Nye County Uses Federal Funds to Remove Illegal RVs

On December 9 Nye County launched a pilot program to remove illegal recreational vehicles in Pahrump after a 4 to 1 county commission vote and allocation of $35,000 from the Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund. Commissioners and law enforcement say the effort targets deteriorated and abandoned units that pose safety, health and property concerns for local residents.

Commissioner Ian Bayne said county staff identified roughly 50 illegal RVs around Pahrump and that the Nye County Sheriff’s Department is inspecting vehicles for littering, illegal activity and other conditions that make them unsuitable for living. “I’ve been told by the Sheriff that one particular RV that we towed the other day had been there possibly 10 years,” Bayne said. He described many units as “junk trailers and junk RVs” that are unsafe and often parked on other people’s land. “This is a problem that’s been going on for a very, very long time,” Bayne said.

Bayne said part of the issue stems from absentee ownership, with some property owners paying minimal taxes and neglecting parcels for decades. “So what happens is people buy land here in Pahrump and then they kind of forget about it. So they pay $100 in a property tax a year or something like that. Some of them haven’t seen them for decades,” Bayne said.

Public safety concerns factored heavily in the decision. The Pahrump Fire Chief reports fires at homeless camps occur four to five times per week and those incidents can require 12 to 14 firefighters, nearly the entire department. “A lot of the times it comes on my radar because there’s a fire that happens there, which of course is dangerous since we have maybe a dozen firemen at any given time on duty and we don’t have a lot of law enforcement,” Bayne said.

Commissioners emphasized the legal approach will target diseased, dangerous and destroyed vehicles rather than evicting people from functional homes. “If you parked your car in the middle of the street, same exact process. It goes through to the DMV...,” Bayne said. He also noted law enforcement challenges when occupants have outstanding warrants. “Yeah, when we get a lot of, oftentimes we get a call from someone who’s in one of these RVs and they have warrants from somewhere. So a lot of people are hiding out from the law and they come to Nye County because they don’t extradite,” he said.

The pilot program uses federal funds so local tax revenue will not be tapped for initial removal efforts. For residents the project promises clearer streets, fewer hazardous sites and a reduced strain on volunteer fire and emergency services while county staff work through legal removals and property ownership questions.