As homeless encampments spread across Los Angeles over the past decade, one type of shelter in particular has proven increasingly controversial.

RVs.

425 of these RVs lie within a six-mile radius, and 10% of them are on LA Cityland.

The other 90% fall within unincorporated L.A. County,

which makes solving this crisis even more challenging. All of their more stable than a tent

or a tarp, homeowners accuse RV owners of taking up parking spaces. Environmental activists

accuse them of polluting the environment. City workers ticket them for not moving, all while some residents push politicians and cops to enforce laws that would eliminate these RV encampments altogether.

Me and all my community want swift removal of the RVs from the wetland.

We've waited, we've waited, and the same number of vehicles are there.

One of the main issues is that living in an RV can be especially dangerous to the people

who live in them.

However, despite the many conversations around RV encampments, the people who actually live

in them find RVs to be reliable shelters and embrace the encampments as a community of their own.

I'm Gustavo Ariano. You're listening to The Times, Essential News, from the LA Times. It's Wednesday, March 29, 2003.

Today, how RVs became part of LA's housing landscape, and why they're unlikely to disappear anytime soon.

Covering all this is LA Times columnist Erica D. Smith.

Erica, welcome as always to The Times.

Thanks for having me back.

So RV encampments are all around Los Angeles, but you recently wrote a column about a specific one, about people living on a stretch of Jefferson Boulevard near the Bayona wetlands, which are near LAX.

What made you write about this particular area?

Well, this is an area that I've noticed because it's not too far from where I live.

And this is probably my third or fourth time writing about it.

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