THE SAN FRANCISCO Board of Supervisors has voted to pass San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie’s legislation to expand housing options and set city-wide parking restrictions on large vehicles in order to address RV and vehicular homelessness.
The legislation enforces a two-hour parking restriction on large vehicles across the city without a permit and assesses the eligibility of residents living in large vehicles for permanent interim housing, a large vehicle cash buyback, and large vehicle refuge permits.
Under the legislation, approved Tuesday, San Francisco will deploy new outreach teams equipped with language skills and trained in trauma-informed care to assist people residing in large vehicles. The legislation is part of Lurie’s “Breaking the Cycle” initiative, which aims to reform the city’s approach to behavioral health and the homelessness crisis.
The 2024 San Francisco Point-in-Time Count approximated that 1,444 individuals and families in San Francisco live in vehicles. An analysis this past May from the city identified 437 large vehicles being used as residences across the city.
Lurie initially introduced the legislation on June 10, and it was cosponsored by Supervisors Myrna Melgar, Rafael Mandelman, Joel Engardio, Matt Dorsey and Stephen Sherrill. The Board of Supervisors voted 9-2 to pass it.
Homeless RV dwellers ‘deprioritized’
At the Tuesday board meeting, Melgar said that after spending “the better part of four years” aiming to help households residing in RVs obtain permanent housing, she and her staff found that many of the households were “deprioritized” because they “were not dealing with mental health; they were not dealing with drug addiction; they were not dealing with a lot of the issues that the (Homelessness and Supportive Housing) Department was set up to address.”
Melgar and her staff further concluded that many RV residents lived “in vehicles that they did not own,” she said.
“Someone else owned them, and were on the public right of way for free, and charged a lot of money for rent to live in these vehicles, taking advantage of the desperation of people,” Melgar said. “For every family that we placed into housing, most of them in the neighborhood, someone else would take their place.”
Supervisor Connie Chan shared that the legislation “created a lot of concerns for people living in RVs and those who care after them” and pledged at the meeting to request “regular reports to identify gaps in funding and resources that may require further policy changes.” Chan voted in favor of the legislation.
“We must spend on housing solutions for unhoused San Franciscans, including those living in RVs,” she said. “San Francisco voters want us to deliver solutions with public dollars and our city’s most vulnerable cannot wait for the perfect policy, they need housing relief dollars now.”
Homeless ‘deserve better options’
Supervisor Shamann Walton voted against the legislation, arguing that it offered “housing we do not have, housing that we never had” and would mean that “people living on the street are going to be skipped over while folks living in vehicles are prioritized.”
“(If) we have suddenly found homes and beds for all people living in vehicles, then we wouldn’t even be discussing this impossible plan,” Walton said. “I don’t believe this plan will do anything but criminalize people who don’t have stable brick and mortar homes.”
Lurie wrote in a news release following the meeting that “families in San Francisco deserve better than the RV homelessness we’ve seen on our streets for years.”
“Those in vehicles deserve better options for raising their kids, and those just trying to walk down the street deserve safety and cleanliness,” he said. “I am proud to stand with the Board of Supervisors today to pass a plan that will finally give all of our families what they deserve.”
