’Vanlords’ Charging Up To $1,300 Rent To The Homeless Could Soon Be Curbed

Authored by Kiri Blakeley via realtor.com,

San Jose, CA, is cracking down on „vanlords,” whom city officials say are „bad actors” charging the homeless to live in dilapidated, nonworking vans.

abc7 San Jose

“This is a problem that flies under the radar, but my office has heard directly from residents about exploitative vanlords taking advantage of desperate renters searching for affordable housing,” Councilmember David Cohen tells Realtor.com. „These rentals use city property to take advantage of vulnerable tenants without having to follow tenant protections for rental properties that protect the safety and financial well-being of lower income people.”

Cohen’s office sent Realtor.com photos of Facebook Marketplace listings showing RVs illegally for rent. One had a monthly rent of $1,300 and another for $800. The listings were active, and only a couple of many such listings. Some vanlords may charge even more.

Vanlords buy up old RVs and then rent them out to people desperate for housing, according to the city.(Facebook Marketplace)

This van is being rented for $800 on Facebook Marketplace, which is illegal.(Facebook Marketplace)

„By creating an ordinance to outlaw these rentals, we set an expectation of appropriate behavior,” says Cohen. „Our goal is to prevent this crisis from worsening, by shining some light on the situation before it becomes unmanageable.”

Said Councilmember Bien Doan at a March 12 meeting addressing the issue: „We know there are bad actors out there that put dilapidated, nonworking van trailers or RVs out there, and then manipulate our unsheltered residents to rent these places in unsafe conditions, without any preparation for biohazard or hazardous waste or even a fire hazard.”

What is 'vanlording’ and how widespread is it?

According to the San Jose Spotlight, there are „two known individuals” who are renting out at least 20 motor homes to homeless people.

In 2023, police officers discovered one of these vanlords had purchased four to six RVs from a tow yard, set them up on Educational Park Drive and Las Plumas Avenue, and was charging people rent to live in them. According to the city, this activity is illegal.

A September 2024 memo from Chief of Police Anthony Mata sent to the City Council said that most of the RVs parked on the streets of San Jose did not belong to any of the houses nearby but were „unregistered and unofficially owned by unhoused individuals who are using them as shelter.”

Police said they had received hundreds of complaints about the vehicles, but that in general, it was not city policy to tow the vehicles if they were being used as shelter by individuals.

Police cited „concerns about individuals illegally placing RVs on public streets and renting those RVs to unhoused individuals.”

It noted that the city of Los Angeles was taking action to curb „vanlording activity” by drafting an ordinance that would prohibit leasing and renting out RVs if they were parked on public streets.

The memo stressed that the police department was concerned about the vanlords, not the renters.

„The focus of the issue is not the unhoused individuals living in the RVs, but rather the persons renting them and illegally placing them in public space to generate personal income,” said the memo.

„The City has an interest in enterprising individuals preying on the unhoused population of the city and capitalizing on their misfortunes by renting them RVs that have not passed safety inspections and lack basic plumbing and sewage removal.”

However, police say the vanlord issue doesn’t seem to be widespread, and most people living in the RVs were not paying rent.

„There does not appear to be a significant number of private individuals leasing or subleasing RVs to multiple people,” said the memo.

San Francisco, Long Beach, San Diego, and Fresno have noted similar issues with RVs parked illegally on the streets. However, according to the same police memo, they are not taking action to prevent it at this time.

„Staff’s research indicates that 'vanlording’ is not currently a pervasive problem in San Jose,” it said.

That hasn’t stopped Doan and Councilmembers Michael Mulcahy and David Cohen from wanting to prevent the issue entirely.

The Rules Committee recommended studying the problem and reporting back to the City Council in two weeks.

’Vanlord tenants’

At least one RV resident, Rudy Ortega, said he believes the crackdown is all about Mayor Matt Mahan wanting to sweep the streets of homeless people before an important event.

„He wants to clear the streets of the homeless [before] the Super Bowl,” he told the outlet. „I think it’s done purposely. It’s another one of his tactics.”

Super Bowl LX is scheduled to be held Feb. 8, 2026, in Santa Clara, which is a 15-minute drive from downtown San Jose.

Ortega, who lives in an RV parked near Columbus Park and is apparently not renting, filed a restraining order against the city in 2022. However, a judged ruled he had to leave the area anyway.

The city has held a series of „sweeps” meant to clear the streets of homeless encampments and illegally parked RVs, but most homeless simply return to swept areas after a certain amount of time.

Ortega had a camper parked on the streets that reportedly was full of dead rodents.

It’s unclear where exactly Ortega is living now, but he told the San Jose Spotlight that he knows of only one individual who is renting an RV. He points out that the real issue isn’t the RVs but the unaffordability of housing.

Meanwhile, Juanita Macias told ABC7 that she once rented an RV for „$500 every month” and it didn’t include electricity or water.

Many of her „neighbors are still renting RVs,” she said, with landlords charging about „a thousand, $800 sometimes.”

The median home list price in San Jose is an eye-popping $1.4 million, well above the national median of $400,500 as of February, according to Realtor.com®. Renting is no better. The median rent is $3,180.

„By restricting the sale, rental, or even transfer of RVs, you’re targeting one of the last remaining options for shelter that unhoused individuals can afford,” Ortega said at the recent City Council meeting.

„Instead of punishing those who seek shelter in RVs, the city should focus on providing real humane housing solutions. If safety is the concern, then provide sanitation services in designated areas with proper oversight, not further displacement.”

But Cohen insisted that the issue isn’t the homeless but the vanlords.

„Our concerns are for people who are putting out old, inoperable vehicles and then renting them to people to live in, as opposed to people who own their own RVs—which is not at all the target of this potential ordinance,” he said.

Realtor.com reached out to Doan, Mahan, and local homeless nonprofit organization HomeFirst for comment.