Living in Vehicles: About 660 People in San Joaquin County, No Direct Count and No Legal Place to Park

Homeless
Written By Don Bradford
Living in Vehicles: About 660 People in San Joaquin County, No Direct Count and No Legal Place to Park

Living in Vehicles: About 660 People in San Joaquin County, No Direct Count and No Legal Place to Park

Lodi411 / LodiEye — Housing and Homelessness Brief — October 2026

One in five homeless people interviewed in San Joaquin County this year was sleeping in a car, van, truck or RV. That share doubled from 2024, even as the county's overall homeless count fell 30 percent to 3,306 (2026 San Joaquin County Point-in-Time Count Report).

Applied to the countywide total, that share works out to about 660 people. No agency publishes a direct count of them. And no city in the county, nor the county itself, runs a lot where they can legally park and sleep for the night.

In Lodi, police post and tow RVs on the industrial east side month after month. The city pays $1,300 a tow (Lodi Committee on Homelessness, Sept. 10, 2026 packet). This report covers four questions: what has to be counted, what is pushing people into vehicles, what the county and cities can do that also protects residents and businesses, and whether a managed "trailer park" for vehicle residents could work here.

Summary

The 2026 Point-in-Time (PIT) count, the federally required homeless count taken one night each January, does not report how many vehicles were occupied or how many people were in each one. The 660 figure is an estimate built from a survey share. A realistic range is about 500 to 830. Police tow logs, school records of students living in cars and DMV registration data could each fill part of that gap. None of those records are combined or published today.

Several pressures push people into vehicles at once. Most people lose housing in the county where they already live. Vehicle residents are more likely than other homeless people to be working, older or raising children. Tent camping has been pushed out by enforcement. And a large supply of aging, cheap RVs is coming onto the used market.

Other California cities have opened managed parking lots with restrooms, water, waste disposal and caseworkers. Those sites cost about $2,200 to $4,400 per space per month to run. A vehicle resident earning the average income found in Los Angeles research could afford about $440. That gap is why the realistic opportunity here is a civic one, with private operators and landowners in contracted roles. A standalone commercial park does not cover its costs at the rents these residents can pay.

Key Numbers

  • 3,306 — People counted as homeless in San Joaquin County, January 2026
  • 20% — Survey respondents sleeping in a vehicle, up from 10% in 2024
  • About 660 — Estimated people living in vehicles countywide (range about 500 to 830)
  • 0 — Safe-parking lots operating anywhere in the county
  • $1,300 — What Lodi pays per tow under its RV enforcement program

The picture: California, the county and Lodi

California counted 181,934 homeless people in January 2025, and 115,583 of them were unsheltered (HUD 2025 California report). In the largest statewide study of homelessness, conducted by UC San Francisco, 21 percent of participants said they had spent most of their time homeless living in a vehicle (UCSF California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness). A May 2026 national report put the number living in vehicles statewide at about 34,000. Advocates quoted in that report said the real figure could be double (Philadelphia Inquirer / New York Times, May 25, 2026).

San Joaquin County's 2026 count found 3,306 people: 1,468 in shelters and 1,838 unsheltered. Lodi accounted for 248 of them, 133 unsheltered and 115 sheltered (2026 PIT Count Report). The report's city table lists 2,550 people as the incorporated-city total. That figure is not the countywide count. The countywide total of 3,306 also includes 700 people in unincorporated areas and 56 at scattered shelter sites.

The biggest change since 2024 is where people slept. The tent share fell by more than half and the vehicle share doubled. Over the same period the shelter share also doubled, and about 1,300 permanent housing options opened countywide (San Joaquin Continuum of Care).

Where surveyed homeless residents were sleeping, 2024 and 2026

Percent of survey respondents. Outdoors or streets 41% (2024) and 35% (2026); shelter 13% and 27%; vehicle 10% and 20%; tent 31% and 14%; motel 4% and 3%; abandoned building 1% and 1%. 2024: 624 answers; 2026: 249 answers. Source: 2026 San Joaquin County PIT Count Report, p. 22.

Most of the county's vehicle residents are not counted as housed by anyone. A separate group does have a recognized address. The Census Bureau estimates 222 occupied "boat, RV, van" homes in the county, holding about 556 people, mostly RVs at a recognized address (American Community Survey 2020–2024, Table B25033). That group is not in the homeless count. It also has its own pressures: park age limits, stay caps and park closures.

In Lodi, the record comes from monthly police reports to the Lodi Committee on Homelessness, an advisory panel to the City Council. In June 2026, police posted 23 RVs, trailers and vehicles. One RV that stayed after it was posted burned on the roadway (Lodi Committee on Homelessness, July 9, 2026 packet). By August, police had switched to Vehicle Code towing after a warning and a 10-day wait. They reported that RVs on the street had "decreased from 30 to 11" (Sept. 10, 2026 packet). On Sept. 24, a cleanup of two campsites at East Lodi Avenue and Thurman Road ended with six RVs, a truck and a moped towed and eight people arrested. One person accepted help from the Lodi Access Center, the city's shelter (FOX40).

1. What needs to be tracked and counted

Nobody in the county can say with confidence how many vehicles are lived in, where they park, or what happens to them after a tow. The pieces exist in separate offices. The table below lists the records that matter, who holds them, and what each would answer.

Records that would measure vehicle living in San Joaquin County
Record Who holds it What it would show Published now?
PIT street tally of occupied cars, vans and RVs by type and location, and the people-per-vehicle multiplier San Joaquin Continuum of Care; county Human Services Agency; Applied Survey Research, the count contractor A direct count of vehicle residents, by area No (PIT report)
PIT survey answers broken out by sleeping location: age, work, income, children, time homeless Continuum of Care; Applied Survey Research A local profile of who lives in vehicles No
Posting and tow log: location, registration status and outcome (moved, towed, reclaimed, destroyed) Lodi PD, Stockton PD, Sheriff's Office, Tracy PD Whether enforcement reduces vehicle living or moves it to the next jurisdiction Partly; Lodi reports monthly to its homelessness committee (Sept. packet)
Vehicle and RV fire incidents City fire departments and fire districts The safety risk to neighbors and occupants No regular series
Housecar (motorhome and camper) registrations by ZIP code, model year and lapsed status California DMV, by agency request The size and age of the local RV fleet and how many are unregistered (DMV housecar definition) No; the public data has no motorhome field (California Open Data)
Students living in cars, campgrounds or trailers, counted under the federal McKinney-Vento education law School districts; San Joaquin County Office of Education Families with children, a group the January count often misses (SJCOE Homeless Youth Services) Not by sleeping location
RV and mobilehome park permits, spaces and park rules (age limits, stay caps) California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) How much legal space exists and who is allowed in (HCD park search) Permits yes; rules no
Low-price RV listings near Lodi and Stockton Listing sites; researchers The supply of cheap older RVs, reported only as supply No

Agencies listed are the holders of each record. "Published now" reflects public records found for this report.

A repeated early-morning street count along known corridors would add a local trend line between January counts. In Lodi those corridors include S. Guild Ave., Thurman St., S. Beckman Rd. and Industrial Way, where police have documented clusters (July 9, 2026 packet). Any agency or volunteer group can run the same route, at the same hour, on a fixed rotation.

San Jose shows what registration data can reveal. About 36 percent of the city's more than 2,000 oversized or presumed lived-in vehicles had expired or unverifiable registration in 2024 (San Jose parking enforcement status report, Nov. 2025).

How the 660 estimate works, and its limits

The PIT report publishes two numbers that can be combined: the countywide total (3,306) and the share of surveyed people who said they were sleeping in a vehicle (20 percent of 249 answers). Multiplied together, they give about 661 people. It is an estimate of people, not vehicles.

  • Timing. The street count ran Jan. 26–27. The surveys were taken later, between February and mid-March, so the 20 percent describes where people slept when they were interviewed.
  • Sampling error. A margin of plus or minus 5 points on 249 answers puts the range at about 500 to 830. Using the report's own stated margin of 5.7 percent gives about 470 to 850.
  • Cross-check. Counting only unsheltered respondents, vehicles were 29 percent. Applied to the 1,838 unsheltered people, that gives about 525, toward the low end of the range.
  • Not included. The roughly 556 people the Census counts in occupied RVs and vans with a recognized address are a separate group.

2. What is driving it

Housing loss close to home

People living in vehicles here are mostly local. In UCSF's statewide study, 75 percent of participants were living in the same county where they last had housing (UCSF statewide study). A car or RV is often the last thing of value a household still owns after losing a lease.

Working, older and raising children

Research from the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, based on Los Angeles County's 2020 survey, found vehicle residents were more likely than other unsheltered people to be employed, to be women, to be older and to be living with children. Living with children was the strongest predictor, five times more predictive than the next factor. Average monthly income was $1,458. Job loss was the main reason they gave for becoming homeless (UCLA, Understanding Who Lives in Cars in Los Angeles County).

Lodi service providers report the same pattern among older residents. In April 2026, the Lodi Access Center director told the homelessness committee that "elderly homeless who are living in RVs are reluctant coming in" to the shelter (April 9, 2026 packet). In June 2026, 47 percent of Adventist Health Lodi Memorial's housing-support referrals were people 60 or older (July 9, 2026 packet).

Tents pushed out; vehicles take their place

Every city in the county and the county itself now restrict sleeping in vehicles or camping in them. The rules run from the county's 60-minute, 300-foot rule to overnight bans in Lathrop and Ripon (County Ordinance 4655; Lathrop Ordinance 25-466; Ripon Chapter 12.28). Manteca's camping law defines "camp facilities" to include "vehicles, vehicle camping outfits" (Manteca Municipal Code 12.20).

In Lodi, a camp car may be occupied outside a licensed campground only under a 30-day backyard guest exception. Overnight RV occupancy is otherwise allowed only in an approved RV park (Lodi Ordinance 2028; Lodi Municipal Code 17.32.030(E)). The city's Lodi Lake facility page lists 16 RV hookup sites for weekend camping in the Rotary Area (City of Lodi). Friends of Lodi Lake says RV camping there is currently unavailable (Friends of Lodi Lake). Flag City RV Resort is a separate, privately run park.

Bans tend to move vehicles rather than reduce them. A UC Institute of Transportation Studies brief on 85 Los Angeles County cities found a citywide ban cut vehicle dwellers by 3 people in the regulated area and added 4.5 in nearby areas. Vehicle residents concentrated where industrial land was common (UC ITS policy brief). Lodi's east side, Stockton's Wilson Way and Airport Way corridors, and unincorporated county roads fit that description.

Nowhere sanctioned to go

Stockton budgeted $1.8 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money for safe camping and parking. Its 2022 request for qualified operators "received no qualified applicants" (City of Stockton ARPA study session, Feb. 22, 2023; Stocktonia, Aug. 30, 2024). Tracy's council voted 3–2 in February 2020 for a temporary safe-parking pilot that would allow RVs. It set aside $25,000 and declared a shelter crisis to give the city liability protection (Tracy council minutes, Feb. 18, 2020). The city's request for proposals gave providers less than five days to respond (City of Tracy).

In January 2026, county supervisors voted unanimously to cancel a safe-camping site at the former Oakmoore golf course. The project would have cost more than $11 million to build and $4 million a year to run (County Crossroads newsletter).

County parks allow stays of 10 days in any 25 (San Joaquin County Parks campground rules). Stockton's River Point Landing caps stays at 21 days (River Point Landing).

A growing supply of cheap, aging RVs

U.S. manufacturers shipped a record 600,240 RVs in 2021 (RV Industry Association). Many private campgrounds refuse RVs more than 10 years old. Disposal often costs $2,000 or more, which leaves a pool of free or cheap older RVs that end up on public streets (City of Portland RV fact sheet). Under a 10-year rule, the 2021 units start losing access to many parks around 2031. Whether that adds to street living is a reasonable question, but it is not yet a finding.

In Los Angeles, informal landlords known as "vanlords" buy RVs at auction for $2,000 to $5,000 and rent them for $600 to $800 a month (ABC7 Los Angeles). A 2026 state law, AB 630, lets Los Angeles and Alameda counties dispose of inoperable oversized vehicles worth $4,000 or less, up from $500 (California DMV).

U.S. wholesale RV shipments

Units shipped from manufacturers. 2021 full year: 600,240 (record). 2025 full year: 342,220. January–July 2025: 213,338. January–July 2026: 183,592, down 13.9%. Sources: RVIA, 2021; RVIA, 2025; Modern Campground, July 2026.

3. What the county and cities can do

Vehicle clusters have real costs for the people around them. Lodi made N. Sacramento St. between DeForce Ave. and Turner Rd. a permit-only overnight parking zone to deter people from sleeping in cars there. Shelter clients receive temporary permits (CBS Sacramento). The RV that burned on a Lodi roadway in June is a fire risk in plain view. People in RVs also need a legal place to empty waste tanks. Long Beach opened a sanitation and water-filling station for that reason (City of Long Beach).

A tow, meanwhile, costs Lodi $1,300 and can cost the resident shelter, storage, transportation and a job. UCSF and UCLA both found vehicle residents more connected to work, and newer to homelessness, than other unsheltered people. Once the vehicle is gone, the person usually ends up in a tent or on the sidewalk, which is more visible and more costly to manage.

The options below are listed by priority and dependency. Each step makes the next one easier to size, site or defend. These are options for public discussion; none has been proposed by a local agency unless a source is cited.

  1. Publish the data that already exists. The Continuum of Care can release the vehicle tally, the people-per-vehicle multiplier and survey answers broken out by sleeping location. Police departments can add each RV's outcome to the logs they already keep. This needs nothing else first.
  2. Pair every posting with an offer. Before a tow, give the owner a shelter referral, registration help and a list of legal places to go. Lodi's committee packets already track postings and tows. Adding outcomes would show whether offers work.
  3. Open a sanitation and water station. Long Beach's site lets RV dwellers, by referral, empty tanks and fill water. No overnight parking is allowed there. It addresses the sewage and trash complaints directly and can sit at an existing public facility. The location depends on where steps 1 and 2 show vehicles are concentrated.
  4. Help people keep running, registered vehicles. Registration and repair assistance and ticket diversion cost far less than towing and storage. The tow log from step 1 would show how many vehicles are lost over registration alone. In June, Lodi towed two for registration expired more than six months.
  5. Allow faith, nonprofit and business lots to host overnight. In November 2024, Stockton staff proposed "Safe Sleeping Operator Permits for private landowners" so nonprofits and religious groups could open parking lots in the evening (Stockton council file 24-1110). Insurance is the known barrier. Santa Rosa's church-lot program closed over it (Press Democrat, Sept. 25, 2024). A city or county-arranged insurance policy, or the liability protection that comes with a shelter crisis declaration, would need to come first.
  6. Run a small, staffed safe-parking pilot. This means a paved lot with restrooms, water, trash service, security and a caseworker. It depends on a legal basis, an operator and a site. Stockton's 2022 search for an operator found none qualified. Modesto's six-month pilot with the Salvation Army offered up to 25 vehicles from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. (City of Modesto).
  7. Use county land the county already owns. The county bought the 62-acre Oakmoore site on Wilson Way for $9.6 million in December 2024 (Stocktonia, Dec. 11, 2024). The county describes the parcel as 67.25 acres zoned P-F, for public facilities (San Joaquin County). Its original plan included "an area within the fencing ... for the homeless who opt to live in vehicles they own" (Manteca Bulletin). The state rule that stalled the plan barred tent camping where temperatures can drop below 50 degrees (Stocktonia, Sept. 18, 2025). That rule addressed tents. Supervisors have since directed staff to plan for county departments on the site.

Protecting residents and businesses runs through every step. Keep enforcement for hazards, blocked access and sensitive areas. Post clear hours and rules at any hosted lot. Require operators to manage trash, waste and security. Report outcomes publicly so neighbors can see whether a site is working.

How other California communities handle vehicle residents
Program Size What it provides Cost or result
Santa Rosa Safe Parking Up to 52 spaces Open 24 hours; stays up to six months; case management 410 people served March 2022–March 2026; 96 into permanent housing, 36 into temporary housing (City of Santa Rosa; city news release). About $1.3 million a year (Press Democrat, 2023)
San Jose, Berryessa site 86 RVs Managed RV site with services $24 million over five years; 128 spaces across two sites against nearly 1,000 people in vehicles (CNBC). City estimate $143.64 per space per day (Mission Local)
San Jose, Santa Teresa site 42 RVs Opened July 2023 Residents moved into housing (San José Spotlight)
Oakland RV sites 41 RVs (Fruitvale); 75 households (66th Ave.) Electricity, water, toilets; 66th Ave. uses a sliding-scale fee (KTVU; Oakland council file)
Oakland vacant-lot pilot (2020) One RV per lot Owner must provide water, sewer, electricity and trash $150 RV permit plus $500 owner fee (The Oaklandside)
Modesto Safe Parking pilot Up to 25 vehicles Salvation Army lot, 7 p.m.–7 a.m.; services Six-month pilot (City of Modesto)
Long Beach sanitation site By referral Tank emptying and water filling; no overnight parking (City of Long Beach)
San Joaquin County, Oakmoore (canceled) Not built Safe camping with a planned vehicle area More than $11 million to build, $4 million a year to run; canceled Jan. 2026 (County Crossroads)

Sizes and costs as reported by each city or news source on the dates cited.

4. Is there a civic or commercial opportunity for a "trailer park" for vehicle residents?

The legal path exists

California already has a category for this: the special occupancy park, the legal term for an RV park. Under the Special Occupancy Parks Act, a new park needs a local conditional use permit, decided at a public hearing, and a permit to operate from HCD (HCD park laws; HCD park operation; Health and Safety Code, Part 2.3). HCD's guidance says RVs generally may be occupied only in mobilehome parks or special occupancy parks unless a local ordinance allows otherwise (HCD Information Bulletin 2016-01).

The same part of state law lets a city or county issue permits for RV occupancy outside a park. That is the hook Oakland used for its vacant-lot pilot. A shelter crisis declaration, which Tracy used in 2020, is another route.

Stays matter for both the operator and the resident. Under the Recreational Vehicle Park Occupancy Law, guests gain stronger protection against removal after nine months in a park (Civil Code 799.20–799.79). Many parks set stay limits with that threshold in mind.

The numbers: what a space costs versus what residents can pay

Local RV parks publish nightly rates, not monthly ones. River Point Landing in Stockton lists $32 to $45 a night, Flag City RV Resort from $54 and Tower Park KOA from $51 (RoverPass listings). Flag City has 180 full-hookup sites (The Dyrt). Just storing an RV, with no one living in it, averages $101 a month at Public Storage in Lodi, $105 at Extra Space and $156 on Neighbor (Public Storage; Extra Space Storage; Neighbor).

Monthly cost of one space compared with what a vehicle resident could pay

Dollars per month. What a resident could pay: $437, which is 30% of the $1,458 average monthly income in UCLA's Los Angeles research. River Point Landing at $32 a night: $973 (its 21-day cap means no one can actually stay a month). Flag City RV Resort at $54 a night: $1,642. Santa Rosa safe parking: $2,167 ($1.3 million a year divided by 50 spaces, 2023 budget). San Jose Berryessa: $4,367 (city estimate of $143.64 a day). Nightly rates multiplied by 30.4 days. Calculations from the sources cited in this section.

The gap is the whole story. Even the cheapest published nightly rate costs more than twice what the average vehicle resident in the UCLA research could pay at 30 percent of income. Staffed safe-parking sites cost more still, because they include caseworkers, security and sanitation. Santa Rosa's results show what that spending buys: 96 people into permanent housing over four years.

Assessment

The civic opportunity is real. There are about 660 people in vehicles, no sanctioned lot, a county parcel whose original plan included a vehicle area, a state permit category that already fits, and state money that has paid for this elsewhere. Santa Rosa's safe-parking spaces were funded through the state's Encampment Resolution Fund (HCD Encampment Resolution Fund award, Santa Rosa). Sonoma County awarded $979,000 to keep it running through fiscal year 2026–27 (City of Santa Rosa).

The commercial opportunity is narrower. Based on published rates, a standalone private park serving this population does not cover its costs without public money. Private businesses fit in three roles:

  • Contracted operator. A nonprofit or company runs a publicly funded site, as Urban Alchemy does at Oakland's 66th Avenue site. This depends on finding qualified bidders, which Stockton could not do in 2022.
  • Landowner host. Owners of industrial lots, churches and businesses with unused night-time parking take a permit and a fee, as in Oakland's 2020 pilot and Stockton's proposed operator permits. This depends on insurance.
  • Set-aside spaces in existing parks. Licensed parks reserve a few spaces paid for with vouchers. This has no local precedent. It would have to work around age limits and stay caps.

Both models carry risks: neighbor opposition, as at San Jose's earlier lot near an Apple site (Mercury News); insurance; tenancy rights after nine months; older RVs that fail safety standards or catch fire; cost overruns like Oakmoore's; and the worry that a single regional site draws vehicles pushed out of other cities. Oakland's utility-connection rules for vehicle sites show the level of building-code detail required (Oakland Building Bureau directive VRF23-1).

The data in Section 1 decides most of this. A count of vehicles by type and location would show how many spaces are needed, whether RVs or cars dominate, and where a site would ease pressure on neighborhoods and businesses instead of creating new pressure.

Where to watch

The Continuum of Care decides what future count reports publish, including whether they carry a vehicle tally.

LodiEye is the original civic-reporting and analysis arm of Lodi411.com, a citizen-run civic data and transparency platform serving Lodi, California and San Joaquin County. LodiEye gathers information of public interest, applies editorial judgment to public records, meetings, and data, and publishes original explanatory reporting for its readers — the work of a newsroom, and a representative of the news media as that term is defined under federal law. Our reporting emphasizes primary sources, public data, and full source transparency so readers can check every claim. LodiEye complements, and does not replace, the other outlets covering this region; for additional reporting on Lodi, San Joaquin County, and the broader region, we also encourage readers to consult the Lodi News-Sentinel, Stocktonia, The Sacramento Bee, CalMatters, and other established news organizations. Our full editorial standards and news-media-status statement is published at lodi411.com/editorial-standards.

This LodiEye report was produced using artificial intelligence tools under the direction and review of the founder. Lodi411 uses multiple AI platforms in its research and publication workflow, including Anthropic’s Claude (primarily Opus and Sonnet models) and Perplexity AI across a variety of large language models offered by each. These tools were used in the following capacities:

Source Discovery: AI-assisted search and retrieval located the 2026 San Joaquin County Point-in-Time Count Report, Lodi Committee on Homelessness agenda packets, city and county ordinances on camping and vehicle occupancy, Stockton, Tracy and San Joaquin County records on safe camping and safe parking, HCD park rules, UCLA and UCSF research on vehicle residents, RV industry shipment reports, local RV park and storage listings, and reporting on safe-parking programs in Santa Rosa, San Jose, Oakland, Modesto and Long Beach.

Credibility Validation: Counts, ordinance language and program decisions were taken from the responsible agency's own documents wherever they were available. News reports were used for program costs and results that agencies did not publish in one place, and each is dated in the text. Countywide totals were checked against the PIT report's own jurisdiction table, and code provisions were read in the published municipal codes.

Analysis and Synthesis: Claude Opus and Sonnet assisted in estimating the number of people living in vehicles from the published survey share and countywide total, computing its range, converting nightly park rates and annual program budgets into monthly cost per space, and ordering the policy options by priority and dependency. The estimate, the monthly cost comparisons and the assessment of civic and commercial roles are this report's analysis, not figures or positions of any agency.

Presentation: Claude assisted in drafting, structuring, and formatting the report for clarity and readability, including the records table, the program comparison table and the three charts.

Final Review: Multiple AI models reviewed the completed draft for factual consistency, source attribution accuracy, logical coherence, and balanced presentation. Throughout the process, the editor sets the report's goals, scope, and tone; creates and shapes draft content; reviews and edits the report; integrates independent fact checks; and reviews the AI cross-checks and validations. Multi-tool cross-checking across independent models and sources is the primary error-reduction mechanism.

Lodi411/LodiEye believes that transparency about how our research is produced — including our use of AI under human direction — strengthens trust with readers and the broader information ecosystem. Readers who spot an error are encouraged to write editor@lodi411.com so we can correct it.

References

Questions, tips or corrections: editor@lodi411.com

Don Bradford
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