LA Cops Ticket Eaton Fire Victims Live in RV Outside Burned House – Jalopnik

While the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors allowed victims of the Eaton fire to live in recreational vehicles parked entirely on their lots during reconstruction, the Collinses have parked their home on the street outside their home. However, moving the RV into an active construction zone is quite difficult, a problem the Board of Supervisors acknowledged Tuesday in its motion to investigate the temporary suspension of certain public right-of-way ordinances in Altadena to allow for RV parking. Because while the Collins managed to draw press attention to their plight, they are certainly not alone Pasadena Now points out:

Moving the trailer to his lawn, Derrick Collins told CBS LA, would require tearing down the fences and moving the storage pods — an additional expense he didn’t anticipate. His home renovation and insurance funds have been at a standstill since late last year due to a legal dispute with a contractor, CBS LA reported.

“I feel like this is just an extra expense and I have to pull something out of my hat,” Collins said, according to CBS LA. “I didn’t plan on it.”

The Collins family is not alone. According to CBS LA and Cal Fire, dozens of RVs have appeared on the streets of Altadena since the fire, killing 19 people and destroying more than 9,000 buildings on more than 14,000 acres.

The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department also released a statement saying it is complying with “existing provincial and national parking regulations.” A municipal councilor told CBS that the city had not issued a directive to suddenly crack down on temporary housing for those displaced by the fire, but LASD said in its statement that officers responded to citizen complaints and simply wrote their tickets in accordance with the ordinances on the books. LA County Parking Enforcement gave the Collins family, who appears to own a nice 1954 Chevrolet 3100 pickup in addition to their camper, a small extension to what appears to be an informal grace period for campers after the fire. They have two weeks to find a new location for the camper, as the house will simply not be habitable. Should the LA County Board’s legislative challenge fail, the Altadena City Council is working to secure funding from nonprofits to help the Collins move the RV directly to the site.

The added stress of moving from their temporary home certainly isn’t helping the Collinses as they renovate what’s left of their actual family home. These Altadena residents are already exhausted by the fire, by dealing with insurance and contractors, and by the inconvenience and humiliation of having to live in an RV parked on their own sidewalk for more than a year now. They don’t need this extra hassle at all.