Tickets issued to people living in vehicles will be forgiven, the laws against the practice will be suspended in some cases and homeless people will have more places to legally park their RVs overnight under a lawsuit settlement approved by the San Diego City Council.
Attorney Ann Menasche filed the lawsuit on behalf of 11 homeless people six years ago to challenge city ordinances against living in vehicles and parking oversized vehicles such as RVs on city streets between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.
The lawsuit claimed the ordinances violated the constitutional and statutory rights of plaintiffs, who included disabled people who could not find housing, because they had no other shelter options besides their vehicles.
As part of the settlement, people who were cited can ask for fines to be forgiven, and the city has vowed to try to add more parking lots for homeless people and make improvements to an existing lot. It also will suspend enforcement of the laws for people who have no other place to park their vehicles for the next three years.