You, Housed Person, Are Not The Victim Of Homelessness
People living outside are not the enemy — and you are not their victim.
Yesterday, on my neighborhood NextDoor — an app I got for the sole purpose of unloading excess produce from my garden and monitoring the various lost and found pets on my block—a homeowner posted about some “van campers” outside of his house. He asked how to best address them.
Of course, these are individuals parking on a public curb in a residential neighborhood — a public curb which, in Portland, the homeowners are responsible to maintain in the event of damage, but to which homeowners do not have a legal right. Which is to say, the curb in front of your house is only your curb in the event that your tree is poking through it; otherwise, it’s everyone’s curb.
But on NextDoor, a curb is sacrosanct. An unknown car parked in front of your house is a middle finger to you, the hallowed homeowner. Someone parking their residence — a residence which, by virtue mostly of forced beyond individual control, has wheels, rather than a foundation—on your curb is a threat to your very life, your family.
It is literally, according to the responses, a nightmare. It is a shot across the proverbial bow.
