Are campgrounds turning into low income housing?

[JBDISCOVERY]

We have traveled at least 4,000 miles in the last 12 months and have stayed in a good number of campgrounds. What has opened our eyes is the number of persons, families that move to follow their employment opportunities. These are good, hard working persons. Construction workers, welders, pipeline workers. Bless them. In all the parks we have been in these persons are good neighbors and keep their sites neat.
Having said that, we also see lots of families enjoying camping. They come in generally for the weekend or on holidays. However, there are lots permanent residents in these parks, but what we have seen is that those parks offer facilities that offer a get away from the city, work, worry of taking care of a house thus attractive to people who want to chill out.
Enjoying RVing, camping is wondeful.
JimB

[Wild Irish]

I was just browsing and ran across this thread, and it kinda hit a nerve. I agree with some of the comments about parks allowing long term stays to build a shanty village. No one wants to stay in a park like that when you are traveling or even just for a day away from home. People need "shanty towns" to live in when working away from home, or when they are down and out and have to live that way, with all their worldly goods in a tin storage shed, but I feel, like a lot of others, that it should be a separate area in the park. The travelers and the long termers would both be happier that way, I believe. That being said, I do take issue with elitist snobbery when it comes to how new or old, or cheap or expensive someone's motor home is, and whether they should be allowed to stay in a park on that basis alone. I have my old "Pig" because I haven't won the lottery yet. If I win the lottery, I will probably spend more money to fix up the "Pig" I would not feel comfortable in a "Marathon", for example, even if I had the money to buy one, as I would not want other people like myself to feel that I would be looking down my nose at them because they can't spend that kind of money on luxury. I have seldom found anyone in a mh park who is not friendly, except for the rare snob in a $500'000 rolling mansion who thinks I'm not as entitled to be there as they are, even though we paid the same space rent. I had one experience where we pulled into a park and the manager looked at our motor home, and decided I probably didn't know how to drive it, I guess. He picked up a flag and held it up and told me to follow him into the park and he would show me exactly where to drive because the lawns were so perfect he didn't want any of my wheels to get off the pavement onto the grass! I drove 45' semi's on construction jobs where we had to back up at 15-20 mph for over a mile...I don't think I would have needed his guidance to stay off the grass, but I'm sure the age of the motor home equated in his mind to lack of ability. Who knows. Sorry, I'll now get off my soap box. Hope no one takes offense at anything I've said, as it was not meant to hurt anyone's feelings.

[Land Barge]

To the flag point. I've had most places at least offer to guide me/show me where my assigned site was. I rather appreciate this, and most time prefer to ride along in their cart to see for myself their preferred method of entry. I prefer to see first hand what obstacles I'll need to navigate around and make sure I fit etc before I get committed.

Plus may help with those who somehow would get into the wrong spot.
Less so in the desert sites where it's only flat and rocks.
I've also eyed a better spot that may be easier to get out or where I can get out more quietly if I have an early departure. They've always accommodated my request and probably more likely when I was in the cart rather than already at the site.

I know at the end of a long trip any minutes I can shave off getting to a cold adult beverage is well welcomed.

[Dog Folks]

Originally Posted by SarahW

I am noticing this trend as well. However I guess I "assumed" that most of these permanent-looking campsites were full-timers, parked for the season. I don't know how RVs can be considered "low cost housing."

Deprecation aside, we live full time in our TT and travel for less than 1/2 the money our house used to cost.

I have also noticed this trend in the private parks. Many folks are being, "forced" into the RV, because houses were lost for one reason or another.

In some areas of the country , such as in the Dakotas, regular housing has not caught up with the need, because of the influx of oil workers. So there are both good and bad reasons for this trend.

One place this is NOT evident is in the National, state, and COE parks. Most are vigorously enforcing a maximum stay of two weeks.

[PyrateSilly]

Thom and I originally bought the RV to travel in since the job at the time had him traveling 90% to 95% of the time. We were going to sell the house ..... turns out that with being away and the bank not forwarding mail and family that was supposed to be there leave and to forward what mail did show not forward that we lost the house .... No problem we still have the RV which we were going to use anyway.
We do stay full time and did stay for about 10 months in one park. For the first 8 months or so they kept it clean and kept the ones out that had the rigs that were falling apart and things piled up and windows boarded with no glass in them. Then a new manager and all of a sudden the reliable electric is no more and now you have the ones that have the ones that were down the road at the park that was forced to close with bad water and some of the druggies from the other park down the road living full time there. We left. Now we are in an actual mobile home park closer to where Thom is currently working. Better neighbors and better management. They leave some spots open for RVers to use for a few months or longer.

With what Thom makes we could get a house or an apartment but we both have realized that we are just fine with living in the RV. We really have no problems with the relative small spacing compared to an apartment. We are spending less money on our space therefore we have more money to spread around eating out or going different places.

Everyone is different and everyone has different reasons for being in one of these things.

[_nelsonc]

Originally Posted by Land Barge

Are we somehow worried that if we get too close to the unwashed we'll be more like them? Ruffled my feathers with this one. It's only by God's good graces that hard(er) times have not falling on more of us. Gear up... Move on... I'm sure they don't want us there either.

There but for the grace of god....

[JudyH]

Originally Posted by _nelsonc

There but for the grace of god....

I agree whole heartedly!
The present problems with incomes and housing may have put some into their part time campers on a more fulltime basis than was planned.
This doesn't make them dirty or bad. However being neat and clean isn't expensive, and I would expect my neighbors to try to have a tidy site.
Our good fortune doesn't make us better than any other camper in the park. I am shocked that the friendly folks in this forum are talking down about people who due to circumstances are living in their RV's. The guiding influence is the Park, they should force their tenants to clean up! Put the blame where it belongs. And keep your Politics out of it!

[Land Barge]

Originally Posted by _nelsonc

There but for the grace of god....

Thanks for making apparent my ignorance, but I'm failing to grasp how that changes the context. I'm pretty sure the rest of us unwashed got it..

If I totally missed your point because of my ruffled feathers, then I forward apologize.

[jablair]

Originally Posted by JudyH

I agree whole heartedly!
The present problems with incomes and housing may have put some into their part time campers on a more fulltime basis than was planned.
This doesn't make them dirty or bad. However being neat and clean isn't expensive, and I would expect my neighbors to try to have a tidy site.
Our good fortune doesn't make us better than any other camper in the park. I am shocked that the friendly folks in this forum are talking down about people who due to circumstances are living in their RV's. The guiding influence is the Park, they should force their tenants to clean up! Put the blame where it belongs. And keep your Politics out of it!

It has nothing to do with Politics. Know people of different political persuasion. Some are bothered by the so called "unwashed" and some not.

[Ray,IN]

The condition and appearance of the RV park has nothing to do with the tenants other than they only do what the owner allows. It is human nature to push limits or constraints imposed on us by society, we all learned that when we were babes-in-arms.
The RV park owner owns this issue of appearance and condition of his property, some though, refuse to acknowledge this responsibility.
I know of one well-known RV park now accepting long-term tenants; Dicks RV park in Great Falls, MT. It was clean, neat and well-groomed last summer when we stayed there because, IMO, the owner accepted that responsibility when deciding to rent long-term.

[R2Home]

While we do not travel out of Alaska that much, when we do we stay at RV parks that are convenient for us! That being said, we do tend to stay at RV parks that have a fair amount of 'full time' people. While some are not real friendly, we have met some really nice people that are willing to share their knowledge of the area. It seems that some of them have fallen on hard times and are making the best of it. Besides where could one live for what it cost to stay in an RV park?

[Mr_D]

Originally Posted by bsirby

We have seen more of this, but I also know of some parks that are trying to do away with the long term stays. Parks can make more money renting a site on a daily basis versus monthly. Especially in the south where the weather permits them to be open year round.

But, if the spots are empty they don't make anything. At some point there is an equilibrium where a filled spot at less than full rates is better than a spot sitting empty.

[Fred1609]

I would agree that owners of CG are responsible for ensuring that their park is attractive, clean and orderly. I have run into a lot of folks that use their RVs to get to a new job and then move on once that job/contract is finished. They are for the most part hard working and great to be around. I don't appreciate a CG that is dirty with junky RVs that have been in place for 20 years and haven't had a lick of maintenance. I have no desire to spend my summer holiday beside them. And for the most part a lot of permanent folks don't likely want to spend their time around a different neighbour who moves on after a few days. I use rvparkreviews exclusively to avoid the parks that have the appearance of inner city housing. Call it what you want....but I don't want to spend my holidays in such a CG.

[t55watson]

Originally Posted by Brockx

I wonder if any of the low-rent folks we are discussing here ever feel sorry for the folks who have to camp at a Wal-Mart.

Best comment in the whole thread but i bet it went right over some heads.