Vehicle Habitation
What is the Issue?
In February 2019, the San Diego City Council repealed a 26-year-old ban on people living in cars. This resulted in a proliferation of “van lifers” parking on beach streets, some of them illegally dumping and urinating in public, with some taking and selling drugs. At the same time, San Diego’s housing crisis forced many people to move into their vehicles to get by—these van lifers and car dwellers parked on city streets, college campuses, and parking lots.
On May 17, 2019, the San Diego City Council voted in favor of an ordinance that limited the ban on people sleeping overnight or living in their cars within city limits. The ordinance prohibited people from sleeping in their vehicles from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. or any time within 500 feet of a residence or school, excluding colleges and universities.
What is the status?
2018, a class action lawsuit was filed against enforcing the Vehicle Habitation Ordinance. After several years of negotiations, the City settled the case in January 2024. On May 19, 2024, the case is scheduled to go before a district judge for preliminary approval
The settlement states that the Vehicle Habitation Ordinance will not be enforced on the 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. restriction when legal parking options, including safe parking lots, are full and closed and not reasonably available to involuntarily homeless individuals sheltering in vehicles.
There will be no enforcement for simply living in the vehicle and no nighttime VHO enforcement when legal parking options are unavailable.
There are four city-designated overnight parking lots in the City's Safe Parking Program.
The City will post on its website if there are spots at any of those parking lots. If there is no place for someone to park for the night at any of those four lots, they can park on the street.
The ordinances prohibiting people from parking overnight will be suspended for three years.
The City also agreed to create more Safe Parking Program lots, plus improve an existing lot for RVs in Mission Valley.