PLACENTIA : Council Eases Law on Living in Vehicles

An ordinance prohibiting people from living in vehicles parked on public rights of way has been revised to allow for such habitation in hardship cases.

City Council members voted unanimously to allow for living in vehicles if there are “extenuating circumstances” that may force some people to live in trailers, cars and motor homes. The revision states that exceptions will be made “for a limited amount of time upon written request.”

City Councilwoman Carol Downey said the council became concerned after reading a story in August of a 41-year-old cancer patient who was told she could no longer live in a recreational vehicle parked in her neighbor’s driveway in San Juan Capistrano. City officials there later gave the woman a permit allowing her to live in the RV for another three months.

“We didn’t want to create a hardship for anyone,” Downey said. “It was just made flexible enough so we could consider a case like that in San Juan Capistrano.”

In addition, the City Council voted to extend the prohibition to include commercial and industrial rights of way. The original ordinance, passed in 1988, banned habitation in vehicles only in residential areas.

Joyce Rosenthal, Placentia’s director of development services, said city officials requested the code change after discovering someone had been living in his vehicle in an industrial area of the city for a long time.

Similar ordinances have been passed in other cities, including Garden Grove and Laguna Beach.