‘Hundreds Will Lose Their Homes!’
Testimonies against the Mayor’s ‘Poverty Tows’
Below are some quotes from testimony given by families who live in their vehicles, and by their advocates, before the SFMTA [San Francisco Metropolitan Transit Authority], at a hearing on Mayor Lurie’s proposal to institute a 2-hour parking limit on oversized vehicles in San Francisco. Ninety percent of the homeless families in the city live in vehicles such as RVs, and would be in grave danger of having them ticketed and towed, losing their only housing, resulting in more street homelessness and broken families. Many who live in their vehicles work. Dozens of people, vehicle residents and advocates, spoke passionately against the mean and destructive proposals at the hearing on June 17. The SFMTA then passed the first part of the plan. Also below is a Street Sheet story that provides important information about the cruel plan and the organizing to stop it. – Sarah Menefee, for the People’s Tribune.
‘I live in an RV and this has affected me a lot. I had been working cooking for various schools. I am terribly stressed by constant threats by MUNI. I am 53 years old, strong enough to work. I love cooking but where can I go to find somewhere to live I can afford? Please help us find a place to go where we’ll be safe.,
‘The 2-hour parking ban is cruel, unconscionable, immoral. I am stunned they are proposing $9 million for surveillance equipment and doing this. It’s bizarre and cruel.’
‘I live in an RV. I have testified before several times. We try to be good neighbors and keep our areas clean. I was offered housing several times but it came to nothing. We have already solved our housing problem by living in an RV. You should consult us before you make decisions about us.’
‘Our RV doesn’t have a motor right now. We can’t move after two hours, it will be towed. This is the only roof over my daughter’s head, the only shelter I can afford right now.’
‘If you vote on this proposal hundreds of people will lose their homes and be thrown into the streets, especially families. This will affect many, especially workers. The SFMTA cannot push 1400 people onto the streets. First, do no harm.’
‘Latino families will be forced into life-threatening situations, and they are already under threat by attacks by ICE and the police, pushing them further into danger.’
‘This is a crisis of the city’s own making, they need to solve it instead of making it worse.’
‘I’ve lived in an RV for 7 years and there is no help anywhere. We don’t harass people or commit crimes, we’re just trying to live like everyone else.’
San Francisco Mayor Lurie’s Cruel RV Plan:
Displacement and Criminalization Amidst a Burgeoning Housing Crisis
by the Street Sheet
San Francisco CA. Mayor Daniel Lurie announced legislation to ban RVs and enforce a citywide two-hour parking restriction for large vehicles, leading to fines, towing, displacement and eviction of those vulnerable San Franciscans experiencing poverty and homelessness. The plan falls significantly short in ensuring those living in RVs have the dignity of a home.
Mayor Lurie’s plan, part of the “Breaking the Cycle” initiative, leads with enforcement, imposing a two-hour parking limit on large vehicles citywide. City data confirms at least 437 RVs are occupied with people living in them. Yet the mayor’s budget offers only 65 rapid rehousing subsidies. This leaves the remaining RV residents with no offers of housing and under the constant threat of citations, towing, and displacement under a two-hour parking limit.
Additionally, resources allocated to RV residents displace others in far worse circumstances. Under the mayor’s new policy, single adults in RVs would be offered non-congregate shelter beds that are in high demand by folks sleeping on the street. Furthermore, $30m in Prop C funding for rental subsidies for families in shelter and on the waitlist is being cut, and a small chunk of that is being reallocated only to families living in RV’s. This leaves families stuck in small vehicles and the streets while waiting for a shelter bed, and leaves families in shelter with no way out.
“SF is facing an affordability crisis, and people who are mostly people of color, immigrant, working, retired, disabled are attempting to shelter themselves by living in RV’s. They have been consistently harassed, towed, and evicted simply because of their economic status and the look of their vehicles.” said Jennifer Friedenbach of the Coalition on Homelessness
Although the ordinance introduces a 6 month “Large Vehicle Refuge Permit,” it is only accessible to people who were identified in a city database as of May 2025 and are actively “engaged in services.” This policy does not establish proper safeguards for all people residing in RV’s, and will leave many vulnerable to criminalization, subject to citations and towing.
“This is a very expensive proposal utilizing extensive public dollars from multiple city agencies, that not only breaks trust with unhoused people by having a police-led response, but also wastes considerable public resources that could be spent on housing,” said Paul Boden of the Western Regional Advocacy Project. “This is coming at a time when multiple cities are attempting to disappear unhoused people in advance of massive federal cuts.”
The mayor has earmarked $12.9 million in his budget to implement his plan. That includes $8.2 million for 65 new housing vouchers, $1.7 million for outreach by the city’s homelessness department and $3 million for signage and enforcement by the Municipal Transportation Agency.
Mayor Lurie’s proposal is a draconian measure veiled as a do-gooder policy. It does not offer long term solutions and disproportionately impacts immigrant communities, poor black and brown folks that have turned to RVs as their housing solution due to the lack of deeply affordable housing in one of the world’s richest cities.
“We urge the city to create solutions that address the root causes of homelessness, to protect RV residents’ right to safe parking and bring them viable and sufficient housing offers that do not come at the expense of others in dire need.” According to Gabriel Medina, Executive Director of La Raza Community Resource Center. “I am especially concerned that this ordinance violates the spirit of our sanctuary ordinance, given many RV residents are immigrants and this would send them out of town and further into hiding.”
Update: As posted on X by the Coalition on Homelessness:
Yesterday the SFMTA voted yes on the first part of Lurie’s RV ban. This measure will push RV families onto the streets & disproportionately impact disabled people, immigrants, the elderly & working families that have turned to RV’s as a housing solution due to the housing crisis.
(Reprinted by permission of the Street Sheet)
