Inside One Family’s Homelessness Nightmare

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Before the pandemic hit, Natalie and Dustin Raschke worked bartending jobs that easily supported their family of six. They had money in the bank, two cars and spare cash to support their kids’ hobbies.

Now they are living a nightmare.

After losing their jobs in Sacramento as the world shut down, the couple decided to buy an RV and what they thought would be some time. They returned to San Diego where they had previously lived for years.

The Raschkes planned to stay in an RV park for up to nine months with their four children – then ages three to 13 – and save cash while they waited for reopenings and new jobs in San Diego.

Those plans imploded. After being forced to leave the RV park, the Raschkes spent months parking their makeshift home around Mission Bay and Clairemont, trying in vain to avoid tickets. Then, earlier this year, San Diego police made the call to impound the family’s RV after the city said they racked up eight unpaid parking tickets and failed to properly register the RV.

In the months since, the Raschkes have poured Dustin’s paychecks from a six-day-a-week job at a Pacific Beach grocery store into hotel stays – when they can afford them. When they can’t, the family of six packs into a van for the night. That’s been happening more often as San Diego’s tourism season picks up and hotel prices spike. Occasionally, the couple and their four-year-old have slept in a tent next to the van where their other three children sleep.

“Every day, I’m like, how is this happening to me?” said Natalie, 44.

Natalie and Dustin are also devastated by how it’s worn on their children.

Fifteen-year-old Ahanu must attend summer school so he can continue playing football and wrestling at his high school after receiving lackluster grades this year. Estrella, 12, immediately retreated under the covers of the bed in her family’s van after school on a recent afternoon and spent the rest of the evening there. Alo, 8, has a new favorite song – Michael Jackson’s “They Don’t Care About Us” – though he can’t articulate why. And Lulu, 4, is almost constantly attached to and calling out for her mother, even when Natalie is inches away.

Dustin and Natalie are desperate to end the nightmare. They have searched for an apartment for weeks in an unforgivable, competitive housing market that requires them to regularly fork over application fees to potential landlords who never call back and to try to explain a rental history that has been non-existent the past couple years.

The Raschkes have had no luck so far despite the Housing Commission promising to help by providing a deposit and first month’s rent payment if they can find an apartment, or the three pay increases Dustin has received in recent months.

The Raschkes also recently applied for an emergency housing voucher that a commission official invited them to seek.

They’re trying to hold it together.

“Where we’re at today, we’re literally at our breaking point,” Natalie said.

…

For years, the Raschkes rented a home in Clairemont. Before they left San Diego in late 2017, they both worked at an Ocean Beach bar and restaurant.

Natalie, who once interned with the Navy’s Marine Mammal Program, and Dustin, a former college athlete, met in college working at Pizza Hut.

They eventually settled down and made a life in San Diego. They made a good living bartending.

Dustin worked days and Natalie worked nights, allowing them to keep their kids out of daycare. They had health benefits and a retirement account.

They ultimately had three children in San Diego and a fourth in Sacramento, where they moved for a time.

Before the pandemic hit in 2020, they were planning to return. After the pandemic shut down bars and restaurants, the Raschkes decided to buy an RV and take a scenic summer drive along the California coast on their way back to San Diego.

They secured reservations to park their RV at Campland on the Bay and settled there in late September 2020.

Then came the first shock. Less than two weeks into their stay, the RV park told the Raschkes that their family of six was too large to remain for the extended stay they had envisioned, something that hadn’t come up when they made reservations.

Campland told Voice of San Diego there also wasn’t space for them to remain beyond the 31 days they had initially booked. The campground said visitors have long booked extended stay spaces up to two years in advance, but that Campland broke historical occupancy records and saw unprecedented demand during the pandemic.

Frustrated, Natalie said they decided to request a refund and move on. 

They got a full refund, but weren’t able to secure a space at another RV park. 

They were left to fend for themselves on the street.

Natalie said they spent the next several months staying in the Mission Bay area, trying to avoid the tickets that soon began coming. The family also juggled challenges familiar to other parents: ensuring their three older children logged into Zoom for school and stayed focused. Natalie also tried to keep up with a college course she had enrolled in.

In March 2021, Natalie sent a desperate email to Mayor Todd Gloria after being repeatedly ticketed for parking an oversized vehicle overnight and violating parking signs.

“We are acquiring tickets weekly and have asked the police where we should park, some have told us here or there and yet, we still acquire a ticket,” Natalie wrote in a March email. “This past month I have received over 10 tickets.”

In the email Natalie and Dustin would later send to Gloria on multiple other occasions, Natalie also described meeting other homeless families as they moved from place to place trying to avoid police interactions.

“We are constantly judged, given looks, and harassed by police with tickets. There should be exceptions to the rule. A special tag for families that have children. Or maybe a place that families like us can park that is just for us, the families who (are) in our similar situation. We are not part of the boondockers who leave messes or disrespect our surroundings,” Natalie wrote.

The Raschkes say they never received a response from Gloria.

The lack of response stung.

For months, the Raschkes tried to hold on.

Police officers repeatedly suggested that the family move their RV to a city-backed safe parking lot in Mission Valley far from the schools their children attended in Pacific Beach. The Raschkes had questions about who else might be staying at the lot and concerns that it requires families to leave by 7 a.m. each morning, meaning they can’t stay there during the day. They were also skeptical when officers told them they’d need to settle in by 7 p.m., which would be difficult since Ahanu’s football practices ran an hour later. (A city spokeswoman clarified that families are allowed to enter the lot between 6 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. each night.)

The Raschkes decided the city’s safe parking lot for RVs wasn’t workable even with the risk of more tickets.

In early 2022, Dustin got a job at a Ralphs grocery store in Pacific Beach. He got his first paycheck on Feb. 4 and the couple decided to splurge a few days later. After grappling with a faulty gas generator and the grind of regularly moving the RV to avoid tickets, they booked a room at California Suites Hotel across the street from Madison High School, where Ahanu was a freshman. They savored the opportunity to enjoy hot showers and a warmer space – until early the next morning.

City impound records show a San Diego police officer ordered the Raschkes’ RV, parked on the  street next to the hotel and across the street from Ahanu’s high school, to be towed early on Feb. 9. The RV was at a south Chula Vista tow yard by 5:25 a.m.

Ahanu recalled his father being shocked when he went outside to retrieve a phone charger from the RV early that morning.

“We didn’t know anything, or what happened,” Ahanu recalled. “It just disappeared.”

Eventually, the family realized their RV had been towed – and that the kids’ school supplies were in the RV. Two children’s bikes and a running stroller also adorned the RV by then parked in a tow yard more than 20 miles away.

“They took our home away. That was our home,” Ahanu said. “That was our living space.”

In April 2020, an assistant police chief directed officers not to tow vehicles with expired registrations or five or more unpaid parking tickets if the vehicles were “being used for habitation purposes.”

After questions from Voice, city spokeswoman Ashley Bailey said the Raschke’s RV appeared to have a registration that had expired in August 2020 and eight overdue parking tickets. She noted that no one was in the RV when it was towed.

“In this instance, it was approximately 3 a.m. There was no one sleeping in the vehicle or anyone in or near the vehicle,” Bailey wrote in an email. “The existence of personal effects in a recreational vehicle is not unusual. People will store such things in anticipation of camping or while traveling.”

That explanation offers no comfort to the Raschkes.

“To them it was an RV,” Natalie said. “It was my kids’ home.”

Estrella missed three days of school after the RV was towed because she had walked into the hotel wearing flip flops and pajamas rather than clothes she’d feel comfortable wearing out. Ahanu and Alo went to school without backpacks and other supplies hours after their home was impounded. And Dustin had to call in sick from work.

That wasn’t all that was lost. The pet snake that Alo was especially fond of had also been in the RV – and for weeks, the Raschkes couldn’t find or catch it. The inside of their RV also looked as if it had been ransacked after a more than 20-mile trek to the tow yard that left toys, food and other belongings strewn about a space Natalie said was once far more organized.

In the weeks after the RV was impounded, the family spent as much time as they could in hotels, leaving less money for other expenses.

“They pretty much put us back to ground zero again,” Natalie said.

Family members sometimes pitched in. The Raschkes decided a homeless shelter wouldn’t be a viable option for their four children, concerned about safety and how staying in one could further hamper their routines, among other issues.

Natalie spent the family’s income tax refunds on a camper van for her family to sleep in when they couldn’t afford a hotel room. 

Beyond that, Dustin and Natalie decided they’d focus on finding an apartment over retrieving the disheveled RV. After all, they learned in April getting it back would cost at least $4,800. It seemed like a better idea to focus on finding a permanent home. That goal also seemed more attainable as Dustin continued to get raises at work. Natalie learned the family’s RV was ultimately auctioned off.

Yet the Raschkes’ efforts to secure an apartment didn’t go as they hoped. They submitted countless applications to would-be landlords with fees of as much as $45 without so much as a response. Places they visited one day would be unavailable the next. Some apartments appeared workable until Natalie learned her family’s income would need to be 2.5 times the monthly rent to qualify – and they expect to pay at least $2,100 a month. Indeed, the family recently spent more than $2,500 on hotel stays during a single month.

“We can pay rent,” Dustin said. “We just can’t find a place.”

The struggle continued after the Housing Commission agreed to assist with the family’s deposit and their first month of rent.

As the search dragged on, Natalie decided she couldn’t continue until school was out for the summer. Living out of hotel rooms and the family’s van exhausted her.

Nearly every day when school was in session, Natalie hurried to pack up the family’s belongings so they could move elsewhere while Dustin and the kids focused on work and school. She also spent more than an hour each morning and afternoon picking up Ahanu, Estrella and Alo from three different schools in Clairemont and Pacific Beach. 

Four-year-old Lulu was constantly at Natalie’s heels trying to get her attention as she called agencies such as the Housing Commission and the 2-1-1 San Diego referral line, or tried to inquire with potential landlords. 

Losing the RV in February also meant losing a refrigerator where the family of six can store food, forcing Natalie to sometimes visit the grocery store multiple times a day and to spend more on food since she can’t buy in bulk.

Cooking the sort of healthy meals that Natalie for years enjoyed preparing for her family has become far more time consuming – and rare.

On a recent evening in a Clairemont park, Natalie spent more than 30 minutes cooking chicken breasts on a skillet. Alo and Lulu returned multiple times to check whether dinner was ready. It was dark and they were hungry.

So was Ahanu, who is trying to build more muscle like his fellow high school teammates. He sat quietly in the van while Natalie cooked but like his younger siblings, he quickly inhaled his piece of chicken.

After he finished it, Ahanu admitted he was still hungry and expected to “wake up more hungry” the next day.

These days, Ahanu said, he and Dustin often sleep in the front seats of the family’s van while the others sleep on the bed and floor. When they book hotel rooms, the Raschkes usually now get a less expensive room with a single bed. A good night’s sleep has become a luxury and Ahanu said he often struggles to fall asleep.

Ahanu said he’s trying to go with the flow. Everything is more difficult for his family right now – and he’s learned not to judge others without homes.

“They’re just like normal people like you and me. Something happened,” Ahanu said. “They’re people who don’t have a place to live.”

Natalie and Dustin have worried about what might happen if housed residents catch onto their predicament, leading Dustin to worry about leaving their belongings out where others might see them.

And Natalie feared residents who visited the Clairemont park the family had been frequenting – a park just steps away from the home they once rented – might call the police or Child Protective Services on her family. 

Things have gotten even more difficult recently.

In early June, Dustin’s father was seriously injured in an out-of-state motorcycle accident and Dustin rushed to his bedside, meaning he couldn’t work for several days. 

The tragedy meant Dustin wasn’t drawing a paycheck. Natalie stressed about what it would mean for the family’s finances. It gutted her when she realized Estrella recognized what Dustin’s temporary departure could mean too.

More recently, the family has almost exclusively been sleeping in their van in Crown Point. It’s been excruciating.

Dustin sometimes escapes to the family’s car and Natalie said Alo, who is usually mild mannered, has been having daily fits. Ahanu has also had some outbursts. Estrella has remained quiet. Lulu now often pees in a bucket rather than make the long trek to a public restroom. All of the children are regularly putting off trips to public restrooms.

The Raschke’s apartment search also hasn’t been going well. One landlord recently responded to say their income wasn’t enough to qualify for a place they had eyed. Natalie is now convinced she’ll have to work to meet income requirements to rent an apartment without a voucher, a task that for now seems impossible given the time she spends shuffling the family from place to place. She’s still waiting to hear if her family qualified for the emergency voucher.

“I don’t know how long we can sustain,” Natalie said.