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Seattle City Council raises questions about mayor's plan to target 'predatory' RVs

More than 2,100 people were living in their vehicles in King County during this year's one-night homeless count.

Editor's note: The above video is a June 2019 story about local reaction to Durkan's 'predatory' RV proposal.

Seattle City Council members have raised concerns with Mayor Jenny Durkan's proposal to penalize so-called vehicle ranchers, who rent out dilapidated vehicles to homeless people, worrying the measure could unfairly affect any person living in an RV or other automobiles.

City staff on Friday emphasized the legislation, discussed in a Finance and Neighborhoods Committee meeting, is designed to target only the "predatory rentals of unsafe vehicles," said Calvin Goings, director of the city's Department of Finance and Administrative Services.

RELATED: Seattle cracks down on vagrant RVs and vehicles returning to city streets

The city's most popular shelter options are regularly full, and affordable housing options are limited, issues that Council members raised repeatedly during Friday's meeting.

More than 2,100 people were living in their vehicles in King County during this year's one-night homeless count.

Durkan's proposed measure would fine ranchers $250 per day if they are allowing people to occupy or rent a vehicle that the city considers "extensively damaged."

RELATED: RV campers worried by Seattle’s push to remove hazardous vehicles from city streets

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