06/14/2025
https://www.rvtravel.com/why-rv-parks-are-no-longer-safe-1165/
By Chuck Woodbury July 2024
FOUNDER AND PUBLISHER
I have been RVing as a writer, editor and publisher for more than 4 decades. For 10 years, in 1980s and ’90s, I was the subject of several hundred media interviews because of my unusual occupation — traveling the American West in a motorhome while publishing a quarterly “on the road newspaper” about what I found along the way. I called it Out West. A handful of subscribers have stuck with me through the years as readers of RVtravel.com.
One question that came up frequently back in the Out West years was from both the media and my readers who asked “Are campgrounds safe?” Most were referring to RV parks, not public campgrounds. I remember always replying, with barely a moment’s thought, “Yes, very safe.” Even then I kept a close eye on camping and RV industry news as well as crime reports in newspapers across the country. I almost never saw anything about crimes at RV parks. It’s different today, where trouble in parks is reported daily.
If the questions to me back then were about “trailer parks,” I would have answered far differently. “Trailer parks” or “mobile home parks” were often home to people who could not afford traditional housing. It was too often the only housing option for having a roof over one’s head. The same can be said today about an increasing number of RV parks. You have likely seen such places. I certainly have.
What is happening today is that many of the RV parks of yesteryear, where guests mostly visited on brief vacations, have now become permanent homes of financially strapped persons. I’d go so far as to say some of the parks are slums. Of course, to be clear, most RV parks are still fine places that cater to RVing tourists.
Trouble in paradise
Last February, we asked RVtravel.com readers if they had ever called the police because of an incident in their campground or RV park. More than 1,300 readers responded: 10 percent reported they had called the police at least once.
In another poll, just last month, we asked readers “What percent of all U.S. RV parks are too undesirable to stay in?” Of the more than 1,000 readers who responded, only four percent estimated that “all” were okay. Almost a third reported that 30 to 50 percent of RV parks were unacceptable. “Regardless of how glossy the brochure, the amenities list or the family/pet/big rig friendly label, they’re all just trailer parks with a variable turnover rate, even those that stick the word, ‘resort’ at the end of their name,” one reader commented.
RVs today are far more luxurious than mobile homes of the late 20th century. For many people, rich or poor, an RV is an appealing place to call home. For those well off, RV resorts with pools, tennis and pickleball courts, cocktail hours and social activities are highly desirable. But for the poor, a rundown RV park with cheap rent is the only option besides the street. I have stumbled upon these places in my travels, often after reading an encouraging review. I almost always stumbled out just as fast.
My advice to RVers who ask me for advice about good places to stay with their RV is to “rule out all parks that allow year-round occupancy.” My guess is that would eliminate 90 percent of the undesirable and occasionally unsafe places to stay.
By Chuck Woodbury FOUNDER AND PUBLISHER I have been RVing as a writer, editor and publisher for more than 4 decades. For 10 years, in 1980s and '90s, I
