A judge has temporarily blocked the city of San Diego from ticketing people for sleeping in their cars.

Under a local ordinance, it's illegal to sleep in a car parked along a public street or parking lot in San Diego.

However, a lawsuit was filed recently by a group of San Diegans who say they have nowhere else to go.

The city now has 30 days to comply with the judge's order.

The judge declined a request to also block the city from ticketing recreational vehicles that are parked on city streets overnight.

Earlier this year, NBC 7 Investigates looked into the number of citations given for vehicle habitation. We found there were 281 people ticketed in 2016 compared to 295 citations issued in 2017.

The latest survey of the local homeless population was released in March 2018 and shows fewer than 5,000 people are homeless within city limits.

However, the city has 57 percent of the homeless individuals in the region, according to the Point in Time Count figures.

In 2017, it was estimated there were 5,621 unsheltered homeless people in the county and 3.495 sheltered homeless people.