Moving from Arizona to Vancouver seemed like a good idea. Shannon Medlin is a freelance software developer and her partner, who goes by his stage name Thor Shreddington, is a musician. They were struggling financially, so they seized the opportunity to live near the music and tech scenes in Portland and Seattle when a friend offered to sublet his apartment.

After the roommate situation went sour this summer — resulting in a protection order and eviction case that were both dismissed — the couple stayed at another friend’s house, and then began living out of their 1986 GMC Suburban. They had to decide where to park at night. Conventional wisdom suggested Wal-Mart parking lots were a safe bet, but the couple got kicked out, not knowing that they weren’t supposed to camp there.

“I was starting to get angry. I was like, ‘What happened? The road-weary traveler has nowhere to go and Motel 6 is like $75 now,'” said Shreddington, 31.

For a while they parked nightly at the Gee Creek rest area. Although open 24 hours a day, the state’s rest areas are meant for long-distance travelers making short stops. People can only stay for up to eight hours. It was a bit far from town anyway, and the Suburban is not safe to drive at freeway speeds, the couple said, with worn tires, bad wheels and assorted mechanical problems.

A place to park

Medlin said she finally Googled the right combination of words and came across GoConnect’s SafePark program that lets people park overnight in selected church parking lots in Clark County. They called the Housing Hotline managed by the Council for the Homeless and got set up at an east Vancouver church parking lot.