It's Time to End Poverty Tows

This past Friday, Mayor Breed proposed a citywide ban on overnight parking by RVs. The proposed legislation would make overnight parking on any San Francisco street a towable offense between midnight and 6 AM, but “only if an offer of shelter, housing, and/or services are rejected.” This ban will only exacerbate San Francisco's family homelessness crisis.

The 2024 Point-In-Time (PIT) count, released in August, confirms what many of us on the frontlines of the homelessness crisis have long known: family homelessness in San Francisco is astronomically high and continues to rise. Today, 528 families–801 parents and 751 children–languish on the homeless shelter waitlist with no quick path to housing stability. Almost every shelter bed is full, and every subsidy is exhausted. 

According to city data, the RV community in San Francisco constitutes about one-third of the unsheltered population, totaling over 1,400 individuals. Unsheltered homeless families are rarely living in tents and often opt for living in vehicles in order to shelter their children: the PIT count revealed that 90% of unsheltered families are living in vehicles. 29% of families currently living in Compass’ shelter programs experienced vehicular homelessness prior to their shelter stay. The majority of the families living in RVs across the city are newly arrived immigrants and non-English speaking, representing an already vulnerable population. Following Mayor Breed’s call for “very aggressive sweeps,” these families face harassment, tickets, and towing.

While the city claims that it will offer services before towing, the reality of limited resources means that needlessly displacing people living in RVs, who already have existing shelter, will place further strain on nonprofit providers and shelter waitlists. The city has created a zero-sum game: even if the city sets aside shelter beds for people living in RVs, it would only make it harder for the hundreds of people already on the waitlist to get off the waitlist and into shelter.

Anecdotally, it is also clear that not every family living in their RVs are offered connection to services before punitive citations and tows. Numerous families have reported falling through the cracks in the city’s outreach efforts, which have been inconsistent and inaccessible to many of them. One mother lived in an RV in the Bayview with her newborn son, who was born with a heart condition and required surgery. After the surgery, the hospital did not want to release the baby until she was housed. Her case was referred to the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, who sent over outreach workers that offered her shelter. Although she had said yes to the shelter offer, she was never connected; communication dropped off. It was not until the mother was referred to another service provider outside of the city’s purview that she was able to get into housing and be reunited with her baby. 

Where efforts were made, they have not been comprehensive. More than 50 families were living in their RVs on Zoo Road in the first week of August. While 13 families have been supported in moving into housing, 37 families have not been supported in finding long-term solutions and now face being towed.

While more affordable housing is a clear solution for this crisis, an immediately viable solution is a safe parking site. Three years ago, Mayor Breed and the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing committed to providing safe parking to the families living in their vehicles on Winston Drive; time and again, they have failed to deliver on that promise. While there is one safe parking site in San Francisco for people living in RVs, it is at capacity. 

On October 1st at 12 PM, Compass and the End Poverty Tows Coalition will hold a rally followed by public comment at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency hearing to oppose Mayor Breed’s harmful, short-sighted ban. Join us to stand up for those in our community who rely on their RVs for shelter, work, and transportation.

For more information or to join the End Poverty Tows Coalition (community members welcome), contact Compass’ Policy and Organizing Manager, Alisha Zhao, at azhao@compass-sf.org.