San Francisco supervisors vote to reverse RV parking restrictions
After hours of public comment Wednesday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 7-3 to overturn an SFMTA decision to ban recreational vehicles from parking overnight on public streets.
Advocates for the unhoused like Joy D'ovidio vocalized their opposition to SFMTA's original plan, which would allow authorities to tow RVs and other large vehicles parked on streets marked at the agency's discretion.
"We've all experienced the trauma of having a car towed. Imagine having your home towed," D'Ovidio said during the board meeting. "We must be more compassionate than that."
The measure also required the city offer shelter to RV owners before towing their vehicles. Lukas Illa, a human rights organizer with the Coalition on Homelessness, argued that the city doesn't have enough available housing for the ban to be feasible.
"There is no proactive outreach to RV residents," Illa said. "There is no RV specific infrastructure. There's no problem-solving mechanisms for folks living in vehicles."
One the other side of the argument, some supervisors felt the ban was a necessary first step in addressing the ongoing problem of homelessness in the city. Supervisor Rafael Mandleman was one of three elected officials who voted against the reversal.
"I believe that we have to have our public spaces be usable for everyone," said Mandleman. "And I think if we are going to wait to fulfill that goal until we have a home for every unhoused person who may find their way to San Francisco, we will never achieve that goal. And that will be a very big problem for our city."
According to the city's street response dashboard, there were about 458 people living in RVs as of October this year, when the SFMTA voted to approve the ban proposed by Mayor London Breed. Supervisor Dean Preston said he hopes the reversal is an opportunity to rethink how San Francisco deals with homelessness.
"There should be a more comprehensive plan of how to address the fact that so many people, especially families, are forced to live in RVs because they can't afford apartments in San Francisco," Preston said. "But in the meantime, I really object to this effort to really scale up the enforcement crackdowns and towing."
