Car camping dates back to the earliest of wheeled transport, but the Grapes of Wrath showed what it looked like when it became a mass movement of necessity. Those times still exist today in urban areas, parked in place 72 hours at a time.
As many as 200 vehicles are being used as overnight accommodations in the City of Goleta nightly. For the people who live within, “Many are working, living on fixed incomes, or using their vehicles as the only shelter they can afford,” said Chuck Flacks. Goleta’s Homelessness Services Coordinator, Flacks has been checking in on the city’s homeless population for the past three years.
For other residents of the streets where vehicles park, particularly along a broad right of way on Phelps Road, the view is somewhat different…