People who live in their cars could park overnight under Modesto plan. What do they think?
As Modesto keeps working on a proposal for a safe parking program that would provide a place for people who live in their cars to sleep at night, three homeless people who live in their vehicles say it’s a good idea for many reasons, but for one in particular: access to clean bathrooms.
The city is working on a pilot program of 25 parking spaces. The site would have fencing, lights, security, drinking water and portable toilets.
“The biggest thing is bathrooms,” said 64-year-old Frank Yrigoyen, who said he has lived in his 1990 GMC pickup for about five years and has been homeless longer than that. “The park bathrooms are locked. It’s embarrassing (not to have access to a bathroom).“
The city closes park bathrooms at night and fully closes park bathrooms that have been subjected to repeated incidents of vandalism and other misuse.
Yrigoyen, Dan Allen, 62, and Ladonna Doshier, 61, spoke with The Bee on Wednesday in the parking lot at Fairway Park next to John Thurman Field in west Modesto. The three are longtime Modesto residents.
Allen said he’s been living in his 2006 Chevy Uplander minivan for about two years since his mother died. The two lived together in an apartment and he could not afford the $850 monthly rent by himself after she died. Allen said he receives $996 a month in Social Security disability.
Doshier said she and her roughly two-pound, 13-year-old dog, Li’l Miss Missy, have been living in a 2011 Chevy Aveo LT for about 1.5 years. She said this is her second stint of living in a car. She said she gave her first car to a family member who needed it more than she did. Doshier said she has been homeless for many years.
Mom with kids living in a van
“That would be a help for a lot of people,” Allen said about the city’s proposal. “There was a van here (at Fairway Park) that looked worse than mine. There was a mother with three kids. And I don’t know where they went. But they were here, and they were here since last year.”
The three are adamant about not wanting to stay at a homeless shelter.
“My disability is bipolar and depression,” Allen said. “And large crowds of people, I don’t get along. Too many people.”
Yrigoyen said he also does not do well among lots of people.
“People don’t know how to respect people,” he said. “... I don’t even go into stores. People walk into you, bump you. They don’t say nothing. If you bump into somebody, (say) ‘Excuse me.’ It’s common sense.”
Doshier gives a variety of reasons for not wanting to go to a shelter, including not wanting to take up space for women with children. But she also said she does not feel safe being around people she does not know and is afraid of COVID-19 and the vaccine.
‘ ... don’t go around nobody’
“I just told him COVID and all that,” Doshier said as she recalled a conversation with a homeless outreach worker who tried to get her to go to a shelter. “We don’t go around nobody. We tell ‘em, ‘Hi, bye, I love you and everything.’ You know what I’m saying?
“ ... We’ve got good immune systems. You’re not going to inject us with nothing. We don’t inject drugs. ... We don’t know what they are putting in people (with the vaccinations). ... And there are no doors there I can lock.”
Officials are considering a pilot program for a site that would have 25 spaces, fencing, security, cameras, portable toilets and garbage receptacles. The people using it could park overnight but would have to leave during the day.
The city would hire a service provider to run the program. The service provider would ensure that only the vehicles in the program use the site and provide case management services to the people who use the site to connect them to housing and other services.
The rules include no visitors, no open flames such as barbecues, no outdoor storage and tents, no generators and no vehicle repairs.
City officials went public with their proposal at the November meeting of the City Council’s Safety and Communities Committee. Officials said then they had details to work out, including a site for the pilot program.
The proposal drew strong support from the three committee members, Mayor Sue Zwahlen and council members Chris Ricci and Jenny Kenoyer. They asked officials to complete their work and report back to the committee.
Once the committee reviews it, the proposal would then go to the full seven-member City Council for approval.
Plan may go to council in spring
When asked for an update, Deputy City Manager Caluha Barnes said in an email, “Staff continues to pursue the viability of a safe parking program in Modesto. The earliest that we anticipate having something for committee is March, with the possibility of it going to council in April.”
City officials talked in November about requiring the vehicles in the program to be registered and the drivers to be licensed. They said that was based on their research of what other communities have done. But Zwahlen said she was concerned that could exclude people who need the program, including families with children.
Doshier said she has a valid license and her car registration is current. She had a June 2022 registration sticker on the rear license plate of her Chevy Aveo. Allen said he is licensed but his minivan registration has lapsed. Yrigoyen said his pickup is registered and he’s working on renewing his license.
The three said the police don’t bother them when they sleep in their vehicles. And while they feel safe, they do have their concerns.
Allen and Yrigoyen have been friends for seven years. They two often park near each at night. And Allen said when he stays at Fairway Park he parks under the light in the parking lot.
“I feel safe,” Allen said, “but it’s security.”
The two men know Doshier, and while they spoke with a reporter, she came over, and the three engaged in good-natured teasing.
Doshier pays attention to her surroundings and said she feels safer in her car than when she slept outdoors. “I can lock these doors and feel safe,” she said. “And I can start my engine and drive off if I don’t feel safe. Somebody can kill me or my dog living out in the open.”
Friends may have a home
Doshier said she thinks a safe parking program is a good idea, but has mixed feelings about whether she would use it. She would need to know and feel safe with the other people in the program and would want the city to screen out people who could cause trouble.
Allen and Yrigoyen said they are close to getting their own rental home. Allen said someone he has known for nearly 16 years has a house for $500 a month. Allen said he and Yrigoyen are ready to move in as soon as Stanislaus County checks out the property.
Allen said after a couple of years of sleeping in a sitting position in the front seat of his minivan (the rest of the van is packed with his belongings), friends tell him he must be looking forward to sleeping in a bed again. But that is not so.
“When I get in the house, I’m not going to get a bed,” Allen said. “I’ll just get me a recliner chair and sleep in it. ... Everybody says, ‘So you’re going to get to sleep in a bed.’ And I say, ‘No. I’m just gonna get me a recliner chair and sleep in it.’ ”
This story was originally published January 10, 2022 at 7:18 AM.
