Residents of Los Angeles have filed a lawsuit against the city challenging what civil rights advocates describe as an illegal plan to seize and destroy RV homes, the ACLU announced in a release this week.
The suit alleges the city is seeking 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 ACLU stated that state law generally allows local governments to destroy RVs if they are valued at less than $500. However, a new law taking effect this year has prompted Los Angeles County and Alameda County to run programs increasing that threshold, resulting in the seizure of more RVs.
The new programs raise the threshold to $4,000, a 700% increase from the original statute.
The ACLU charges that the city’s lack of accountability in the case has drawn sharp criticism from attorneys involved in the litigation.
In December 2025, an attorney representing the plaintiffs demanded that the city abandon the higher threshold but never received a response.
Shayla Myers, a senior attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, said, “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.”
The case has raised broader human rights concerns, according to the ACLU. The organization said many residents are questioning whether the city has the authority to destroy private property.
“The answer is obviously no, and that matters to everyone in Los Angeles and anyone who cares about democracy,” said Adrienna Wong, a senior attorney with the ACLU Foundation.
The seizure of RVs can also contribute to a larger unhoused population, as many RV owners may be forced to live on the streets.
Critics of the law argue that “community advocates from Venice say the change will cause more poor people living in RVs to end up out on the streets,” according to Boyle Heights Beat.
Some attorneys say the city’s approach reflects a broader attempt to obscure the severity of Los Angeles’ housing crisis.
Attorney Rebecca Miller said, “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.”
The ACLU estimates that about 6,500 Angelenos currently live in RVs and would be affected by the new law.
The organization described the proposed RV seizures as one of several recent efforts by the city to reduce the RV-dwelling population.
Another example cited by the ACLU is the city’s increased enforcement of RV towing beginning in 2024.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the authority to tow vehicles had long existed but was not actively enforced. In 2024, the newspaper reported, “The council voted 11-3 to allow the towing of vehicles creating ‘an immediate public safety hazard’ or parked in a peak-hour travel lane, in a measure proposed by Eastside Councilmember Kevin de León.”
The city is also “currently subject to separate litigation for refusing to release data on the economic impacts of its practices.” Without those data, advocates say, the full extent of the impact these policies may have on the unhoused population remains unclear.
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