Los Angeles Residents Challenge City's Unlawful Plan to Destroy RV Homes

LOS ANGELES, CA – This week, Los Angeles residents filed a lawsuit challenging the City of Los Angeles’s plan to dramatically expand the seizure and destruction of RV homes in violation of state law—reflecting its hasty, unaccountable approach to the property of unhoused Angelenos. The CD 11 Coalition for Human Rights, a group of organizations and housed and unhoused residents in West LA, is represented by the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA), ACLU Foundation of Southern California (ACLU SoCal), Western Center on Law & Poverty (WCLP), and Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF).

State law generally allows local governments to destroy RVs if they are valued at less than $500. A new statute, effective January 1, 2026, authorizes the Counties of Los Angeles and Alameda to pilot a program that would increase that threshold for some RVs by 700%, to $4,000.

Even though the law is clear that this authority is limited only to the two County bodies, the Los Angeles City Council voted to instruct city departments to immediately implement new policies adopting the higher threshold at the city level.

On December 18, 2025, counsel for the plaintiffs sent a demand letter to the Los Angeles City Attorney asking the City to abandon the unlawful plan. The City did not respond.

“We’re frustrated that we have to ask a judge to tell the City what anyone reading the statute can plainly see: The City has no authority to implement AB 630,” said Peggy Kennedy, member of the CD 11 Coalition for Human Rights. “The law is clear, and so is the harm that it will cause our members and neighbors who live in RVs if the City implements its illegal plans.”

“The City has yet again resorted to criminalizing homelessness and depriving unhoused people of their belongings, without any regard for whether their actions are legal—let alone helpful in getting people off the streets,” said Shayla Myers, senior attorney at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. “Litigation doesn’t solve homelessness, but it is necessary when the City won’t stop violating the law and unhoused people’s rights.”

“As simple as this case is, it also asks a hugely important question: Can a city destroy people’s homes and property without legal authority?” said Adrienna Wong, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Southern California “The answer is obviously no—and that matters to everyone in Los Angeles and anyone who cares about democracy.”

“In its rush to destroy evidence of California’s housing crisis, the City is showing a reckless disregard for the law, the people’s trust, and our scant public resources—while inflicting harm on Los Angeles’s most vulnerable residents,” said Rebecca Miller, senior attorney at the Western Center on Law & Poverty.

“An RV is a home. For many disabled people, it is the only accessible or affordable housing option,” said Erin Neff, senior staff attorney at the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund. “These homes contain medications, mobility devices, vital documents, and the essentials of daily life. When an RV is seized and destroyed, people lose not just property—but their shelter, stability, and everything they own.”

The City’s recent action reflects a troubling pattern of unlawful and hastily implemented policies targeting unhoused Angelenos, including the nearly 6,500 who live in RVs (according to the 2025 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count). In 2024, City Council similarly moved to increase frivolous tows of RVs in violation of municipal ordinances, state law, and the U.S. Constitution. The City is currently subject to separate litigation for refusing to release data on the economic impacts of its practices.

The Coalition for Human Rights seeks an order from the court, preventing the City from implementing the new law.

Read the petition here.