For years, the RV park at Green Oak Ranch in Vista has filled an affordable housing need for many families.
"I paid $20,000 for the house. My rent is a thousand. But because I work at the gate, they take $200 off a month. I pay $800 a month," said Hubert Reed Jr.
He has been living at the park for almost nine years with his family in a tiny house that was already on the property.
"Man, I've been in California 38 years. I have never lived anywhere like this," Reed said.
But now he has to find a new space for his tiny home by Dec. 1. That's a challenge.
"Because of the height, no mobile home park wants it. It's too high," he said. "So it would have to be moved to private property. It costs anywhere from $5,00 to $7,000 just to move it."
Last summer, more than 30 families lived in the RV community at Green Oak Ranch. Then in July, the nonprofit Solutions for Change was chosen to take the property over in a lease-to-own deal.
That takeover doesn’t happen until Jan. 1, but eviction notices have already gone out.
Reed and the other residents just wish they had more time to find a new place to live.
"It's just kind of wild that they want me to just get out and be gone by Dec. 1. If I can sell my house, I will have the money to go where I wanted," Reed said.
Most of the RV residents have had a hard time finding affordable housing. And for many, a new RV park is out of the question because their rigs are too old. Many communities do not accept RVs older than 10 years.
The RV park is on land that was leased by Green Oak Ministries for 70 years. The ministry managed a men’s rehab program and recreational programs as well as the RV park.
"This is a delicate ecosystem. The way we, the camps, and the ministry interlock and fund each other or need each other. This was Arie's baby. And when he passed away, the only person who had that vision passed away," said RV resident Karin Allison.
Arie De Jong was the owner of the land. He died in 2023, and management of the land passed to a board, which terminated the ministry’s lease.
Now Solutions for Change is taking over the lease, and will expand their programs for homeless families on the property.
Allison had hope that the organization would keep the RV park.
"We really thought that they would let us stay here and work with us, maybe incorporate us into their work that they're doing," she said. "They fight homelessness."
But the RV park isn’t properly permitted. And that’s partly why Solutions for Change says they can’t let it stay on the land.
"We can't go in and assume another operation without permits. We're getting kind of blamed like ... it's our fault for this. My insurance company is not going to insure us going in there and operating something illegally," said CEO Chris Megison.
He said the RV park also needs serious improvements — for example, it floods when it rains.
But improvements are expensive.
Solutions for Change is already paying $45,000 a month to lease the land, so Megison said making the improvements too much of a stretch.
"I think we've been unfairly ... characterized. We are in the business of serving our community and transforming the lives of homeless families, period. We're not going to do that, though, at the expense of our entire organization," he said.
The city of Vista confirmed the RV park has been operating without permits.
But the city didn't asking the previous tenant, Green Oak Ministries, to make upgrades for two reasons: their mission and because the RV park helped fill an affordable housing gap.
Megison says Solutions for Change offered resources to the evicted RV park residents, but none have accepted their offer.
Allison said those resources already had long lists of people looking for affordable housing and nothing was immediately available for the residents needing to move immediately.
"They offered other people's resources," Allison said. "They send you to places, to websites or housing complexes. When you get there or when you call there, you find out there's a long waiting list. There's no way we can serve you in the next two months."
Other resources were only available for families already experiencing homelessness.
She fears this displacement is forcing many of the families into the welfare system for the first time.
Now the city of Vista is stepping in.
"The city of Vista has taken on the burden of responding to the needs of these residents, including offering case management services, offering any type of affordable housing options that we can find, and also potentially supporting their move," said Deputy Mayor Katie Melendez.
The San Diego Rescue Mission is helping some of the families transport their RVs to a new location.
The city of Vista also wants to be sure the landlord, Green Oak Ministries, is following California law. In some evections, tenants are entitled to relocation compensation.
But Green Oak Ministries said they’re exempt because they’re a religious nonprofit.
The new tenant, Solutions for Change, also might use religious exemptions for the development of Green Oak Ranch.
"One of the things we're looking into is using SB 4, which is the Religious Land Use Act ... allowing us to go in and very easily put in prefabricated units there," Megison said.
He said a future RV park isn’t completely out of the question, but it would be recreational, not a permanent housing solution.
They’ll also continue recreational camps and the annual North County Veterans Stand Down event.
"We're looking at maintaining the rural character of this. We're not talking about any mass development," Megison said. "Parks and trails ... maybe a dog park ... a bike trail."
They plan on hosting community input events for the future of Green Oak Ranch.
But as they plan for the future, a handful of the residents of the RV community still have nowhere to go.
"The way they've turned on us. It just hurts," said Reed, one of the remaining residents. "And I'm like, 'What about all these people that's been here? That we've ate so many Thanksgiving dinners together?' It's like we don't matter anymore."
