Marin County RV buyback program meant to help people pay for housing
MARIN COUNTY — It's not uncommon for cities to offer gun buybacks to get unwanted firearms off the streets. Now, Marin County is taking the same approach to RV's, offering cash to homeless people if they'll turn in the vehicles that have been parked along one street for years.
Campers began showing up on Binford Road in rural Novato shortly after the 2017 Tubbs fire made a lot of Sonoma County residents homeless. At first, there were just a few, but over the years, the line of RV's has grown thanks to the pandemic, the economy, and the high cost of housing.
Dino Montarello moved his trailer there from Sonoma County about eight months ago and said a lot of the stress has been relieved.
"Here, it's nice because you don't have to worry about the Sheriffs coming in and making you move and go to another spot and then making you go to another spot, back and forth. In Sonoma, that's what we were doing, constantly," he said.
"Shuffling individuals around from location to location doesn't really solve anything," said Marin County Supervisor Eric Lucan.
He said the county is taking a more practical approach to the RVs on Binford, making the encampment more livable rather than just trying to remove it. They supply portable toilets and handwashing stations and trash pickup three times a week, to avoid piles of garbage and junk, like at other camps.
But Lucan said there was a necessary first step, "Number one, we stopped it from getting any larger. We physically closed off spaces on Binford Road to stop the growth."
As soon as a vehicle leaves, a fence or earthen berm is quickly put in its place. Slowly the number of people living on Binford has been reduced to 101 individuals.
"Just in the last month, we've seen 10 individuals on Binford Road move into a more permanent housing solution," said Lucan. "You know, the approach we're taking on Binford is we want the next move that anybody on Binford Road has to make — that next move they should make — is into a house."
To encourage that, the county is trying something new, an idea that worked to clear out many of the unwanted "anchor out" boats in Richardson Harbor. They are offering to pay people on Binford Road, who find permanent housing, $175 per linear foot for their old RVs.
"So, for a standard RV, that might be $4,000 to $5,000," said Lucan. "These funds could be used for first, last month's rent, security deposit, or a whole variety of things needed when they make that move."
The State has given Marin a total of about $2 million to deal specifically with the Binford Road encampment. The goal is to cut its size by half in two years and remove it completely by 2026. Montarello said he's not against the idea of the buyback.
"I'm not attached to this trailer," he said. "If they want to give me money for the trailer, fine, I'll take the money. But I need somewhere to put a roof over my head."
That, of course, is the real problem. Montarello said people aren't living on Binford Road because they want to. Until they start building a lot more housing, there will always be those who have no other choice but to live on the side of the road.
