Homeowners Angry About RVs : But Camper Dwellers Deny They’re the Source of Problems on Riverside Drive

Knock on Betty West’s front door and Blondie, her cocker spaniel with large, chocolate pools for eyes, comes bounding out to greet you.

A well-stocked spice rack can be seen through West’s kitchen window, which is adorned with cheery flowered curtains. She has most of the creature comforts of the average homeowner--a television, a freezer for stocking food, a water heater.

But West is no ordinary Echo Park homeowner. Her home sweet home is on four wheels--a 1973 truck camper--that for eight months she has parked on Riverside Drive, just south of Fletcher Drive.

To the dismay of neighboring property owners, West has plenty of compatriots. As many as 20 recreational vehicles and vans have come to park on Riverside Drive over the past few years, forming a community of transients that has neighboring property owners concerned and frustrated.

The property owners, who last year formed the Riverside Drive Neighbors’ Alliance, say the ragtag RV encampment has blighted the busy street. They complain of RV residents urinating, defecating and littering along the street, accosting passersby for money and intimidating property owners by gathering on front steps and in the yards of homes. Residents of the encampment have also been blamed for a rash of car burglaries and graffiti in the neighborhood.

The encampment has posed a dilemma for property owners and Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg’s office. Rather than shooing the RV residents away with “No Parking” signs and aggressive police patrols, Goldberg’s staff has been searching for city-owned property where the campers could establish a more permanent community, much like the Dome City near Downtown.

“In some ways, they are a part of the community. . . . They’ve been in the area as long as six years,” said David Hershey-Webb, a member of Goldberg’s staff. “They are our constituents. It’s a careful balancing act.”

But some area property owners are angry that the council office has tried to accommodate the campers. They were appalled when Hershey-Webb provided trash containers along the street, and many are outraged over a plan under consideration by Goldberg’s staff to place portable toilets along the street.

“They’re not property taxpayers like I am,” said Ray Jarvis, who owns two rental properties on Riverside Drive. “You get a bunch of homeless people and line them up in front of your home, and the value of your home depreciates.”

But the campers say they have little other choice. West, for example, says she has a heart condition that prevents her from regular employment. She lives on a monthly Social Security check of $690, which she says is not enough for her to afford an apartment or house rental, or even a space in a mobile home or trailer park.

“You pay twice as much for a space in a trailer park as what I paid for an apartment in Houston,” said West, 45, whose words are softened with a slight Texas drawl.

The campers say the close-knit RV community, which includes families and people of all ethnic backgrounds, actually helps the neighborhood by cleaning up litter, keeping an eye out for crime and scaring away would-be taggers.

Sitting in the dining room/living room area of West’s camper one recent afternoon, West and fellow RV resident Stan Carpenter scoffed at accusations that their community is the source of crime. “We try to keep it clean. We sweep the sidewalks, pick up the trash around us . . . and watch out for each other,” West said.

“And if we were criminals, wouldn’t we leave?” Carpenter, 34, said. “Why would we break into someone’s place right here where we’re staying too?”

West and Carpenter also discounted charges that RV residents urinate and defecate on the street and private property, saying most of the vehicles have toilet facilities. But West acknowledged that some of the residents, herself included, don’t know where official sewage dumping stations are. West said she empties her septic tanks in portable toilets around the city.

West and Carpenter both said they have considered moving to campgrounds, but they found that parks charge $7 to $20 per night without electricity and water hookups. Most of the Riverside RV residents could probably afford to pay only about $50 a month for a space, Carpenter said.

West said she spends less than $20 monthly for her “utilities,” which consist of a propane tank to run her stove, water heater and refrigerator, and a battery for her electric appliances, which include a television and lights. A gas station at Fletcher and Riverside drives provides a pay telephone, and most RV residents have post office boxes for their mail.

There are the occasional hassles of life in a mobile home. City laws prohibit parking on the street for more than 72 hours at a time, so RV owners must move their vehicles every three days, Carpenter said. But parking enforcement and police officers have been fairly lax about issuing parking tickets, the campers said.

Many property owners initially felt sympathy for the campers, but over time, frustration over the sanitation and crime problems and the transients’ attitudes has clouded the compassion, said Micheal Frances, founder of the 30-member Neighbors’ Alliance.

“These are not the classic homeless; some want to live this way,” said Frances, who purchased a duplex on Riverside Drive six years ago and says he has had a hard time finding renters to move in. “One guy is a dog lover who lives with five or six dogs in one van. He spent $900 to have one dog’s hip repaired.

“We all started out wanting to be compassionate. . . . My heart goes out to people in need. But now, we want them gone.”