{"id":69181,"date":"2025-11-10T14:47:39","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T22:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/?p=69181"},"modified":"2025-11-13T11:22:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T19:22:17","slug":"sf-rv-crackdown-permit-failures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/en\/sf-rv-crackdown-permit-failures\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside San Francisco\u2019s RV towing blitz and its biggest failures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Jos\u00e9 Lopez, 20, puts his daughter\u2019s stroller inside his RV after returning from work on John Muir Drive in San Francisco, Calif., on Oct. 9, 2025. Photo: Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote \/ CatchLight Local<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Every day when Marlon returns from work, he checks whether his RV is still where he left it \u2014 that it hasn\u2019t been tagged, ticketed or towed away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s part of the Arostegui family, one of the first to start parking on Winston Drive<\/a> in 2022, after the intergenerational household lost its shared apartment during the pandemic. After a mass eviction<\/a> last year scattered the family across different housing situations, Marlon has moved from one street to another, trying to avoid parking tickets and towing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI came to work,\u201d said Marlon, a 42-year-old immigrant who was granted asylum and a work permit. Gigs, however, are hard to come by. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the city towed his RV last year, he bought a used motorhome for $3,500 from a family that had just been moved into housing, hoping it would give him another chance at stability. Now, his home is once again at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Nov. 1, San Francisco began enforcing two-hour parking restrictions<\/a> on large vehicles citywide, citing and towing those without permits. The only residents temporarily safe, to an extent, are those with six-month Large Vehicle Refuge Permits,<\/a> part of a new program that Mayor Daniel Lurie has framed as a \u201ccompassionate response\u201d<\/a> to vehicular homelessness.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Marlon Arostegui stands outside his RV in the Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco, Calif., on Oct. 2, 2025. Photo: Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote \/ CatchLight Local<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Yet months of reporting and dozens of internal documents reveal a rushed rollout, shifting rules and too little city infrastructure to make the crackdown work as promised. This approach directly contradicts a public assurance from the mayor\u2019s staffer, Eufern Pan, who told SFMTA board members in June<\/a> that towing would not begin until outreach, permits and appeals had been completed for all large vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With only a fraction of vehicle-homes permitted, advocates warn the policy could dismantle fragile support networks and push families into smaller cars or onto the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose folks are going to be left destitute with the only thing that they have \u2014 an RV \u2014 and all their belongings in it,\u201d said Jennifer Friedenbach, the executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, during a press conference on Nov. 5. \u201cThey\u2019ve been towing for [expired] registration and there\u2019s just been a real huge clampdown overall.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked why enforcement began without a grace period, amid major policy shifts, the Mayor’s Office and the Department of Emergency Management (DEM) did not provide comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For people like Marlon, the new policy offers no refuge at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A reflection of the Parkmerced apartments is seen through the window of an RV parked along John Muir Drive in San Francisco, Calif., on Nov. 6, 2025. Photo: Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote \/ CatchLight Local<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Who gets a permit \u2014 and who doesn\u2019t<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Each six-month permit requires<\/a> residents to accept the first shelter or housing offer, even if it doesn\u2019t meet their needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n