A plan to make it easier for officials to tow RVs that are parked overnight on city streets was rejected Tuesday in a vote by San Francisco supervisors.
The board’s 7-3 vote knocks down the controversial policy, proposed by Mayor London Breed in September, which would have enabled the San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Agency to ban oversize vehicles from parking on city streets without first holding public hearings. It would have allowed workers to tow vehicles if RV dwellers refuse to accept space in a shelter.
The SFMTA approved the plan in October after Breed vowed to aggressively tackle the city’s homelessness problem.
The Coalition on Homelessness said the board’s vote Tuesday was “a major win for families living in RVs!”
Eleana Binder, a policy manager for the nonprofit service provider Glide, told The Standard in September that the proposal would have further destabilized the vulnerable people who live in RVs.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Binder said. “It’s not a long-term approach to actually support people experiencing homelessness.”
But the board’s vote was criticized by people who say RV parking restrictions are needed to improve city life.
“I’m sorry to report the Board of Supervisors is still ruining San Francisco and will likely continue to,” Garry Tan, CEO of Y Combinator, said on X. “Count ’em: 7 of them couldn’t be relied upon to uphold even basic laws protecting the public.”
Supervisors Joel Engardio, Matt Dorsey, and Rafael Mandelman voted against overturning the restriction.
The successful appeal of the SFMTA’s decision marked the first use of a new oversight procedure allowing challenges to the transit agency’s policies.
Overnight RV parking between midnight and 6 a.m. is prohibited in many areas of San Francisco. About 1,000 people live in almost 500 vehicles on streets, according to city data from July. Often people living in vehicles are reluctant to give up the stability afforded by a vehicle for offers of shelter.