Late last month, a series of search warrants led police to the RV, where they seized $147,987 in cash, cocaine, and a handgun.
Police determined that the RV was “not being used by any unhoused individual as a living quarter,” but rather “for the sole purpose of engaging in narcotics sales and consumption.”
The incident—one of multiple drug busts on RVs in 24 hours—points to a broader issue as officials struggle to respond to an explosion of RVs on the streets of Los Angeles, from Venice to the San Fernando Valley to the South Bay.
“RVs often pose a threat to public safety by blocking visibility for vehicular travel, leaking sewage onto city streets, and have resulted in several fires when heaters or propane are used inside,” City Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez said in a 2022 statement that announced the results of a pilot program in her district, which includes Sylmar, Pacoima, and Sunland-Tujunga. In its first year, the program placed 94 people in permanent supportive housing and disposed of 65 RVs.
However, some communities affected by vehicles in place since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a new influx of RVs, say they are frustrated with government inaction.
As it turns out, it was also a narcotics bust by the LAPD, and arrests were made after an investigation.
City Councilwoman Traci Park, whose District 11 includes Venice, told The Epoch Times that the RVs had been there for years, and were “known to be engaged in narcotics and other types of criminal conduct.”
“Those RVs ... which have been a consistent problem for these families and neighbors, have now been towed,” she said.
While operations have cleared nearby tent encampments, Venice Neighborhood Councilwoman Soledad Ursua said many RVs have remained permanently parked on Venice’s residential streets since 2020.
Ms. Park says RVs are now the No. 1 complaint she hears from her constituents.
“A lot of the complaints relate to not only the excessive amounts of garbage and debris taking up sidewalk space, but illegal dumping, and a lot of alleged criminal conduct, narcotics, trafficking, sex trafficking, and things that run the gamut,” she said.
But some argue that the actions did little good in Venice, where Ms. Ursua said city officials have told her that the municipal code regarding towing is now out of date.
“You can ticket, but you can’t tow. We used to have laws on the books, and they sunset—so it’s the transportation codes that lapsed,” she said.
Ms. Park confirmed that the code in question is no longer the governing law in the City of Los Angeles.
“Now it’s just a surge of vehicular homelessness,” Ms. Ursua said. “And it’s very scary to be walking by at night, the strip on Main Street. Any female should be scared to walk past a row of RVs with men sleeping in them. We know there’s something wrong with this situation.”
Meanwhile, in Harbor Gateway, an industrial area in the South Bay on the border of Los Angeles and unincorporated Los Angeles County, a local businessman said complaints about exploding RV encampments fell on deaf ears—until it was reframed as an environmental issue.
“The Department of Justice got involved in our case and things started moving,” Barry Coe, an independent business owner who operates a manufacturing company in the area, told The Epoch Times.
He said he demanded the federal government take legal action against the county immediately to address what he said was an environmental disaster caused by the RVs.
“I called for a consent decree against the county because of the harm it caused, dropping raw sewage into storm drains and into the ocean,” Mr. Coe said, adding that in the heavy manufacturing district, there were few constituents, but the area had become “rife with crime and prostitution,” prompting some business owners to complain.
He estimates that authorities have removed about half of the 600 or so RVs that were parked in the area.
“It’s complex because there’s a law regulating motor vehicles, you have to impound them for a month, put up for lien sale,” Mr. Coe said.
To overcome such hurdles, a few local businesses donated property where the vehicles could be stored before the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department had them destroyed, he said.
Law enforcement agencies, Mr. Coe said, are “not getting the green light from politicians. No one seems to know why. They make excuses. Places like Venice—it’s terrible. Here, I pointed out, ‘we have an environmental disaster on our hands,’ and as soon as I did there was some movement.”
“I don’t think that any family should have to worry about the safety of their children coming and going to school or using our parks, so that is a reasonable regulation that makes sense to me,” Ms. Park said.
Requests for comment from Ms. Hernandez and Mr. Soto-Martinez, who voted against the measure, as well as Councilwoman Rodriguez, were not returned by press time.
Throughout the city, regulation and enforcement remain a patchwork endeavor.
The LAPD recently entered into a $250,000 contract with a recycling company to clear a years-long backlog of dilapidated RVs. The same company, according to city records, also has a $1 million, two-year contract with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’s Inside Safe program, which clears encampments by bringing people into interim housing.
Still, many officials complain that they are constrained by a lack of space to park impounded RVs, as well as the need to create safe parking lots with services for RV dwellers.
And yet, all such efforts continue to be hamstrung by political division.
While some Democratic leaders, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, filed amicus briefs urging the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the appeal of a Ninth Circuit ruling that has prohibited municipalities from enforcing anti-camping bans—the court has taken up the issue and an opinion is expected in June—Southland Democrats remain divided.
And at a Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting last week, Supervisors Janice Hahn and Kathryn Barger introduced an amicus brief, amended to stress that the board does not seek to criminalize homelessness and only wants clarity about whether authorities can dispose of bedding and possessions when people are moved to housing.
The blanket prohibition, Ms. Hahn said, “has led to huge encampments in many of our public spaces—our beaches, our metro stations, our parks. And we know these encampments are unsafe to live. We know drugs are rampant. We know there is violence against women.”
After a stream of public comment against the brief, primarily from employees of nonprofits that serve the homeless population, a divided board approved the motion on a 3–2 vote.
