SF begins ticketing RVs on public street; resident says city offered plane ticket to leave

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- RV residents along San Francisco's Winston Drive officially moved to avoid getting ticketed by the city.

ABC7 News reporter Luz Pena went to the area to speak to residents who say they are being displaced without any housing aid.

Instead of moving their vehicles every four hours to avoid getting ticketed, we found many of them spread out throughout the area on Lake Merced Boulevard and Skyline Boulevard. One of the RV residents is Angela, a mother of two.

"We haven't gotten tickets, because we moved before they started ticketing," Angela said.

Angela didn't want to show her face, because she works at a nearby school. She said her husband bought the RV three years ago to go camping as a family, but after losing his job during the pandemic, they moved out of their apartment in Daly City and the RV became their home. Recently, Angela said the city offered them shelter.

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"The person from the city who came here to speak to us did ask me, 'What is holding you back? Why are you here in San Francisco?' The reason why I'm here, I told her, is because my daughters go to school in San Francisco," Angela said.

Angela said many who live in the area inside RVs were given three choices: a shelter, one month of free rent from the city, and then they would be responsible of the rest, and a third option -- to leave San Francisco.

"The city worker who came here said that if I have a family somewhere else in another state, that the city would pay for us to fly there and leave," said Angela, "I don't have family members anywhere else, and I wouldn't want to do that."

Several RVs down from Angela, we met Carla Hernandez. She moved from Winston Drive to the surrounding area with her husband and two daughters.

"Only my husband is working right now, and we just don't have money to be able to move somewhere else," Hernandez said.

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The Coalition on Homelessness said the city had enough time to find solutions for these families.

"It's been four years of Winston Drive residents. They are vehicularly housed families there who have trusted the city to find it a save parking site, and there has been a lack of political will," said Luke Illa with the Coalition on Homelessness.

In a statement SFMTA said:

"The MTA Board approved 4-hour daytime time limits in September 2023 to support parking availability for SF State and Lowell High School faculty, staff, and students. City streets are public space -- where the curb is designed for public parking use, and we need to manage the sharing of that curb-space. We have delayed enforcement for almost a year. HSH believes they have reached 100% of inhabited vehicles in the area, but please connect with them on outreach specifics."

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As more RVs continue to park on Skyline Boulevard by a community center, residents are beginning to notice and there are mixed reactions.

"It is frightening to have all these people parked here," said Joane Landon.

"I'm very sympathetic to these people," said Cher Delamere.

San Francisco officials have said they have looked into a safe parking lot for these RV residents, but a plan has not been approved.