The draft of the proposed alternative housing ordinance for Nevada County was released Aug. 20, 2025. Three public hearings were held. Then on Nov. 13, the Nevada County Planning Commission voted 3-2 to recommend passage of the Alt/RV Housing Ordinance (aka RV Ordinance) to the Board of Supervisors.
The Board of Supervisors will vote:
1:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 10, 2026
Rood Center, Nevada City
SHOW UP AND SPEAK UP!
This vote will be the culmination of a seven-year effort to allow people to live legally in RVs, trailers, converted school buses and other homes on wheels.
If you believe housing is a human right, please come to show your support for the RV Ordinance at the Rood Center in Nevada City at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 10. Legendary folksinger and homeless advocate Utah Phillips said it best: Your body is your ballot.
The No Place To Go Project supports the ordinance, but we do have suggested Amendments. These Talking Points and Amendments (updated 1/22/2026) are designed to make you knowledgeable and persuasive in your conversations with friends and neighbors, in your letters to the editor and op-ed essays, in yourwritten comments to the county, and in your speaking at the March 10 public hearing on the RV Ordinance. Choose the points that most resonate with you and write or speak about that.
If you think of a point we’ve missed or if you have questions, please Contact Us.
Please remember, we are the good guys. We are polite, persistent and relentlessly reasonable. We don’t yell, threaten or insult. We offer solutions, not complaints. We work — not fight — with the people who oppose us.
THE CASE FOR ALTERNATIVE HOUSING
We have a homeless/housing emergency. Redefining legal housing to include RVs & trailers just makes sense. It might not be the ideal solution, but it is the best solution for right here, right now, to help our unhoused citizens.
People who have private property and the right hookups can rent out their own personal RV unit or rent space to people who have their own dwelling on wheels.
According to state Housing and Community Development, redefining housing to include RVs & trailers will improve the county’s Prohousing Designation, making Nevada County eligible for funding to build more affordable housing units.
Nevada County can mitigate the rural homeless/housing crisis by making RVs & trailers safe, available and affordable without having to build anything or spend millions of dollars.
Working-age adults coming out of homelessness need RVs & trailers as first-step, transitional housing on their way to better housing once they get stabilized.
RVs & trailers are the first chance for unhoused people to get back inside, and the last chance for people at-risk of becoming homeless, including older and disabled people on fixed incomes who can’t afford any other housing.
Currently, RVs & trailers are the only truly affordable housing out there that doesn’t require government subsidy (our taxpayer dollars) to be affordable.
This ordinance not only creates new housing, it legalizes existing illegal housing. We estimate more than a thousand people already live in alternative housing units.
Of course, like any other ADU s(accessory dwelling units), the RV/trailer units must meet health & safety standards as well as other conditions stipulated in the RV Ordinance. The ordinance requirements are strict and expensive. Nevertheless, putting a legal RV/trailer ADU on private property is far less expensive than a “stick-built” ADU.
Renting and living in homes on wheels on private property is what housing for the people by the people is all about.
FIRE SAFETY
Alt/RV housing lowers the risk of a homeless campfire burning down the whole community.
As required by federal & state standards, and inspected by the county, a well-built, well-maintained RV ADU does not pose a fire hazard to the community.
Property owners renting an RV ADU to responsible people on the same basis as any other rental transaction could use the extra income to pay for fire insurance.
WATER & SEPTIC
Each RV ADU must have approved septic and potable water management systems.
We will work with the county to seek less expensive code-equivalent solutions to water delivery and wastewater management.
CODE COMPLIANCE
So many people already live in trailers that code enforcement must remain complaint-driven.
Some opponents of the RV Ordinance think the ordinance should be rejected because they allege the Code Compliance Division is not doing its job. That is not a reason to turn down the ordinance. That is a reason to reform Code Compliance.
Complaints must have merit. The Code Compliance must exercise their discretion and authority to reject malicious or meritless complaints.
Code Compliance’s priority should be keeping people where they are and assisting them to come into compliance if necessary. Forced relocation/evictions should be a last resort.
NOT IN MY BACKYARD
Most opposition to the alternative housing ordinance is based on fear, ignorance and prejudice.
People are afraid of who and what they don’t know. Landlords and tenants must establish friendly relations with their neighbors.
We must work with people who oppose us, not fight them. We must acknowledge their fears and concerns. They need to feel heard and understood first before they will listen to us. Done respectfully, we can change some minds.
No one has the right to deny other people housing.
HOUSING IS HEALTHCARE
Housing is healthcare. People in housing have far fewer medical and mental problems than people living in the wild. Housing saves taxpayer money.
Legalizing RVs & trailers would relieve tenants of unnecessary stress that can lead to anxiety, paranoia and depression.
People must not live in fear for the “crime” of living in desperation (illegal) housing when that is the only housing they could find or afford.
RV ADUs provide shelter from the storm.
DATA POINTS
According to the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH) from the University of California, San Francisco, 63% of homeless people became homeless because of the lack of affordable and available housing.
Although public perception is higher, a survey of credible studies indicates just 25% to 37% of homeless people are regular drug users.
International studies estimate 67% of homeless people suffer some form of mental illness, ranging from severely disabling conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorders to quality-of-life conditions like depression and anxiety, which are often caused by homelessness.
RIGHTS & WRONGS
A person’s property rights end at his property line. No one is forcing him to put an RV ADU on his property, but he cannot prevent his neighbor from exercising her right to rent one out on her property.
The regulations must not be so restrictive and expensive that nobody can comply. Overly stringent regs would become nothing more than housing on paper – a waste of staff time and taxpayer money.
Resisting RVs & trailers is implicit class discrimination. Just because people live in AltDUs because that’s all they could find or afford doesn’t automatically make them “trailer trash.”
It is an insidious, persistent myth that homeless people will come here if the ordinance passes. The fact is that they’re already here. We are simply trying to create affordable housing for those unhoused people who just need housing they can afford.
For people who can’t find housing and for people who are not housing-ready, we must at least establish safe places for folks to camp or park with, at minimum, toilet facilities and garbage cans.
