Camp Curbside : Neighborhoods: Homeless find safe haven in their vehicles along a stretch of street in Silver Lake. Residents call for their ouster, saying the campers are spoiling the area and hurting property values.

For four years, a 1972 Dodge van with its tiny bed has been home to Ralph Smith.

A few steps away a man known only as Ed spends his days watching a small portable television in a pickup truck with a camper on top. Behind them, Betty West lives in a trailer with her dog Blondie.

This fleet of homes on wheels--which sometimes can grow to 20 or more--is not located in a trailer court. Instead, it is parked along Riverside Drive just south of Fletcher Drive in Silver Lake, a place that Smith and others say they heard about from friends as a safe haven from harassment by police.

To the dismay of nearby property owners, some of the campers, who say they have no other place to live, have parked here for as long as six years.

“This isn’t a preferred spot,” explained Stan Carpenter, who unlike many others in the small motor community has been able to occasionally find work fixing cars. “It’s very noisy and very dirty. We stick together basically because there is no place else for us to be.”

Although they say they feel sorry for the campers, nearby residents also have bitter complaints and want them removed.

“A city street is not a trailer park,” said homeowner John Ruege. “Get the people off the street and find them jobs.”

Ruege and others were so outraged six months ago that they complained to City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg about transients urinating, defecating and littering along the street, accosting passersby for money and intimidating residents. They also blamed residents of the encampment for a rash of car burglaries and graffiti in the neighborhood.

The transients say none of those charges are true and ask why they would want to spoil the area where they live, even if it is only a street.

Connie Farfan, one of Goldberg’s aides, said the city could force those in the motor community to leave, but that it would be unfair for the city to harass them unless there is a suitable alternative location for them.

Goldberg’s staff think they have such a solution. They hope a trailer court will be included in a proposal by the mayor’s office to turn a vacant city block in the eastern part of Downtown into a homeless drop-in center.

If such a trailer park is established, Farfan said, those along Riverside Drive would have to abandon their current spot.

When questioned about that suggestion, Gene Boutilier, who heads the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, said he likes it. “That’s a strategy that ought to be part of the mix of alternatives,” he said. “Let’s work on it.”

In response to the complaints from residents, Goldberg’s office had garbage cans put near the campers, established regular trash pickups, installed a portable toilet and restricted parking to about a one-block area.

But property owners say such actions are only a quick fix.

“I know it’s part of an effort to clean up,” Ruege said. “But that’s also welcoming them. It’s like telling them it’s OK to live there. There needs to be a real solution.”

Micheal Frances, who helped organize the Riverside Drive Neighbors’ Alliance to deal with the complaints, said that as long as the trailers are on the street, “it lowers our property values and makes rental very difficult.”

Carpenter and others said they do not want to live on the street, but they do like staying in their portable homes. “It feels more free to be in a motor home,” Carpenter said.

David Hershey-Webb, another Goldberg aide, said, “There are people all over the city living in vehicles. Most of these people can’t pay rent. Most have been evicted. Living in a van gives them a feeling of security.”

The campers unfairly get blamed for everything that goes wrong in the neighborhood, Carpenter said. He said they try to keep the area clean and call Goldberg’s office when they see something unusual. “They are our eyes and ears,” Farfan agreed. “They call us about people dumping sewage. They sweep and clean.”

During the day, many of the campers drive around so they can recharge batteries running their televisions and lights.

Most don’t have jobs. None have a telephone and they get their mail from post office boxes. Only a few have sinks or refrigerators, so they stock up on canned food and items they can heat on their portable stoves. Many have to use the showers at a local swimming pool or the YMCA.

Smith, who counts on his neighbors to guard his van when he must go to the hospital, says he does not want to leave a community he has grown to trust. “If I park in a new place I’ve got to learn the people,” he said. “If you shave and get a haircut they’re wary of you. You’re Mr. Clean.”

West, who is now in the hospital, says she has a heart condition that prevents her from holding down a regular job. She lives on a monthly Social Security check of $690, which she says is not enough for an apartment or house rental, or even a space in a mobile home or trailer park.

Although property owners are still pressing for removal of the campers, both Goldberg’s office and police say they are receiving fewer complaints. “In the last four to five months we haven’t had more than three to four calls,” Farfan says. “I don’t think it’s as disruptive to the community as a few people say it is.”

“Do you think if somebody is going to be living somewhere seven days a week, with their license plates exposed, they would wander off right in their neighborhood and rob somebody?” Smith asked.

The fleet now sits on Riverside Drive with the Golden State Freeway on one side and a steep embankment on the other. It is about one block away from the nearest homes. Before the area where they could park was restricted, the transients would scatter along Riverside from Los Feliz Boulevard to Fletcher.

For their part, property owners want the campers out of their neighborhood.

“I really don’t want them in my back yard,” Ruege said.