Far off the grid in the Antelope Valley, RVers make a mess and elude the homeless count

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Set us as preferred The spiderweb of dirt roads etched into the desert north of Pearblossom Highway encompasses some of the trashiest scenes in Los Angeles County: piles of tires, bags of used diapers, car parts, whole burned-out cars, couches, office chairs, dining chairs, dressers, motor oil containers, dump truck-sized mounds of unidentifiable rubble and, oddest of all, giant sheets of plastic draped over Joshua trees.Navigating his red pickup over the rutted roads, Christopher Minsal, council president in the unincorporated community of Pearblossom, pointed out a source of the plastic — a distant white dome protruding from the carpet-like canopy of gray-green desert flora.“You see the plastic in the distance?” he said.“That’s a marijuana grow.”This downtrodden expanse of the Antelope Valley unexpectedly achieved a remarkable turnaround last year, reducing by more than half the number of recreational vehicles squatting on its back roads.

At least it did so on paper.According to the annual homeless count, only 671 recreational vehicles remained in the 400 square miles of desert beyond the incorporated cities of Palmdale and Lancaster.

That was down 1,432 from the prior year.The reduction accounted for three-fourths of a 21% countywide decrease in RVs that kept the countywide 1.2% increase in homelessness from being worse.If only it were true.Minsal and other locals interviewed by The Times wonder where nearly 800 RVs disappeared to.

They didn’t see them being towed away, they say.“The numbers are definitely wrong,” said Jose Centeno, another Pearblossom Town Council member.

“The number hasn’t gone down.If anything, it’s increased.”The record suggests a miscount, possibly several miscounts among Pearblossom and its neighboring desert hamlets stretching east to the San Bernardino County line: Litt...