People living in RVs often block the roads leading to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, Washington.
For months, health care workers in Olympia have warned about the dangers along Ensign Road NE. Now, the county and city leaders have agreed that at least some of it will be cleared, despite new legal protections available for RV owners, a report said.
On both sides of Ensign Road, there are many trailers, trucks, or recreational vehicles. According to hospital officials, in recent months, patients and ambulances have had to be rerouted as they couldn’t fit through.
Some homeless people in the area claimed that their fellow campers don’t always respect first responders.
Scott said that in an emergency when people are trying to move fast, there will be a lot of fools walking through the streets trying to block traffic with their bodies. Scott has been living off a parked schoolbus for the past two weeks.
Problems are compounded by the fact that parked cars don’t always pull up on the shoulders.
Providence St. Peter Hospital staff have been asking for assistance for several months to clear the road. The county and the city have now agreed to help.
It is planned to move the RVs and other cars that are parked near the hospital. However, this would leave many vehicles further out on the ensign. Local residents said that there has been trouble on the entire stretch.
Officials from the city and county hope to convince people to move on their own, without resorting to towing, while they search for a better location where RV campers who are displaced can live. Although the timeline for clearing the road is not yet clear, it is expected that it will happen within the next few weeks.
Olympia will need to balance its removal efforts against a ruling by the state Supreme Court last month that RVs are homes and those who live in them have the same protections as homeowners.
Officials from the city said that even after the ruling, they could still tow these cars away. Olympia will be responsible for paying the impound and towing fees.
The city will work hard to get any impounded RVs to their owners as soon possible.
