for about a decade, deputy Jesse Steindler said. However, it used to be mainly temporary workers who lived in places like Grand Junction, Rifle or Silt and would come to Aspen for work during the week and need a place to sleep, he said.

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