Dozens of RVs, believed to have been removed from a sprawling homeless encampment dismantled recently in the City of Industry, have seemingly shown up 60 miles southeast on a residential property and adjacent empty lot in the small Riverside County town of Wildomar.
Much like in Industry, the company, Black Series RV, does not have permission to store the campers in Wildomar, according to city officials. The sudden arrival of more than 50 campers in the 20700 block of Palomar Street over the past week has drawn complaints from neighbors and the ire of the city’s code enforcement department.
“At this time, there are no permits or authorizations for those trailers to be there,” said Raul Berroteran, Wildomar’s code enforcement manager, during a report to the City Council last week.
The city has issued two notices of violation to the property owner, the Elaine Goking Trust, and separately ordered the tenant, Hongwei “Jack” Qiu, to remove the RVs, but more have continued to show up, according to Berroteran. Many of the RVs had their tires removed after arriving at the Wildomar lot. Thus far, no one appears to living in the campers.
Berroteran told the City Council that Goking’s daughter told him the family did not know about the RVs and is now in the process of trying to evict Qiu.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the family told the Southern California News Group that Qiu, who entered into the lease at the beginning of the year, has refused to fix the violations. The property owner is now taking “all necessary steps to enforce the lease terms and ensure compliance with local laws.”
Black Series did not return a call for comment.
During an April 7 inspection, Berroteran and a code enforcement officer witnessed a man bringing more RVs onto the property and informed him, through a translation app due to a language barrier, that the campers violate the city’s Municipal Code and “need to be removed immediately.”
A representative of Black Series RVs later called the city ahead of the April 9 council meeting and asked for an extension or “some leniency,” but Berroteran denied the request, he said.
The city’s cases against the property owner and Black Series RV are ongoing with “a compliance date of May 6,” Berroteran said. If the the campers are not removed by then, the city could pursue legal action, issue fines or place a lien on the property.
A code enforcement officer first noticed six trailers on the property back in December, according to Berroteran. By April 2, that number had jumped tenfold.
The appearance of the Black Series RVs in Wildomar appears to coincide with the removal of a similar number in the City of Industry. In March, Los Angeles County officials found squatters had turned an unauthorized RV storage lot near the corner of Gale and Azusa avenues into a growing homeless encampment.
The property owner, Legacy Point LLC, in a lawsuit filed in September alleged Black Series and Qiu did not have its permission to store approximately 100 campers on the site and had entered into a sublease with a prior tenant without Legacy Point’s knowledge.
After discovering that Black Series had been “trespassing” for months, Legacy Point offered to rent the property to the RV company for $8,000 per month starting in March 2024, but Black Series refused and continued to use the land without paying “anything to Legacy for doing so,” according to the lawsuit. In January, a judge ordered Black Series to pay a $96,000 judgment — the equivalent of about a year of back rent — to Legacy.
Two months later, NBC4 in Los Angeles reported that businesses near the lot in Industry had grown frustrated by the encampment and described witnessing people breaking into the RVs, threatening behavior and even witnessing some of the campers burning
Qiu told NBC that people had broken into the RVs and the situation had spiraled out of control, with up to 60 to 80 people living in the encampment. Though he claimed he told the people living there not to pay rent to anyone, a recording obtained by the television station appeared to capture a conversation during which Qiu negotiated a $300-a-month asking price with a couple living on the site.
Qiu acknowledged it was his voice, but denied ever collecting the money. He estimated he lost $5 million to $6 million as a result of damaged and destroyed campers.
The Sheriff’s Department’s homeless outreach team worked with the people who had moved into the encampment to offer services and alternative housing, according to county officials.
Anyone remaining was forced to vacate by April 1 and all personal property, including the Black Series RVs, must be collected by April 16, according to Josh Nelson, Industry’s city manager. Though the dispute is private and the city is not involved in the legal process, the city is working with Legacy Point to ensure the lot is cleaned up.
About half of the roughly 100 RVs have been removed over the past week, Nelson said. Black Series had removed many of the campers’ tires in Industry, too, and had to bring replacements to move the campers elsewhere. Industry has been in contact with code enforcement in Wildomar and believes the RVs were shifted to that community, Nelson said.