Ventura County’s newest and most reluctant vagabonds are hidden in plain sight. They pass the night inside aging recreational vehicles at busy shopping mall parking lots. For privacy, they hang bedsheets in windows. They rumble away in the morning.
A knock on the door brings a round of barking or a wary face. They’re embarrassed — and tired of being told to move along. More than anything, they want to be left alone.”We’ve had some tough times,” said Mike, an electrician parked with his girlfriend, Denise, in his 1973 RV at a Sam’s Club in Oxnard. “We’re just trying to make ends meet without getting harassed.” The couple, who didn’t want to give their last names, said they’ve been cited by police three times for illegal overnight parking in the month since they left their Oxnard rental home after Denise lost her job as a home health aide.
“It’s like, where do you go?” said Mike, who’s found work on a freeway project. “They don’t let you go anywhere.”
The number of homeless families is on the rise, and many are living in cars and RVs, according to “Foreclosure to Homelessness 2009,” a federal study released last month. The report found that 18% of the 1.6 million who were homeless in 2008 were living outdoors but not on the streets. Housing advocates, social workers and police in Ventura County all say they’ve seen an increase in the mobile homeless. Their counterparts elsewhere in California are seeing the same thing.
