The court decided it was excessive to carry on how the current laws have treated vehicle shelters. Between towing and storage fees, most homeless persons are looking at a $600 bill. Unfortunately, many homeless people lose their cars because they cannot pay these fees. The current system has been a colossal failure to this point, as it just exacerbates the homeless crisis. Vehicle shelters are also the means of transportation for the homeless, and towing away this means results in further social deterioration for homeless people and their children. These towing rules ultimately support continuing homelessness for the next generation.
The ruling says you have to consider the means and finances of the person whose vehicle is being towed and impounded. This decision is also the first state court ruling to support the ban on excessive parking fines that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on in 2019. The language used that is so important to the Washington State Supreme Court ruling noted that “the offense of overstaying one’s welcome in a specific location is not particularly egregious,” meaning it isn’t incredibly bad or shocking. This argument can go a long way toward a greater protection homeless people so badly need.
Often, once a car has been impounded, and the homeless person cannot financially pay to retrieve it, the ruling city, county, or state declares it “abandoned,” which is a lie wrapped in a harmful act. Next, the vehicle goes to auction, where once sold, the towing company gets its cut, and the city that was impounding the car gets the rest. Often the vehicles are bought by “vehicle ranchers” who will attempt to rent the cars back to the original owners, and the process begins again. This corruption of the system only works in the long run if people can afford to pay their fines because realistically, these vehicles are not usually worth much, so there’s a lot less money to go around. Towing companies are barely making ends meet in their reimbursements and cannot justify the process either. But, they are contracted by the city, county, or state to perform this task and have to perform this task. Otherwise, they are in breach of contract and end up liable. So please remember, it’s not the towing company that’s the bad guy, it’s the current laws that are the bad guy. And the towing company isn’t going to put itself out of business because they feel sorry for homeless people.
The argument against this is that it’s creating a pathway to allow homeless persons to live indefinitely on municipal properties with no response available for the public. I agree with this understanding. However, I believe it’s necessary to force the government to step in and work with public and privatized organizations to help bring better solutions to the homelessness crisis. And again, if solutions are not found and utilized, the problem remains generational and ever-growing. Many of our cities are more and more resembling third-world countries, and just fencing them off isn’t going ever to be the answer.
Part of the vehicle solution is to find a way to register a vehicle as a home legally, and public housing could be in the form of parking lots. There are many empty malls around the country today that could be acquired by the city, county, or state and used for this very purpose. The structure of the malls could be renovated with thousands of shower facilities, a severe weather shelter, and any type of distribution center to help the homeless. Hire private security firms and the mall area could be a bus stop to help consolidate travel assistance, help folks find work, get food, etc.… Food courts in the malls could provide meals. There is such potential, especially for school children, to benefit in education, personal and social areas. It becomes far easier to track children and assist in the needs of their families. And those that disrupt this process can easily be removed from the grounds and not let back in, and law enforcement can better do its job with an organized group of vehicle home communities rather than searching out vehicles that don’t belong on properties.
But to leave the malls empty means eventual physical deterioration and the tearing down of building structures, and eliminating all hope for assistance in this area. The problem is that it takes a humanitarian gesture from the rich for this to happen. And most of the wealthy mall property owners aren’t willing to do the right thing with what they have. -God Bless Rev. Mark Niznik
