New San Francisco proposal aims to ban RVs on city-managed streets overnight
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco's latest effort to deter homelessness could include new restrictions on recreational vehicles, with a proposal that takes aim at overnight parking.
In its latest attempt to get RVs off the streets, San Francisco could soon be banning people from parking overnight.
"There are a large number of people in San Francisco living in RVs because of rising rents and many of them are families," said Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness.
And some of those families we've met. Knocking on doors and listening to their stories, many of them pushed from one location to the next.
"Kids just started school. They need stability. This is a really cruel way of going about addressing a crisis," Friedenbach said.
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The ban prohibits RVs and other oversized vehicles from parking on city-managed streets from midnight to 6 a.m. and gives the SFMTA the go-ahead to tow vehicles in violation after offering shelters.
Vehicles potentially like Alex Sack's, who has been calling it home for a couple of years and says banning overnight parking will just push people somewhere else.
"Where are they going to go? It's squeezing a balloon. It's just a charade every election season," Sack said.
The city has one designated safe parking site at Bayview-Hunters Point. But challenges providing power means that only a few dozen RVs can comfortably park there right now.
"A lot of people say, 'Let's put them at the edge of town at Candlestick Park and whatever they're building out there,' but then it's some dilapidated shanty town," Sack said.
MORE: San Francisco moves 20+ RV residents into permanent housing
Homeless advocates are calling on the city to open more safe parking sites, saying it's a much better step than the ban.
"It would be much simpler to just open up more safe parking while the steps are being taken to move people into affordable housing," Friedenbach said.
When asked about the potential new restrictions, the mayor's office responded with this statement, reading in part:
"There are currently no changes to our policy, and we are continuing to explore a range of options, while our outreach teams engage and offer shelter on a regular basis to try to help people off of our streets and into the city's system of care."
The parking ban proposal still needs to pass a vote with the SFMTA board of directors before it would take effect. In the meantime, homeless advocates are planning to rally against the proposal when the board meets this week.
