San Francisco close to taking new step to fight homelessness

San Francisco is set to crack down on homeless people living in RVs with its Board of Supervisors preparing to vote on strict new parking limits. 

A proposal that would enact a two-hour parking limit citywide for all RVs and oversized vehicles longer than 22 feet or higher than 7 feet — regardless of whether they are being used as housing — is up for final approval Tuesday. Mayor Daniel Lurie and supporters of the policy say motor homes are not suitable for long-term living and the city has a duty to both provide shelter to those in need and clean up the streets. 

Under an accompanying permit program, RV residents registered with the city as of May are exempt from the parking limits. In exchange, they must accept San Francisco’s offer of temporary or longer-term housing and get rid of their RV when it’s time to move. The city has budgeted more than half a million dollars to buy RVs from residents at $175 per foot. 

“We absolutely want to serve those families, those who are in crisis across San Francisco,” Chief of Health & Human Services Kunal Modi told The Associated Press. “We feel the responsibility to help them get to a stable solution. And at the same time, we want to make sure that that stability is somewhere indoors and not exposed in the public roadway.” 

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The permits would last for six months. People in RVs who arrive after May will not be eligible for the permit program and must abide by the two-hour rule. 

The proposal, which targets at least 400 RVs, first cleared the Board of Supervisors last week with two of 11 supervisors voting “no.” 

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RV dwellers say San Francisco should open a safe parking lot where residents could empty trash and access electricity. However, city officials shuttered an RV lot in April, saying it cost about $4 million a year to service three dozen large vehicles and it failed to transition people to more stable housing, the AP reported. 

The mayor’s new proposal comes with more money for beefed-up RV parking enforcement — but also an additional $11 million, largely for a small number of households to move to subsidized housing for a few years. 

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Officials acknowledge that may not be sufficient to house all RV dwellers, but note that the city also has hotel vouchers and other housing subsidies. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.