Seattle's RV dwellers: A stone's throw from homeless

"I've gotta get the f*** out of the Seattle area," says Adam, 32, who lives in an RV with his girlfriend Sarah. Until a year ago, Adam was living in an apartment with affordable rent in the Roosevelt neighborhood. A development company bought the place from his landlord and Adam had to find a new home. "When I started living in one of these [RV] I was working 12-hours a day 6 days a week. I could afford an apartment but why? It's a rip-off, man." less "I've gotta get the f*** out of the Seattle area," says Adam, 32, who lives in an RV with his girlfriend Sarah. Until a year ago, Adam was living in an apartment with affordable rent in the Roosevelt ... more Photo: GENNA MARTIN, SEATTLEPI.COM Photo: GENNA MARTIN, SEATTLEPI.COM Image 1 of / 32 Caption Close Seattle's RV dwellers: A stone's throw from homeless 1 / 32 Back to Gallery

Frank can’t live just any old place.

No upper floor dwellings, no places that he can’t get directly outside from, basically no residence where he might feel the slightest bit caged.

Nineteen months as a prisoner during the Vietnam War left him with those limitations.

“It changed a whole lot of things,” said Frank, who asked to use only his first name.

After 19 years lived mostly on the streets around Seattle, he now lives in an RV along Third Avenue South, just beyond the shadow of Safeco Field in a city-sanctioned parking area for homeless living in vehicles.

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Frank, who shares his tidy and maintained RV -- a vehicle donated by the MORELove project a year ago -- with his dog Jojo, isn’t looking for anything more. The RV offers just the right combination of freedom and shelter for him.

“Here I am, just enjoying life, me and Jojo,” he said.

Frank is on one end of a spectrum of RV dwellers who populate not only city-sanctioned parking zones and lots, but also many residential streets around the city.On the other end of the spectrum are people whose RVs have long ceased driving and whose lives are anything but enjoyable, at least by middle-class standards.

The city has opened up the safe zones in an attempt to get the vehicles off residential streets, where they often park illegally and generate no shortage of complaints.

One lot in Interbay already closed recently, however, and the Sodo safe parking area is set to begin closing Friday. Another lot in Ballard is likely to close in August, leaving the itinerant residents to once again find new places to park vehicles that often don’t even run.

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With more than 4,500 people living on the streets of Seattle and greater King County, and 1,608 of them in cars, trucks or RVs, homelessness is arguably public issue number one in 2016 as the city and county work to devise new ways to tackle it.

But just a couple miles from City Hall, it’s hard to see beyond the struggle that makes up many people’s day-to-day lives.

Micah Wolftail, who lives in another RV just north up the street from Frank, is a 19-year-old heroin addict who has called this street home for just a few months.

Perched in the doorway of a Dodge Sportsman RV that’s considerably more straggly than Frank’s and filled with goods that could be junk or could be treasure, Wolftail described a very different life in the little neighborhood.

“It’s like a reality TV show, there’s so much drama,” she said in a tiny voice. “They’ll steal your sh*t and then help you look for it. When it comes down to it, it’s everyone for themselves.”

For money, she collects scrap metal, which usually nets her enough to go do some laundry, or simply buy new clothes. She admitted she would like to get clean, but going through the detox process without four solid walls and reliable running water would be tough. Heroin has cost her everything she loved, she said.

Farther north still, 62-year-old Cecil Mitchell sat on his couch and told of how he came to be temporarily wheelchair-bound and live in an RV.

He recently returned to work as a chef at Safeco Field, but only after an accident cost him a year off work and landed him out of a place to live when he couldn’t get unemployment, he said.

“No one’s gonna let you live rent-free,” Mitchell said.

Living in RVs isn’t free, though, as most need propane for cooking and heat, and fuel for generators to charge batteries and run other electronics. Mitchell suffered many cold nights this past winter when he couldn't afford propane, he said.

Most in this community share resources when they can, and watch out for each other, even if they don’t get along, said Hesper Castro, who lives along the west side of the street in an elaborately painted ‘88 Shasta motorhome.

Castro, 38, doesn't have any aspiration to a different way of living, is proud of her motorhome, and hopes the city will continue making places for people like her to park safely.

"Some of us love this lifestyle," she said. "We don't need to be told this isn't an acceptable way to live."

Castro, like others, said she appreciates that she can avoid piling up parking tickets and other trouble, but doesn’t think the city has it all figured out either, and would like to see more services in such lots.

“The people who make the rules...have never walked the lifestyle,” she said.

Frank, who spent nine years living in the Jungle homeless camp under and around Interstate 5 before leaving as drug activity picked up, shared a similar sentiment about city policy. He feels like city leaders aren’t connected enough to the people they’re trying to help, he said.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray acknowledged in an interview last week that RV lots aren’t solving the issue and, in some cases, cost much more than other types of shelter.

“We’ve got the come up with a better model for this,” Murray said of RV lots. “The RV problem is going to take a completely different approach.”

What that approach is going to look like is still an unknown, as the city is expecting a full report from consultant Barb Poppe by early fall. That report will also suggest a new approach to many homeless services in Seattle and King County, at least according to Poppe’s early presentations.

For now, Frank, Castro, Mitchell, Wolftail and others will have to continue carving out their lives in wheeled tin and wood homes that sometimes seem luxurious and other times downright depressing.

Daniel DeMay covers Seattle culture, business and transportation for seattlepi.com. He can be reached at 206-448-8362 or danieldemay@seattlepi.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Daniel_DeMay.