SAN DIEGO – A disabled rights attorney has filed a legal motion claiming multiple city violations of a class-action settlement allowing vehicle dwellers not to be ticketed if spots in nearby Safe Parking Lots are unavailable.
At a Nov. 4 news conference and rally at South Shores Boat Launch in South Shores Park in Mission Bay, attorney Ann E. Menasche alleged police are indiscriminately handing out $173 tickets each, plus penalties, to people who can’t afford it and have no other choice near Safe Parking Lots.
Such lots include H Barracks, city-owned land off North Harbor Drive between Kincaid Road and McCain Road near the San Diego International Airport and Liberty Station.
At issue is Bloom et al. vs. City of San Diego, a settlement agreement approved by the U.S. District Court in October 2024. That lawsuit challenged two city ordinances penalizing people for living in their vehicles and/or parking certain large vehicles overnight in the city.
Six years ago, Menasche filed a lawsuit against the city on behalf of 11 homeless people to challenge city ordinances against living in vehicles and parking oversized vehicles such as RVs on city streets between 2 and 6 in the morning.
Sleeping in a vehicle on public streets is prohibited between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. Additionally, long-term vehicle habitation, including in RVs, on private property, is often restricted, with a typical 72-hour limit for camping. Recent legal challenges and settlements, however, have changed enforcement, requiring police to now offer alternative shelter options before citing individuals for vehicle habitation.
Menasche argued the city is presently not living up to the terms of the Bloom Settlement.
“City police are supposed to consider whether ‘safe parking’ is reasonably available to individuals before ticketing them,” she said. “However, police are not doing so and ticketing them anyway.”
Menasche pointed out that many vehicle dwellers can’t afford to pay for tickets being issued to them without sacrificing food and medicine.
“Many vehicle dwellers are living on small, fixed incomes and cannot afford to pay the $250 to $300 in extra gas money to drive their RVs twice per day (12 miles round trip) to the safe parking lot,” she added.
“Others have disabilities that mean they cannot physically handle the multiple strenuous tasks involved in moving their RV twice per day, or have visual impairments, or are taking medication, which makes it unsafe to drive at night. Some have work schedules that conflict with the hours that the Safe Parking Lot is open and don’t want to lose their jobs.”
The attorney contended that to continue ticketing people forced to live out of their vehicles when there isn’t enough available, affordable housing is morally wrong.
“That’s the bottom line,” said Menasche. “What we have are people who are trying the best they can to survive — and they’re being punished for being sick or poor.”
Menasche pointed out that many San Diegans live paycheck to paycheck, making them one downturn, job loss, illness, etc., from finding themselves in similar reduced housing circumstances.
In August, at a Liberty Station community forum, Capt. Steve Shebloski and Sgt. Mike Wallace from the San Diego Police Department’s Neighborhood Policing Division told residents that oversize vehicle and vehicle habitation enforcement were “taking time” to accomplish because police are being very diligent and transparent in engaging vehicle dwellers because “we want everyone to understand what’s going on.”
Shebloski pointed out that OVO enforcement was precluded in Point Loma before the recent opening of the H Barracks Safe Parking Lot.
“Legally, we couldn’t do enforcement,” he said. “Now that H Barracks is open, we can do enforcement because an overnight, disability option is available.”
Wallace, who actively contacts OVO residents in the field while enforcing OVO/VHO ordinances, said his primary job is to inform residents of the rules and their options. He said he repeatedly engages OVO owners, issuing warnings and offering them an opportunity to correct their behavior and live within the law, before citing them for non-compliance.
Addressing the lack of affordable housing, not stricter enforcement of people forced to live out of their vehicles, is what is really needed, concluded Menasche.
“Rents keep going up, and the answer is not to treat people who have no choice as criminals and ticket them to death.”
Menasche added that the vehicle dwellers she’s representing will also be protesting the failure of the city to make essential improvements at the Mission Valley Safe Lot (2234 Mission Village Drive) as promised in the Bloom agreement. She noted people living out of their vehicles in Mission Valley’s Safe Parking Lot still lack running water, showers, electricity, and adequate shade.
A legal briefing on Menasche’s motion to enforce the terms of the Bloom Settlement has been scheduled for Dec. 9. She said it is uncertain how long the courts may take to decide the legal issues involved.
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