Enforcement of San Diego's ban on living in vehicles changes under settlement

Tickets written under the city of San Diego’s ban on living in vehicles will be forgiven after a class action lawsuit over the ban reached a settlement agreement that also includes major changes to how the policy is enforced.

A federal judge approved the settlement agreement last Thursday, nearly seven years after the lawsuit was originally filed. The class action suit challenged the city’s vehicle habitation ordinance and oversize-vehicle ordinance, which prohibit living in cars and RVs, as well as parking them in public lots between 2-6 a.m.

The tickets for violating these ordinances come with a $52.50 fine that doubles if they go unpaid. Under the settlement agreement, tickets written for violating the ordinances starting in November 2017 through Thursday will be forgiven by written request.

Tickets can also no longer be written if the only violation is living in a vehicle – there must be reasonable suspicion of a separate violation, according to the agreement.

The city will also expand its safe parking program, increasing and improving the nighttime parking options, including adding flush toilets, showers, sewage dumping and more at the Mission Valley lot for RVs.

The settlement agreement also prohibits ticketing if the city does not have adequate safe parking spots for people in their vehicles, and now requires new training for officers on the changes to enforcement.

“This was filed because people living in their cars and RVs were being ticketed to the point of losing their only form of shelter,” said Madelyn McCormick, one of the attorneys who filed the suit in 2017.

“We were seeing people being basically harassed in the middle of the night for simply living in their car,” McCormick said. “Folks who find themselves living in their cars cannot necessarily afford to pay for those tickets. So the tickets really build up, and the city has a policy where if you have five tickets on your vehicle, the city can tow it. And so this would result in people losing their only form of shelter, simply through tickets.”

McCormick said the suit argued the ban was unconstitutional and unfairly targeted people who are experiencing homelessness and have no other options.

“It was vague, and so it was unclear based on the terms of the vehicle habitation ordinance whether you would be subject to ticketing under it,” McCormick said. “For instance, it had a list of items that, if you had it in your car, might be indicative that you were living in your car, for instance, a blanket or food. And I don't know about you, but I have those things in my car. And so the ordinance was really vague in a way that made it so that police officers could target homeless people instead of enforcing it uniformly across all San Diegans.”

David Bogue is among those living in a van at Mission Bay. He’s stayed there on and off for a few years while working full-time.

“There are signs here that say no parking from 2 to 4, and they'll come in between those hours and they'll just slap everybody with a bunch of tickets,” Bogue said. “They hit us almost nightly for a couple of weeks.”

Bogue said he had 11 tickets that accumulated in recent weeks – all of which became eligible for forgiveness under the settlement agreement.

“I haven't been able to pay them, and I kind of feel I shouldn't have to, but when I go to register my van again, they're going to be doubled because they double after so many months,” Bogue said, calculating he had more than $1,100 in fines.

Bogue said the settlement agreement provided some relief from the ban, which he said he long believed was wrong.

“I don't think it's fair,” Bogue said. “It's a park, you know? We all pay taxes and, you know, we have a right to be here.”