Photograph by Matthew SuÁrez

San Diegans who live in their vehicles say the city has implemented new measures in its fight against so-called “van life” and the habitation of vehicles.

“Amber” lost her job as a customer service representative due to Covid. Jobless and faced with high living costs, she, her husband, and her seven-year-old daughter moved out of their City Heights apartment at the end of June.

In July, the family decided to buy an RV and live in it until they could get back on their feet, and until Amber could find another job.

Photograph by Matthew SuÁrez

Like so many other people who live in their cars or RVs, the family headed west to Mission Bay for a safe and temperate place to park during the day, a place where she could homeschool her daughter.

But the savings from not paying rent were short-lived.

Within two weeks, Amber received her first parking ticket for parking in two stalls. The ticket was the first of many.

By the beginning of October, she had received a dozen tickets, some for violating posted signs, others for oversized vehicle parking, and others for parking too close to a boat ramp.

Since July, Amber, who doesn’t want to use her full name for fear of retaliation, has seen more and more officers patrolling the popular parking lots in Mission Bay. She has witnessed city crews painting curbs that were once legal parking spaces red. “At Leisure Lagoon, they painted it red and blocked it off,” she says.

Amber and other vehicle dwellers say the city has ramped up parking enforcement, especially for those living in their cars, vans, and RVs despite Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s March 16 mandate to suspend parking enforcement in order to help residents navigate the pandemic.

She and others who live in their vehicles say the city has implemented new measures in its fight against so-called “van life” and the habitation of vehicles in the city of San Diego.

In doing so, crews have reportedly changed time limits on parking signs, removed parking places by painting them red, and issued an increasing number of citations since the outbreak of the pandemic. The types of parking tickets include failing to cramp wheels, expired registration violations, red-zone infractions, and citations for violating parking signs.

“I feel uncomfortable parking anywhere around here. I feel like I have been singled out,” says Amber. “I don’t know where else to go. I just got to keep moving.”

Photograph by Matthew SuÁrez

Amber and others believe that the city has ramped up enforcement as another way to force those living on the streets and in their cars away from popular bay and beach parking lots. These people also say they are reluctant to go to the city’s safe parking lots because of a lack of health protocols to protect them against Covid, leaving them with few options other than to continue their cat-and-mouse game with law enforcement.

“I feel uncomfortable parking anywhere around here. I feel like I have been singled out,” says Amber. “I don’t know where else to go. I've just got to keep moving.”

She is not alone. David Wilson, who has lived in his vehicle since 1999, says he witnessed city crews change the no-parking times on signs near a popular parking area at Mission Bay’s Ski Beach.

“At the beginning of the pandemic, my truck was free and clear of tickets,” says Wilson. “But I got my first ticket after they changed the time on the signs. Everyone knew the restrictions, and the city changed them on a whim. I saw them changing the signs and immediately knew what they were up to.”

According to data obtained by the Reader through a public records request, parking citations have increased dramatically since Covid's arrival.

In the weeks after Faulconer issued his mandate, city police and parking officers issued only 1260 citations, public records show. By July, as businesses began reopening after the shutdown, that number increased ten-fold to 14,247 citations. And it continued to rise. By September, the city issued 22,068 parking tickets. Again: the increase occurred despite Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s March 16 directive to reduce parking enforcement to holiday and Sunday regulations.

Doug Higgins has lived in his 35-foot Pace Arrow Coachman for the past six years, ever since he retired from his car salesman job to help care for his mom when she was diagnosed with dementia.

Higgins, a 71-year-old Vietnam Veteran, is knowledgeable — passionate even — on the subject of parking laws and the ways around them. And since the pandemic emerged, Higgins says the crackdown on parking enforcement is apparent. He believes the city has turned to issuing citations for violating signs and red-zones as a way around the potential public relations nightmare that enforcement of the vehicle habitation tickets might cause during a pandemic.

Since the pandemic emerged, Doug Higgins says the crackdown on parking enforcement is apparent. Higgins believes the city has turned to issuing citations for violating signs and red-zones as a way around the potential public relations nightmare that enforcement of the vehicle habitation tickets may cause during a pandemic.

Photograph by Matthew SuÁrez

Higgins saw this first-hand. “I have received two during the pandemic,” he says. “They have taken two parks and taken all motorhome parking out, removed all parallel parking. They painted them red. It eliminated motorhomes. That’s all they are trying to do. They find ways to ticket you. I don’t break the law. I am getting so sick of it. There is another park on SeaWorld Drive where they painted the spots red.”

Added Higgins, “Everybody was under the impression that they stopped enforcing this. That, obviously, is not the case.”

People who live in their vehicles and RVs say they have few places to turn and little support from the city.

In large part, their frustration has been mounting ever since the city passed the Vehicle Habitation Ordinance in June 2019. The ordinance made it unlawful for people to sleep in their cars near schools and in neighborhoods, while at the same time prohibiting others from sleeping in their vehicles between the hours of 9 pm and 6 am. As a temporary solution, the city implemented the Safe Parking Program, which consisted of three parking lots open for those in need of a place to sleep.

However, conditions at those safe parking lots and concerns over the spread of the Coronavirus have driven people away. “In addition to falling short on basic human rights standards, there is no Covid testing at these lots,” says Ann Menasche, an attorney for the non-profit Disability Rights California. “Their idea of safety is to set aside one port-a-potty for people who feel sick, and that port-o-potty sits directly next to the others. There is no enforcement for masks. These people are not safe against Covid, nor are they protected from much anything else. These lots already posed numerous safety issues for those staying there. In so many ways, the lots are not even on par with the most rudimentary refugee camps. It’s awful, and the city does nothing about it.”

Menasche represents dozens of homeless individuals now suing the city in a potential class action lawsuit over the vehicle habitation ordinance. She says if class certification is granted, there will be thousands of plaintiffs in the case.

David Wilson who has lived in his vehicle since 1999 says he witnessed city crews change the no-parking times on signs near a popular parking area at Mission Bay’s Ski Beach.

Photograph by Matthew SuÁrez

With regard to the rise in parking citations since the mayor suspended enforcement, Menasche says numerous clients have told her that the city has turned to writing citations as an alternative to impounding RVs and arresting those living in cars. “These people are prohibited from being in public places in the daytime. The parks and the large parking lots at the beach and bay are so important to these people, because they offer a safe place to park with restrooms and running water, without the high temperatures seen inland. But these are the places where enforcement has increased.”

Menasche says she has heard from several people about the spike in citations, especially those for violating parking signs. Menasche believes the increased parking enforcement is a way around full enforcement.

“Citing people for violation of signs is just another way to enforce the vehicle habitation ordinance. It is just another way to target the people who use the beach and bay area. And with more evictions on the way due to the pandemic, more people will be out on the streets. This is the time to act. If things remain as status quo, more people will be on the street, fighting for a sliver of parking lots where they can be safe, have access to running water, and restrooms.”

Getting those living in vehicles out of neighborhoods and popular beach and bay parking lots has been one of Faulconer’s main initiatives. “If you want to work toward finding a permanent home, we have programs that can help,” Faulconer said in a June 19 statement during the implementation of the Vehicle Habitation Ordinance. “We will not allow the proliferation of ‘van life’ culture that takes advantage of San Diego’s generosity and destroys community character.”

Crews have reportedly changed time limits on parking signs, removed parking places by painting them red, and issued an increasing number of citations since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Photograph by Matthew SuÁrez

But with the arrival of the pandemic came new problems. More and more people have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic, and like Amber, have had to leave their homes and live on the streets. “We have been staying at Mission Bay for almost three months now,” says Amber. "My daughter is in the first grade. I home-school her, and having to shuffle around and move from place to place has been difficult to say the least. I didn’t think it would be a problem. There are people in the cars and in the streets. I thought this would be better and safer.”

Yet, while moving out of the family’s home may have been the smartest financial option for Amber and her family, the savings were soon offset by the thousand dollars in fines from parking tickets that the family has paid.

“I got my first ticket within two weeks of moving out of our home, maybe less,” says Amber. “It was for parking in two stalls even though it was meant for RV parking. Since then I got the oversized ticket three times, twice in October. I have probably gotten around 12. I have lost count.”

It was not just the increase in tickets that Amber and others living in their vehicles noticed, it was the type of violations.

While the city has continued to issue oversized vehicle tickets to those living in their vehicles, the increase in those tickets is not as stark as other infractions. In April, as the pandemic tightened its grip on the region, parking officers issued 46 oversized vehicle citations in the city. In June that number decreased to 18 before jumping to 486 in September.

City data shows that parking officers concentrated on other infractions, most notably, “violation of signs” infractions. In April, the first full month of suspended enforcement, the city issued only 108 citations for sign violations. By September that number increased to 3608.

In April, officers issued 400 tickets for parking in red zones. In September, that number was just shy of 3000.

A spokesperson for the city in response to the dramatic upswing in tickets says it is important to note the “lag for processing citations through the Treasurer’s office.”

As for the rise in tickets at the beach and the bay, the spokesperson attributes the spike to public parks and beaches opening after the health order was lifted.

“The major drop from March to April is explained by the suspension of enforcement and the fact that parking enforcement officers were deployed to other tasks at the start of the pandemic (mid-March). Many parking enforcement officers were stationed at beach parking lots to enforce those closures following the state and county stay-at-home orders in mid-March. When beaches reopened in June, staff was able to return to regular duties issuing citations of the Sunday/holiday regulations that were in effect,” says the spokesperson.

Regarding claims that crews have recently painted curbs red in Mission Bay, the spokesperson confirmed that Park and Recreation crews removed nearly a dozen spots from the area, but denied it was a way to chase away RVs. “The location is a peninsula called Playa III, a small road and cul-de-sac,” says the spokesperson. This area previously had approximately 10 parallel parking spaces. City staff were noticing an increase of large vehicles not being able to easily turn out of the parking lot to exit, due to the cars parked along the curb, creating a very tight space for those vehicles to turn.

“On busy days, City staff also noticed pedestrians walking into the street between the parked cars, and not seeing vehicles driving down the road to exit the parking lot.”

Added the spokesperson, “City staff determined it would be prudent to improve safety conditions by painting a red curb to no longer allow parking along the cul-de-sac and the small one-way road. This was due to safety concerns for pedestrians and park users and not to impede visitor access to Mission Bay.”

Meanwhile, Amber worries about finding a safe place to park her family for the night and remains frustrated at the level of enforcement as she tries to navigate her and her family’s new nomadic lifestyle. She is surprised at the lack of help extended to those struggling financially during the pandemic.

“The city should offer more resources for us and so many others. Thousands of people have lost their jobs and their homes because of this. There should be a place we can go. Instead, we are greeted with more and more officers whose sole goal is to write tickets. They pour all of this money into enforcement when it could go to finding solutions for people like us.”