There are greater than 6,800 RVs in Los Angeles County that unhoused folks name dwelling, based on the 2024 homeless depend. That’s greater than the variety of tents (about 4,200) recorded in that very same survey. Of these, 3,691 are in the metropolis of Los Angeles.
Leisure automobiles have appeared throughout the county and town of Los Angeles, typically parked alone on a road, typically in teams that unfold over a number of blocks. Some are dilapidated and inoperable. Others are in working situation and folks can drive them from location to location.
However in contrast to a tent or cardboard lean-to, RVs supply substantial safety, privateness and shelter. And in lots of different locations, persons are allowed to stay full time in RVs. So understandably, RV dwellers typically don’t consider themselves as homeless and few wish to commerce their car for a mattress in a gaggle shelter. (Who would?)
Through the years, as neighborhoods have complained about trash, fires and crime at some RV encampments, Los Angeles metropolis officers have struggled to determine the way to persuade this section of the unhoused inhabitants to go away their automobiles behind.
Sadly, the L.A. Metropolis Council’s latest resolution — to tow illegally parked RVs in some areas with out doing outreach or providing providers or momentary housing — is more likely to backfire and runs counter to town’s efforts to cut back road homelessness.
If you happen to kick homeless folks out of their RVs, they might find yourself residing in a tent on the sidewalk subsequent to the place they had been parked. The RV could also be gone, however its occupants are much more unsheltered than they had been. That’s ridiculous. This can be a difficult state of affairs, however that is simply the fallacious approach to cope with it.
In reality, the council’s movement is so broad that it directs transportation officers to tow away “any and all automobiles” which can be stopped or parked in violation of quite a few parking restrictions. The Authorized Assist Basis of Los Angeles, in a letter to town lawyer, stated the council overstepped its authority in ordering towing of automobiles which will violate parking restrictions however don’t represent a visitors or public security hazard or aren’t parked in posted tow-away zones.
We perceive that RV encampments can pose issues. They’re massive and ponderous, and make it troublesome for different drivers to navigate round. They completely take up parking areas, typically alongside metropolis parks. RV dwellers have been identified to dump their septic tanks into the streets. Some RV occupants find yourself transferring belongings into the adjoining road or sidewalk.
Through the years, town has tried to discourage encampments by placing up indicators on streets prohibiting in a single day parking of outsized automobiles. When that occurs, RV dwellers merely transfer to a different road or, in some instances, stay there. The town can solely tow so many as a result of there isn’t sufficient city-controlled storage even for the quick time period. Nonetheless, between Might 2022 and June 2024, town issued 1,134 parking citations to RVs and towed 638 of them. (Towing stopped in the course of the pandemic and resumed in 2022.) Additionally it is costly. Towing, storing and in the end dismantling and recycling RVs may price town thousands and thousands of {dollars}.
One factor is for certain — town can’t simply tow its manner out of the issue. A extra prudent technique can be to comply with the method for transferring folks out of tent encampments. This method has already proven it may work. Metropolis officers have elevated outreach to RV campers in recent times, together with by Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Protected program, which affords folks in encampments interim housing, largely in motels and accommodations. RV campers will typically settle for motel or resort rooms, although some received’t when the supply is contingent on relinquishing the RV. Since June 2022, 196 RV dwellers took housing.
Metropolis Councilmember Monica Rodriguez and the nonprofit West Valley Properties YES collaborated on a pilot program that started in 2022 within the San Fernando Valley and has efficiently housed 146 RV dwellers. Councilmember Nithya Raman, the present chair of the Metropolis Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee, has pushed for a citywide technique to accommodate RV dwellers and supply them money or present playing cards to half with their automobiles. It labored in Rodriguez’s district. Individuals are understandably reluctant to surrender their automobiles. A $500 incentive might assist. However service suppliers say campers fear about what they are going to do if the motel keep doesn’t work out and their RV is lengthy gone.
The town ought to take into account different choices as nicely, together with utilizing metropolis tons to supply short-term RV storage and opening protected parking tons for RVs. The tons would must be bodily greater than these for vehicles, and open 24 hours — in contrast to town’s present protected parking tons which can be open solely at evening. However it will in all probability be simpler and cheaper than providing up 1000’s of motel rooms for a number of months. As a substitute of spending all its efforts making an attempt to get folks out of RVs, town ought to work on discovering or creating locations which can be protected for RVs.
This course of takes time. Nonetheless, metropolis officers ought to proceed to ramp up efforts to achieve out to RV dwellers and supply them housing. Towing illegally parked RVs with out doing which will do away with RVs however will depart extra folks residing on the road.
