Los Angeles officials are preparing to expand a San Fernando Valley program that has quietly become a key strategy for helping people living in recreational vehicles move into housing.
On Wednesday, Los Angeles City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez announced that her RV-to-Home initiative is on track to house nearly 300 participants – and remove about 150 RVs from the streets of Council District 7 by the end of December. This milestone marks significant growth for a model that began as a small pilot in the northeast Valley.
“It’s a really remarkable moment that we are now expanding this pilot, this example, this model across the city – for it to be replicated, to do so in a manner that respects taxpayer dollars,” Rodriguez said.
She added: “Ultimately, that’s what has failed, in my opinion, in other models. And we’re here to prove that we can do it better. We can do it with greater efficiency, and we can do it in a way that not only respects taxpayer dollars, but helps to fulfill the commitments of so many.”
Launched in 2022, RV-to-Home provides targeted outreach to people living in RVs and offers practical help with vehicle issues, paperwork, repairs and storage, along with incentives for those who agree to relinquish their RVs and accept housing.
Developed in partnership with nonprofit West Valley Homes Yes, the model has since become the city’s template for addressing the fast-growing population of Angelenos living in RVs. Rodriguez said the program began with a $350,000 grant from the Hilton Foundation and later benefited from a $5 million state Encampment Resolution Grant that supported broader encampment-response work in Pacoima.
The announcement came just a week after the City Council formally approved a list of Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority-authorized providers who will replicate the program across Los Angeles, marking the first major step toward citywide implementation.
Rodriguez said the pilot succeeded because outreach teams built trust with RV dwellers and connected them to the right housing and services, addressing a population that for years was considered difficult to reach.
“Historically, I had been told, as a council member who commenced this work many years ago, that individuals that were residing in RVs didn’t identify themselves as being homeless,” she said. “And in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. These individuals require consistent relationship development.”
That trust-building became the foundation of the model West Valley Homes Yes helped design.
Kim Olsen, the nonprofit’s executive director, said long-held assumptions about RV residents — particularly that they didn’t want housing or support—proved wrong once outreach teams adopted a different approach.
“I came into this work and challenged that notion, and we turned it upside down,” Olsen said. “We know now that with the right program and with the right approach and protocols that these folks do want to give up these RVs, they do want to move into housing.”
One of them is Yolanda Zapata, who was living in an RV near San Fernando Road when West Valley Homes Yes employees approached her. At the time, she said, she wasn’t sure whether to trust the offer.
“It took a little bit of convincing,” she said. “From the prior ones that I’ve seen, they didn’t follow through, so I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen, or if they were just telling me stuff, just to get my RV. “
Zapata eventually agreed to turn in her RV in exchange for moving into an apartment in Sylmar through a Section 8 voucher.
“It has worked out beautifully,” Zapata said. “I have my own apartment now. And ever since I’ve been there, I’ve always given back. I’m always very grateful for them, because without them, who knows where I’d be.”
She said trust remains the biggest barrier for people still living in RVs. “When people don’t care, you don’t want to follow them,” she said.
The program’s outcomes helped shape a new citywide “Scope of Required Services,” adopted by LAHSA, which standardizes how outreach teams will respond to vehicular homelessness. Eleven providers were approved to implement the model across the city.
City officials have not yet released a timeline for when the newly approved providers will begin operating citywide.