Last week, I got some good advice, but I’m not going to take it.

I was advised to list in this column the names of all the important people who support the Sierra Roots/No Place To Go Project (SR/NPTGP) and our goal of legalizing RVs/trailers for full-time living.

This is good advice, but that’s not what Sierra Roots is all about. We’re a from-the-ground-up organization. Grassroots.

We’re not being effective because important people support us. Important people support us because we are being effective.

Our power comes from the people who think housing-ready homeless people, low-wage workers, and older/disabled citizens have a right to affordable housing. Now.

We have a homeless/housing crisis. RVs, trailers, yurts, shipping containers and whatever else meets minimum health & safety standards must be allowable as housing.

Our power comes from the people (i.e., you) showing up and speaking out Jan. 14 at 1:30 p.m. at the Rood Administrative Center in Nevada City. The Board of Supervisors is holding a public hearing on the proposed Tiny Homes on Wheels Ordinance.

Democracy

Homeless activist Utah Phillips said, “Your body is your ballot.”

Whether it’s your feet in the street in a march or your butt in a seat at the Rood Center Jan. 14, it’s about walking your talk. It’s about showing up to be counted. Democracy.

Important people are not going to get housing for the people by the people. That’s on us.

Therefore, I’m inviting all the important people (you know who you are) who support the mission of the SR/NPTGP to come join us – be with us, we the people – at the Jan. 14 public hearing.

If you can’t be there in person, try get to a computer to watch the hearing and phone in your comments. And if anybody can’t make it because of work, family, school, transportation or whatever, please call or write to your supervisor (or all of them). Tell them you want them to show the rest of the state how to handle a rural homeless/housing crisis.

At the very least, sign our petition at www.noplacetogoproject.com. A bound, hard-copy list of all names (first and last) and ZIP codes will be presented to each of the supervisors before the Jan. 14 hearing. Out of Nevada County readers are invited to sign too, because homeless/housing is a statewide problem.

Contact information for the supervisors is in the box below.

TALKING POINTs

We have compelling arguments to allow all homes on wheels (AHOWs) and other alternative housing on private property as a means of handling the homeless/housing emergency now. Letting people languish outside while waiting for housing to be built is unacceptable.

AHOWs are functionally equivalent to THOWs. They are built to federal and state standards. They’re just “dressed up RVs” as one county planning official put it.

RVs/trailers may not be designed for permanent living, but thousands of us are doing it anyway. We are proof that it can be done.

Mobile home parks are not affordable to low-income people. And some people would not do well under the strict rules and regulations of a mobile home park.

People who are safe, responsible and welcome where they are should not be moved by Code Compliance just because of a meritless or malicious complaint. This is an emergency. A zoning complaint is not enough.

To exclude RVs/trailers from the THOWs ordinance is prejudicial class discrimination. People who live in trailers and RVs because they can’t find or afford anything else are not automatically “trailer trash.”

RVs/trailers are transitional housing for people coming out of homelessness and the last resort of people facing homelessness.

According to the University of California, San Francisco, the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH) revealed that 63% of homeless people attribute their plight to the lack of affordable housing. People are homeless because government and free enterprise have not provided enough housing. Whose fault it that?

It’s a myth that all homeless people are addicts or mentally disabled. What you see on the streets is not the whole picture. According to CASPEH and other nonbiased sources, far less than half of homeless people are addicts or mental. Many homeless folks don’t look or act homeless. They have jobs, go to a gym, volunteer in the community.

Without an address, it is difficult to find work, enroll in school, get vital mail and deliveries.

We are not asking the county to build anything or spend millions of dollars. Just include RVs/trailers in the tiny homes on wheels ordinance.

Nevada County is one of the most advanced and well-run rural counties in California. It is up to us to lead the way in how to handle our crisis.

A safe place to live is a human right.

strategic allianceS

I am excited to announce that the SR/NPTGP is working with THOWs-builder Travis Duckworth of the SOL Learning Institute and Brad Peceimer’s Robin Hood Project.

A NSJ resident, Brad was named Volunteer of the Year 2023 by The Union, and he received a Certificate of Recognition from the Board of Supervisors in 2024.

He either buys old trailers or accepts donations, fixes them up and gives them to responsible people, especially domestic violence victims, to keep them from becoming homeless.

Over the last eight years, he claims he has provided more than 250 RVs and trailers. He told me three trailers have been returned to him just this week because the occupants found housing.

Travis, Brad and I will be speaking at the Jan. 14 hearing. We hope everyone who believes in housing for the people by the people will show up. Speaking truth to power is encouraged but optional. Just being there (wearing a SR/NPTGP T-shirt if you’ve got one) is an eloquent statement.

It’s not how “important” you are that counts. It’s how committed you are to being the change you want to see.

THOWs public hearing: 1:30 p.m., Jan. 14, Rood Administrative Center, Nevada City
Supervisorial Districts: www.nevadacountyca.gov/3459/Find-Your-Supervisorial-District

Tom Durkin is the creative director of the Sierra Roots/No Place to Go Project, the social justice advocacy arm of Sierra Roots, a Nevada City nonprofit serving homeless people. The Project is funded by grants and private donations, which are tax deductible.  Durkin may be contacted at tomdurkin@sierra-roots.org, www.noplacetogoproject.com or 530-559-3199.