San Francisco RV residents, advocates plead for city to reconsider enforcement of parking limits

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- 11-year-old Hazel Arosteguis and her family have been living in an RV on Winston Drive in San Francisco for the past four and a half years.

Her dad says he stopped being able to pay their apartment during the pandemic and that's when they moved into the RV.

They're among the residents in more than a dozen RVs parked on Winston Drive.

MORE: SF clears RV homeless encampment along Lower Great Highway in Outer Sunset District

Now, they're fighting to stay there, as the city prepares to limit parking on the street.

A spokesperson for SFMTA said their board approved posting 4-hour parking time limits on segments of Winston Dr and Buckingham Way. While the time limits have been posted since April, enforcement is on hold until the planned repavement of Winston Drive is complete and the curb is re-opened but the timing hasn't been determined yet.

"We are not criminals or something like that," Arosteguis said. "We are humans. We are all people but different lives."

Holding up signs like one saying "Stop towing our homes," the residents and advocates for the unhoused held a news conference Tuesday, asking the city to reconsider the enforcement.

MORE: Fremont residents calling for action on solutions to homelessness, parked RVs

SFMTA said staff is working with the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing to identify and activate safe parking resources for those there.

But residents tell ABC7 News they haven't been offered any better alternatives and some say they'll stay, even when the enforcement kicks in. Others are worried they'll have nowhere to go.

"We don't know where to go basically," Arosteguis said "We were so stressed out now because we don't know where to go."

After this story aired, Supervisor Myrna Melgar released the following statement: