'I Love My Home': Mountain View To Begin Enforcing Ban On RV Street Parking
MOUNTAIN VIEW (KPIX) -- Time is almost up for dozens, if not hundreds of struggling residents in Mountain View, who are expected to be pushed out of the South Bay city because of the homes they live in.
Mountain View city workers plan to begin posting "no parking" signs for recreational vehicles and trailers on 444 of the city's 525 streets. Measure C, which passed with 56% of the vote, bans vehicles that exceed 22 feet in length or seven feet in width and 7 feet in height, parked on streets that are 40 feet or narrower.
"I don't consider myself homeless, that's my home and I love my home, you can't afford rent here," said Angela Montoya who has lived in her converted bus for nearly two years on Gemini Avenue. "I love it, it's perfect. They're going to kick everybody out of Mountain View, but it's just going to spill out into the other areas. It's just going to keep going on and on and on."
Montoya said she has no idea where she will go next. Her street is one of the first areas where the "no parking" signs are expected to be posted.
Her neighbor, Todd Wolff, also lives in an RV on Gemini Avenue. He bought his vehicle with money he inherited after losing his parents, and immediately finding himself living in a tent next to a creek.
"I was pretty down and out, I was bummed out about my father," Wolff said. "I found it (the RV) one day and was out of the creek that next day. I packed my tent up and moved."
The ban is aimed at reducing the unhoused population that live in RVs and park in Mountain View streets. During counts last year, there were nearly 200 RVs parked on public streets.
"It's been nice staying here," Wolff said. "I knew that eventually we were going to have to go."
He said he may drive his RV to San Jose, or in a rural town near Yosemite National Park. Wolff worries, however, about the cost of gas, repairs and maintenance as he's forced to move from one spot to another. He's lived on Gemini Avenue for about two years.
Montoya said the ban may drive many of them out onto the streets instead of helping them. But she knows the clock is ticking.
"A lot of these people here, they have jobs and they have kids in school and just to pick up and leave it takes a lot of money to go," said Montoya. "I feel like honest people are getting kicked out. Sometimes it's OK to, if you choose to live in your motorhome. Make room for us, make room for it, I mean we're people too."
