Sam Lutzker
Biography
Sam Lutzker is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at UCLA. He is an ethnographer of the governance of homelessness and housing, including the paths between them.
His dissertation, “Vehicle Living in Los Angeles: Homelessness, Home, and the Politics of Criminalization and Care,” follows a diverse range of vehicle residents as they navigate housing instability, informal shelter, social services, law enforcement, shifting neighborhoods, and the politics of homelessness. Drawing on several years of fieldwork with a human rights coalition and a Safe Parking nonprofit during the post-pandemic government crackdown on vehicle living, Sam shows how the political identities vehicle residents adopt, contest, and create shape both punishment and possibility. He combines participant observation, interviews, surveys, and archival analysis to trace how policies governing vehicular homelessness took shape and to chart a path toward a more just future.
Beyond vehicle living, Sam’s research extends to tents and makeshift shelters, interim housing programs, and permanent supportive housing. He has published solo and with collaborators in Radical Housing Journal, Metropolitics, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle, and his work has been covered by media such as The New York Times, LA Public Press, and Planetizen. His research has been funded by the Russell Sage Foundation, American Sociological Association, Haynes Foundation, and UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality & Democracy. Committed to research that strengthens organizing, he has collaborated with groups such as the After Echo Park Lake Research Collective, Venice Justice Committee, the National Vehicle Residency Coalition, and the Los Angeles Tenants Union. In his teaching, he inspires undergraduates to study the social world and mentors them through hands-on research.
Fields of Study
Urban Sociology, Housing and Homelessness, Ethnographic and Mixed Methods, Community-Engaged Research, Public Policy.
Publications
Peer-review Scholarship:
Peters, Deike and Sam Lutzker. 2025. “A Crisis of Habitation in LA’s Last Remaining Wetland.” Metropolitics. (https://metropolitics.org/A-Crisis-of-Habitation-in-LA-s-Last-Remaining-Wetland.html)
Roy, Ananya, Annie Powers, Ashley Bennet, Sam Lutzker and Hilary Malson (on behalf of After Echo Park Lake Research Collective). 2022. “Continuum of Carcerality: How Liberal Urbanism Governs Homelessness.” Radical Housing Journal. (https://radicalhousingjournal.org/2022/continuum-of-carcerality/)
Under Review:
Lutzker, Sam. 2026. “Governing Homelessness through Parking Enforcement: Debt, Dispossession, and Displacement in Los Angeles.”
Lutzker, Sam, Ruth Tretter, Linda Barringer and Graham Pruss. 2026. “Considerations for Vehicle Residents Experiencing Homelessness: A Review of Western States Point-in-Time Counts.” Pre-print available at https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/ega3d_v1
Working Papers:
Lutzker, Sam. 2026. “The RV Paradox: How Los Angeles Penalizes Vehicle Residency.”
Policy Reports:
Kennedy*, Peggy Lee, Sam Lutzker* and Chris Tilly*. 2026. Very Large Expenditure, Very Little Care: Los Angeles’s “CARE+” Homeless Services Program in Council District 11. UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality & Democracy. https://challengeinequality.luskin.ucla.edu/2026/01/20/cd11sweepsreport/
*Denotes equal co-authorship
Kennedy, Peggy Lee, Sam Lutzker*, Pat Raphael, Nathan Clukey, Magan Wiles, and Veronika Vucetic. 2025. “Keep Moving:” West LA Vehicle Residents Survey. Venice Justice Committee and UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality & Democracy. (https://challengeinequality.luskin.ucla.edu/2025/06/25/keep-moving/)
*Denotes co-first authorship.
This report has been covered by LA Public Press: https://lapublicpress.org/2025/06/ucla-unhoused-rv-laws-tickets/
Pruss, Graham and Sam Lutzker (in collaboration with Lived Experience Advisory Board of Silicon Valley). 2023 San José Recreational Vehicle Resident Survey Final Report. 2023. Submitted to the City of San José, CA.
After Echo Park Lake Research Collective. 2022. Dis(Placement): The Fight for Housing and Community after Echo Park Lake. UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy report. (https://challengeinequality.luskin.ucla.edu/2022/03/23/displacement/)
This report has been covered by international media, including The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/23/los-angeles-echo-park-un…
Selected Public Writing:
Roy, Ananya and Sam Lutzker. 2022. “How the brutal clearing of an L.A. homeless encampment can teach S.F. what not to do in the Tenderloin.” San Francisco Chronicle. (https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/How-the-brutal-cle…)
Lutzker, Sam. 2021. “Op-Ed: Cancel parking fines for unhoused people who live in their cars.” Los Angeles
Times. (https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-05-19/homeless-cars-parking-t…)
Lutzker, Sam. 2021. “Is Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas ‘Champion of the Homeless Population?’
Depends who you ask.” Knock L.A. (https://knock-la.com/mark-ridley-thomas-anti-homeless-campinglaws/)
Lutzker, Sam. 2021. “‘Project No Key’: How Punitive Policies Hamper California’s Efforts to House the
Un-Housed.” Knock LA. (https://knock-la.com/project-roomkey-punitive-policies-ce8d59c534fb/).
Awards & Grants
- Russell Sage Foundation Dissertation Research Grant, 2025-2026
- American Sociological Association Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, 2025
- Haynes Lindley Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, 2023-2024
- Mellon Foundation Scholar-in-Community Seed Grant, 2023
- National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP) Honorable Mention, 2021
- UCLA Excellence in Teaching Award, 2021-2023
- UCLA Graduate Summer Research Mentorship (GSRM) 2021
- UCLA Graduate Research Mentorship (GRM) 2020-2021
- UCLA Graduate Summer Research Mentorship (GSRM) 2020
- UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy Graduate Student Working Group Funding
- Housing Justice Public Scholarship Series, 2021-2022
- Informal Tenancy Working Group, 2021-2022
- Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid, 2020-2021