Despite push to find a safe place, some campground hosts saying no to homeless RVs

As Seattle opens two K.O.A.-style lots to move RVs from neighborhood streets, neighbors have wondered &#8212 why not send the RVs to campgrounds?

Frustrated Seattle homeowners who have flooded community meetings, demanding the city address the RV issue, have suggested just that.

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“Forty-six California cities have banned RVs: San Diego has banned RVs, Long Beach has banned RVs,” said one speaker at a recent community meeting.

“Where will they go?” a neighbor shouted from the crowd.

“They can go to a K.O.A. park,” the speaker replied. “The police have already told us that this is being used as a platform for selling heroin, selling drugs.”

There are 16 Kampgrounds of America locations in Washington state, which brand themselves as family-friendly recreation areas to hook up RVs, motor homes, and campers to water, power, and sewer.

Despite the push to find a place for these homeless RV and car campers to go, Mike Gast, Vice President of Kampgrounds of America, said their sites are not the right place to move the roadside campers.

“Bluntly, we can make a lot more profit off of a daily, transitional camper &#8212 somebody who’s moving around the country &#8212 than we can a seasonal camper because, what you really end up with is a trailer park and that’s not what we are,” Gast said.

He says K.O.A. owners generally have a specific kind of clientele they’re trying to attract.

“A lot of the folks that camp with K.O.A. are driving around in rigs that are worth well over $100,000, you know, these class A, 40-foot bus-like rigs that you see out there,” Gast said. “And they don’t necessarily want to camp next to a broken down 30-year-old Winnebago that’s on its last legs, and the engine doesn’t work or it’s leaking oil.”

Gast says each K.O.A. owner or host has their own form of the “no shoes, no shirt, no service” policy. They can and will turn people away who don’t meet their standards. They also have rules, like a maximum length of stay and number of cars allowed parked around a campsite.

Even at the Kent location, guests are usually tourists and travelers, or people on an extended stay in the area for medical treatment, Gast says.

Visiting the Kent K.O.A., the rigs parked in front look exactly like the belong to the kind of posh road trippers Gast wants visiting. Among them, a freshly washed motor home and what looked like a brand new Fiat.

But, speaking with residents, it seemed there are more long-term visitors than Gast let on.

One couple, who preferred to remain anonymous, said they’d been living in a tent there for months.

Another woman who just moved in said she was there because she couldn’t afford her own apartment, but was tired of sharing a studio with two other people. So she borrowed some money and bought a used RV. She said most K.O.A.s have a five month limit and make residents move out for 24 hours before they can return.

One man said he has been living there on and off for the last year. He said he’s from Eastern Washington but finds work in the Puget Sound area, so he lives at the K.O.A. instead of a motel to save money. He said in the last few years he’s seen more and more long-term tenants, and more people living full-time out of RVs. He pointed to a nearby RV, complete with a faux grass patio, he said they have been parked at the site for years.