Civil rights groups sue Sebastopol over disputed RV parking ordinance

A collection of civil rights groups is suing Sebastopol over its ordinance restricting RV parking in the city in an effort to limit encampments where people live out of their vehicles.

The local law, which went into effect in late March, allows for overnight parking in commercial areas but effectively bans RV parking in city limits during daylight hours.

Sebastopol is the first city in the county to enact such a rule, and representatives of the civil rights groups said they hoped the lawsuit would serve as a warning to other local governments considering similar regulations as they seek ways to address rising homelessness.

In Sebastopol, the City Council adopted the restrictions on a 4-0 vote in February following outcry from businesspeople and residents about RV parking in the Morris Street area, near the upscale Barlow shopping district.

But housing and homelessness advocates immediately raised alarm bells about displacement of shelterless people without anywhere else to go. One nonprofit official said the rules amounted to “criminalization of homelessness.”

The 38-page lawsuit, filed Tuesday, echoes those original complaints and calls the city’s move “cruel and unlawful.”

The suit was filed by the ACLU of Northern California, California Rural Legal Assistance, Disability Rights Advocates and Legal Aid of Sonoma County. They contend the city ordinance violates constitutional rights and federal and state laws, including those protecting people with disabilities.

“The City Council did not make this decision lightly or with the intent to ‘drive out’ the unhoused from Sebastopol,” Sebastopol City Manager and Attorney Larry McLaughlin said in a statement, stressing the months and many public meetings dedicated to balancing concerns of residents, businesses, advocates and authorities. “The parking ordinance is only one part of the City’s broader efforts to balance care for the unhoused in the City with the needs of other City residents and businesses.”

The case adds to the mounting legal challenges facing Sebastopol over its homelessness response. A group of residents are pressing ahead with their lawsuit against the city seeking to shutter its sanctioned safe-parking site on Highway 116 — one of the few remaining spaces left for legal RV parking in the city.

Lawsuit Against City of Sebastopol.pdf

The city’s “prohibitions serve to banish people who have to live in their vehicles from the entire City during daytime hours, and effectively make it impossible for them to continue living in the City they call home,” the new lawsuit states.

In addition to Sonoma County Acts of Kindness, a homeless services nonprofit, the plaintiffs in the litigation also include four unhoused individuals, longtime Sebastopol residents with disabilities forced out of the city or on the brink of being pushed out.

David Yesue, 61, who has lived in Sebastopol on and off for over two decades, became homeless 2 1/2 years ago after his mobility disabilities stopped him from his work renovating homes.

“If he were to be unable to continue to live at the Village, he would face the devastating possibility of losing his vehicle and being forced to live unsheltered on the street,” the lawsuit says.

“For people with disabilities who are living in their vehicles, that’s often their housing of last resort,” said Thomas Zito, an attorney with Disability Rights Advocates. “Under the ordinance, there’s really no place for them to go.”

RV parking restrictions in Mountain View and Los Angeles also faced legal challenges. Mountain View recently settled its suit in September.

McLaughlin told The Press Democrat the city was “well aware of the quite large number of cases related to overnight camping” when it crafted its ordinance and “brought in outside counsel to meet the requirements of those.”

“The city was in a difficult situation with regard to camping in RVs especially along Morris Street,” McLaughlin said. “We had serious health and safety issues involved, we had raw sewage, trash and debris, criminal activity.”

He emphasized the city’s effort to survey and work with people parked in the area and relocate them to alternative shelter, especially through the city’s safe parking program, dubbed Horizon Shine Village, which has roughly 20 designated spots for campers and RVs.

In addition to that designated lot, the 31-room former Sebastopol Inn was purchased for homeless housing last year by Sonoma County with $6.2 million in state Project Homekey funds.

The nonprofit West County Community Services also manages a once-vacant mobile home park at 6665 Sebastopol Ave. that provides shelter and support services.

Sebastopol does not have any emergency shelter beds.

“I really think we’ve done everything that can be done by a city our size,” McLaughlin said.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs argue the RV village is not a sufficient solution to the city’s legal obligation to provide adequate alternatives for those displaced by the new parking restrictions.

Besides being full up, “it’s not permanent supportive housing,” said Alicia Roman, attorney for California Rural Legal Assistance, who said Sebastopol doesn’t have enough capacity through its other housing options for unhoused people, either. “We want them to offer them proper placement before they force them to move.”

Even in its current scope, the safe parking pilot project riled some nearby residents who sued in January to prevent it from opening in the first place. The case is on appeal, but the city has so far prevailed.

Initially a one-year program, McLaughlin said, the Sebastopol Planning Commission recently approved a permit to continue the RV village another two years. However, neighbors are appealing that decision to the City Council.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they filed another lawsuit,” McLaughlin said.

Regulations restricting camping and parking have become a point of interest and contention as local governments struggle to get a handle on increasing homelessness in a region sorely lacking in affordable housing.

Sonoma County’s 2022 homelessness report showed a dramatic 43% increase in chronic homelessness since the start of the pandemic. Just over a quarter of unhoused respondents were living in vehicles, according to the survey.

The report found the number of homeless individuals dropped in Sebastopol from 129 in 2020 to 78 in 2022.

Rohnert Park strengthened its restrictions on homeless camping in September, and Sonoma County recently added regulations limiting daytime camping in public spaces, which will make it easier to break up encampments in unincorporated areas.

“They’re just ping-ponging them back and forth,” Zito said. “Instead of dealing with the problem of unhoused folks in their respective cities, they just push them out of town and make them the problem of the next jurisdiction, and that’s inhumane.”

The new lawsuit seeks to force the city to drop its parking ordinance unless alternative housing is made available to all those put at risk by the rule. Lawyers also argue in the complaint that Sebastopol’s definition of RV as any vehicle “designed or altered for human habitation,” left the law open to arbitrary enforcement and is too vague to legally stand.

With other jurisdictions, including Santa Rosa and Sonoma County, poised to consider their own parking crackdowns following Sebastopol’s lead, “we hope this will be a deterrent,” Roman said of the litigation, “to make them think twice.”

“In Your Corner” is a new column that puts watchdog reporting to work for the community. If you have a concern, a tip, or a hunch, you can reach “In Your Corner” Columnist Marisa Endicott at 707-521-5470 or marisa.endicott@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @InYourCornerTPD and Facebook @InYourCornerTPD.