The Carlsbad City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to expand the city's illegal camping ordinance to include people sleeping in their cars.
The city has seen an uptick in the number of unsheltered people living in their cars. According to the 2024 Point-in-Time count, that number nearly doubled from 29 to 56 in one year. The number for the 2025 count is not yet available.
“We have seen an increase in families living in their vehicles,” Carlsbad police Chief Christie Calderwood told the Council on Tuesday night. "The hotel voucher program, we've specifically been increasing the usage specific to families that are either homeless on the streets or homeless living in their vehicles."
She said it's a matter of public safety, and expanding the ordinance to cover cars is another tool police use to help people get into permanent housing. The ordinance requires officers to give warnings and offer services and shelter before issuing a citation.
“Our main goal is to end unlawful behavior and connect people to available services and resources," Calderwood said. "When appropriate, officers may elect to use warnings to interrupt unlawful behavior and make referrals to those social workers.”
At least one resident at the meeting opposed the idea. Vanessa Forsythe, a school nurse, said she knows some students whose families live in their cars.
"In talking to people who are unsheltered that a lot of them do reside in their vehicles because they cannot find a home ... that they don't really have an alternative," she said. "So I think it very important that the city — and I believe Oceanside did this already — provide, at the very least, a place where people can park overnight."
However, Carlsbad's director of Housing and Homelessness Services, Mandy Mills, said many residents reject the idea of a safe sleeping site and that a majority want to expand the illegal camping ordinance to include people sleeping in cars.
"People expressed the need for enforcement tools to uphold public safety when discussing restrictions on overnight parking in particular locations," she said. "The predominant sentiment was that that did not offer a long-term solution to the problem, and could only cause displacement to other areas."
Mills said this is part of a two-pronged approach to end homelessness. The city recently received a $2.9 million grant from the state to help people living in their cars into permanent housing. It has partnered with Interfaith Community Services, among others, to carry out that program.
“The ban in and of itself does not solve homelessness. What solves homelessness is housing and resources to help people access that housing," Interfaith's CEO Greg Anglea said. "Carlsbad is working with Interfaith and other providers to provide those resources as a part of their effort to also put in place new rules.”
He noted that people who live in their cars are those who have recently become homeless because of job loss or injuries that prevented them from working, and those camping in Carlsbad are either residents or have deep ties to the city.
The amendment will go back to the city council in two weeks for a second reading. If it passes again, it will take effect 30 days after that.
