San Diegans Living in RVs and City Go Head-to-Head Over Safe Parking Lot

San Diegans living in their recreational vehicles say the city has not done enough to ensure that its safe parking lots are accessible.  

City officials disagree.  

On Monday, an attorney filed a motion asking the federal district court to force the city to comply with a previous settlement, in which city officials agreed to offer people living in RV’s a place in a safe parking lot, before issuing them a ticket.  

But now, city officials are pushing back hard. They plan to file a legal action themselves to “correct this misinformation” contained in Monday’s filing, a spokesperson said.   

In 2017, nine homeless people sued the city for making it illegal to live in their cars and RVs. They reached a settlement in 2024 that prevented police officers from handing out tickets under the city’s oversized vehicle law, unless the city could provide an immediate spot in a safe parking lot for people to go to instead. As we reported, the opening of a city safe lot near the airport, opened the door for the city to start cracking down on vehicle habitation. 

Some people told the Union-Tribune that they are drowning in citations for parking on city streets.  

Ann Menasche is the lead attorney representing people who live in their cars. 

In the motion filed Monday, she wrote that the agreement with the city was that police would consider on a case-by-case basis if safe parking was reasonably available. That includes distance to a safe parking lot and circumstances that may prevent people from going to the lot.  

Menasche argues in court documents that the H Barracks lot is far from Mission Bay where many people in RVs park during the day. The site is the only one the city opened after the settlement that allows RVs.  

Matt Hoffman, a city spokesperson, called that argument “dishonest.”  

“Throughout the litigation, the plaintiffs consistently stated that they wanted safe parking in the coastal zone, where H Barracks is located,” Matt Hoffman, a city spokesperson, said referring to the lot near the airport. “To suggest H Barracks isn’t a reasonable location is dishonest and not what was previously agreed to.” 

Another hurdle Menasche points to is that the city requires people staying at H Barracks to leave every day.  

“We have people who they’re poor – they’re very poor,” Menasche told Voice. “There’s a lot of people with disabilities living on fixed incomes. They’re barely surviving as it is, which is why they’re living in their RVs. They cannot afford $200 to $300 a month in gas to go back and forth.”  

The H Barracks site is only permitted for overnight use, Hoffman said.  

Kevin Denczek, 67, lives in his RV and has a car. He moves every three days from his usual parking spot to avoid getting a ticket.  

“The moving part is where it actually starts to become stressful for an old guy like me with my conditions,” Denczek said. The disabled veteran has arthritis, an autoimmune disease, and has suffered 10 strokes, he said. His health issues make it difficult to move around. 

He tried getting into H Barracks when the site opened in May 2025, but said he was turned away because he has two vehicles. The city’s lot only allows one vehicle per licensed driver.  

Even if he had been accepted into the program, he said it would have been difficult and expensive for him to move out every day. He gave up trying to get in because it wouldn’t have worked for him.  

“My cost for gasoline adds up, going almost $300 more a month for me to be able to go back and forth every day,” said Denczek.  

The 2017 lawsuit focused on two city laws. It included the vehicle habitation ordinance, which made it illegal to live in a car in some parts of the city, and the oversized vehicle ordinance that banned overnight parking.  

In 2022, Voice of San Diego reported the police quietly stopped ticketing because of the lawsuit. A federal district court judge had previously ordered the city to stop enforcing an earlier version of the vehicle habitation ordinance, setting more hurdles for the city to hand out tickets. 

The city and plaintiffs reached an agreement in 2024. Under the settlement, the city’s police officers could no longer ticket people for simply living in their vehicles if there isn’t a safe place for them to go prior to enforcement. That meant the city needed to provide options to resume enforcement.  

“They would only ticket people if there was a reasonable safe spot in a safe parking lot available, taking into account the totality of circumstances,” said Menasche. 

Denczek parks near Pechanga Arena and moves his RV and car every few days to Mission Bay to fill up on water and avoid more tickets. A stack of pink slips from the police department and tickets for $176 are stacked up on the table in his mobile home. 

“Once we get five tickets they can legally come up here, hook up our vehicles, and take our homes from us,” said Denczek. 

The pink slips are notices from the police department that Denczek cannot leave his parked car for more than 72 hours on public property. The tickets are oversized vehicle ordinance citations.  

The city’s oversized vehicle ordinance states that motorists cannot leave their oversized vehicles on city streets from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m.  

Officers from the police division focused on homelessness-related enforcement approach people living in their vehicles who they believe could be in violation of the oversized vehicle and vehicle habitation ordinances. They try to connect them with services and resources like safe parking programs, according to city officials.  

Hoffman said the settlement does not prohibit the city from enforcing its oversized vehicle ordinance, rather it provides guidance on how the enforcement is conducted.  

Hoffman added that the police department follows appropriate procedures for oversized vehicle enforcement that comply with the settlement.  

Patricia Fillét is an Old Town resident. Like many of her neighbors, she’s grown frustrated with the RVs in Mission Bay and surrounding areas.  

“We need a better way to solve this and we can,” said Fillét.  

She suggested the city should keep the safe parking lots open around the clock.  

“Being kicked out of an area less than 24 hours, or even at 24 hours does not allow for stability,” she said. Fillét added that she wants to see homelessness funding used for outreach.  

“Let’s put more pressure on us all, even the unsheltered and the homeless, because they also have to say yes to programs,” she said. “That’s what we’re spending money on.”  

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