The Los Angeles City Council is taking another stab at preventing people from living in their cars, and this time it’s getting very specific. The council voted Tuesday to have the City Attorney draft regulations about where and when you can sleep in a vehicle, reports LAist.
A previous attempt by the City Council to crack down on car- and RV-dwellers was overturned by a judge in a federal appeals court in 2014. The problem? As one judge wrote in his opinion, “[the ordinance] is broad enough to cover any driver in Los Angeles who eats food or transports personal belongings in his or her vehicle. Yet it appears to be applied only to the homeless."
The new attempt is very different. It would allow people to stay overnight in their cars—if they are parked on streets zoned for industrial or commercial uses.
On residential streets, staying in cars or RVs would be banned from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.. Living in a cars at any time within a one-block radius from parks and schools would also be prohibited.
Councilman Mike Bonin told LAist that if the ordinance were approved, it would be the first time the city of Los Angeles has told people where they can and cannot sleep in their cars.
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