LA pushes policy to make it easier to remove RVs from city streets

Topline:

The change: Current California law requires cities to store any impounded vehicle worth more than $500 that someone has been living in and to sell it later at public auction. The proposed change would allow the city to impound and immediately destroy RVs worth less than $4,000, which authorities say will cut storage costs and prevent the vehicles from ending up back on the streets.

New state law: The proposal follows passage of a state law that raises these thresholds in Los Angeles and Alameda counties. Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez authored Assembly Bill 630 with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, who has targeted RVs in her efforts to reduce unsheltered homelessness. "AB 630 will allow us to expand on this work by bringing people into temporary housing, recycling unsafe and unlivable RVs, and making our streets safer,” Bass said.

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Wednesday’s vote: L.A.’s Transportation Committee voted Wednesday to move the motion forward to a vote of the full City Council. If the council approves the motion, it is expected to direct city officials to modify local laws to bring them into compliance with the new state law, which goes into effect in January.

Breaking down the vote: City Councilmembers Heather Hutt and Adrin Nazarian voted in favor of the motion, which calls the state law “one more tool to stop the RV to streets pipeline.” Councilmember Traci Park authored the motion. She represents the city’s Westside, including Venice, where hundreds of people live in RVs on city streets. L.A. City Councilmember Eunises Hernandez voted against the motion.

What opponents say: Community advocates from Venice say the change will cause more poor people living in RVs to end up out on the streets. “We really need to look at what this is all about,” Peggy Lee Kennedy of the Venice Justice Committee said at the committee meeting. “It's about removing the people who are poor from the Westside and Park’s district.”