Seattle City Council approves vehicle resident legislation

The Seattle City Council voted to approve Councilmember Dan Strauss’s vehicle resident legislation that will create pathways to shelter for people living in vehicles and update the city’s regulation of RVs on public streets.

Strauss introduced the Vehicle Resident Assistance Program (VRAP) legislation in August, which contains several components that create new services for residents, establish new programs for RVs, and clarify existing laws. VRAP does the following (from the Seattle City Council):

• Invests in new services: Directs $5 million of existing funding already in the city’s budget to increase services such as safe lots, shelter storage, and direct outreach, and to create pathways to housing for vehicle residents.
• Creates ‘Shelter Storage’: Allows the city to create a new service that will help vehicle residents access shelter and housing by allowing the city to store their vehicle, instead of risk losing their possessions.
• Cuts red tape to open resources faster: Expands the authority of the Finance and Administrative Services director to sign leases and open safe lots, safe storage, and other resources faster for people who live in their vehicles.
• New regulations and outreach for people with RVs: Creates a permit program that will build pathways to shelter and housing for people living in motorhomes and travel trailers. Allows people currently living in their RVs to continue doing so as long as they follow current city laws, basic rules, and remain on a waitlist for appropriate shelter. People will be able to keep the permit, unless they violate the rules or repeatedly reject offers of appropriate shelter. Motorhomes and travel trailers without a permit can only park on public streets for two hours at a time.
• Updates Seattle’s ‘junk vehicle’ law: Clarifies the city’s existing Junk Vehicle Law, which hasn’t been updated in 25 years, to better address non-lived-in vehicles that have been abandoned or inappropriately stored on Seattle’s streets and provides better guidance to parking enforcement.

University Heights Center’s Vehicle Resident Outreach (VRO) team has been working with people living in RVs but has lacked a permanent path forward, program representative Jen Adams said. “This legislation provides a much better pathway toward housing this population. While we still urgently need more affordable housing overall, this policy is an important and meaningful first step,” she said.

“For far too long, people living in their vehicles have been forgotten on our streets,” Councilmember Strauss said in a statement. “The city of Seattle has had no strategy and very few services to help them. We had a question before us today: whether to continue with the status quo—which we know isn’t working—or to try a new approach. I am thankful the council chose a new approach today. This legislation will provide a road to shelter and housing for people living in their vehicles.”

The VRAP will soon be presented to the mayor for approval and signature. After it’s signed, the legislation will become effective in 30 days, except for the new regulations on RVs, which will go into effect April 30, 2027. There will be a warning period before enforcement begins on July 31.

Photo: NW Leary Way (Google Image Capture)