San Francisco Could Ban Overnight Parking for RVs on Most City Streets

San Francisco transportation officials will vote Tuesday on aggressive steps to stop oversized vehicles from parking overnight on city streets.

The city’s Municipal Transportation Authority will vote on a law, proposed by Mayor London Breed, that would allow the city to tow oversized vehicles if the people living inside them reject offers of shelter, housing or services. Several San Francisco Supervisors, including Joel Engardio, Rafael Mandelman, Matt Dorsey and Catherine Stefani, support the proposal.

“RVs parked on streets can present public safety and public health hazards, including impaired sight lines for road users and illegal dumping of garbage and waste matter on sidewalks and streets,” Noel Sanchez, a spokesperson for Breed’s office, said in a statement.

The move comes as Breed and officials in other California cities crack down on encampments and unhoused people living on the streets. For years, vocal residents have urged officials to address blight and public safety issues sometimes caused by homeless encampments.

In July, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order directing state officials to dismantle homeless encampments in public areas.

The city’s current law does not allow RVs to park overnight on certain streets, while other streets allow it. More than 8,323 people are unhoused, according to the city’s 2024 count. About 9% of the 4,354 people who are unsheltered in San Francisco live in their vehicles.

If the SFMTA Board of Directors approves the proposal during their Tuesday meeting, it will be enforced by MTA officials and the San Francisco Police Department.

“City workers are out on the streets every day offering shelter and housing to people living in recreational vehicles,” Jeff Tumlin, SFMTA’s director of transportation, said in a statement. “This legislation will allow for parking enforcement if and when all those offers have been refused.

According to the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, city officials have already moved 50 households from vehicles on Winston Drive near Stonestown Mall and Zoo Road near Lake Merced into long-term housing since June after threatening to tow their vehicles.

Affordable housing activists and critics argue the proposed law does nothing to fix the lack of affordable housing in the city or access to safe parking sites.

“If the conversation was, ‘Give up your RV for permanent shelter,’ it would be a completely different conversation,” Lukas Illa, an organizer with the Coalition on Homelessness, said. “Shelter is so temporary. So many folks I have talked to desperately want permanent solutions. But that is not what’s being offered by the city.”

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