SF Just Voted to Ban Long-Term RV Parking. What Happens to the People Inside?

After years of strife over RV dwellers living on San Francisco streets, the Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to ban long-term oversized vehicle parking citywide.

The initial vote by the board means people residing in RVs will soon have to move their vehicles every two hours unless they acquire a permit, leaving hundreds of people at risk of being displaced.

“To say that someone living in a vehicle does not have a home is malicious when they have no other form of shelter,” Supervisor Shamann Walton, who voted against the ban, said at Tuesday’s board meeting. “This legislation is alluding to supporting brick and mortar as the only possible home in the most expensive city on the planet.

“I cannot condone mass evictions to the streets for people trying to live in their homes — especially at a time when there’s an attack on immigrants, people of color, our LGBTQ community and basically anyone that is not in the one percent.”

Catch up fast: In 2024, city officials attempted to implement targeted parking restrictions in neighborhoods with longstanding RV communities, like the Lake Merced area near Stonestown Galleria and San Francisco State University and Bernal Hill. In the fall, former Mayor London Breed proposed legislation that would allow vehicles parked overnight to be towed citywide if residents had previously refused shelter, but supervisors blocked it in December after pushback from community advocates. Last month, Mayor Daniel Lurie revived the ban, proposing a strict two-hour limit for oversized vehicles on all city streets.

The latest: Lurie’s June legislation takes a citywide approach to address the reshuffling caused by earlier iterations and includes incentives for people moving into housing, his office told the board this month. Some carve-outs will be made for commercial vehicles parked in industrial areas. The proposal received unanimous approval from the city’s Budget and Finance Committee last week, and this week, it passed a first vote, 9–2. Supervisor Jackie Fielder, who represents the Mission, and Walton, whose district spans the Bayview and Potrero Hill, opposed the legislation.

In a statement, Lurie’s office said the plan “offers a path forward on what has long been an intractable challenge.”

“With compassion and accountability, we will give those living in vehicles a better option and deliver safe and clean streets for our communities,” he said in a statement.

The context: Other cities across the Bay Area, including Berkeley and Fremont in the East Bay, have also been cracking down on vehicle homelessness. In February, Fremont passed what is believed to be the most restrictive overnight camping ban in the state, prohibiting RV parking on public and private property, including residential streets, for more than three consecutive nights.

In November, Berkeley’s city council directed city workers to clean up a known RV community on Second Street in West Berkeley. The move was in line with a new aggressive approach to sweeping encampments, which allows people to be cleared from streets even if the city cannot offer them housing. Both cities’ new rules came after Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered state agencies last July to dismantle homeless encampments across the state.

What we’re watching: If Lurie’s legislation passes a second vote in the coming weeks as expected, the new parking regulations will take effect. Homelessness advocates say this could affect residents living in about 475 vehicles, many of whom may not be willing to trade their private mobile homes for the housing options the city can provide.

Residents actively looking for housing will be eligible for permits up to six months to remain in their RVs while they wait to relocate. The legislation includes funding to subsidize 65 rapid rehousing slots in addition to more than 300 similar subsidies added to the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing’s annual budget this year.

Advocates are awaiting more details about another incentive to move people off the streets: a vehicle buyback program that will offer people cash for their RVs. It’s unclear how much residents stand to receive, though the legislation includes a $500,000 budget for buybacks. Earlier this year, Berkeley piloted a similar program that pays residents $175 per linear foot of an RV, or about $6,000 for a 35-foot vehicle.

It’s also unclear if San Francisco is still pursuing a new westside safe parking site similar to one opened in the Bayview during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, the city was looking for two lots in the area to convert into safe parking, but neither of the sites has been secured.