{"id":71099,"date":"2026-03-24T21:35:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T04:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/?p=71099"},"modified":"2026-03-26T16:24:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T23:24:42","slug":"sf-rv-permit-homelessness-impacts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/en\/sf-rv-permit-homelessness-impacts\/","title":{"rendered":"SF is towing more RVs than providing housing, leaving many on the streets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The city’s RV permit promised stability<\/a>. For Miguel Mercado, it delivered the opposite. Last week, after the RV was turned over to the city, Mercado started sleeping on the streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee este reportaje en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For almost three years, the 58-year-old Nicaraguan immigrant had lived inside a friend\u2019s RV without paying rent. In exchange, he helped with repairs, kept it clean and pushed it down the block at midnight each Sunday to avoid street-sweeping tickets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That fragile arrangement has now unraveled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last fall, San Francisco imposed<\/a> a two-hour parking limit citywide for oversized vehicles to reduce the number of RVs used as shelters. Residents who could prove they had been living in the city in May 2025 were granted temporary exemptions through the Large Vehicle Refuge Permit Program (LVRP). City officials said<\/a> the program would stabilize vehicle residents while restoring public space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Left:<\/strong> Miguel Mercado poses in front of the RV he called home for nearly three years, moments before city staff arrived to tow it on March 9, 2026. Mercado, who has an active asylum case, moved into the RV after finding no other stable housing. Right:<\/strong> Miguel Mercado, 58, hangs the keys to his home inside his RV in San Francisco on Feb. 12, 2026. Photos: Yesica Prado for El Tecolote<\/figcaption>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Daniel Lurie claims it is producing results. He recently announced<\/a> that the number of RVs in San Francisco has dropped about 20% since December, falling from 462 vehicles to 374 in February, while 78 vehicle households have been placed into housing or shelter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But early results show a stark imbalance: since enforcement began in November 2025, the city has towed 171 RVs<\/a> under the ordinance and dozens more for other reasons \u2014 about three times the number of households placed into housing through the permit program. In practice, the policy is removing homes faster than it is replacing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months into enforcement, residents say that while the program offers relief to some, it is pushing others into deeper instability through denials, displacement and mounting fines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Miguel Mercado packs his belongings before city staff arrive to tow his RV on March 9, 2026. Uncertain where he will sleep next, he gave away most of his possessions, including his bed to a neighbor who lives in a van. Photo: Yesica Prado for El Tecolote<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Collateral displacement<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Without the RV, Mercado says he has nowhere left to sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The RV\u2019s owner, who lives in the vehicle with him, qualified for housing through the LVRP permit and opted into the city\u2019s large vehicle buyback program. Mercado says outreach workers communicated only with the registered owner during the permit rollout, and they never contacted him or offered him housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result: his friend joined his wife in the subsidized studio apartment she already had through another shelter program. Mercado was offered congregate shelter, but declined for his safety. He ended up on the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what I can do. That\u2019s the concern of the immigrant,\u201d Mercado said. \u201cI\u2019ll figure it out. I do wish him the best.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Miguel Mercado helps his housemate, Armando, clear out the RV they shared for years on March 9, 2026. Armando qualified for housing through the city\u2019s Large Vehicle Refuge Permit Program; Mercado did not. Photo: Yesica Prado for El Tecolote<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Some RV residents own their vehicles. Many do not. They rent from owners, share with roommates, or like Mercado, live in a friend’s RV in exchange for work. These informal arrangements are often the only option for those with the least resources, but they also leave residents invisible to the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the program\u2019s rules, the permit system is largely tied to vehicle registration, meaning assistance often goes to the person who appears on the title, not necessarily the person sleeping inside the RV. In the fall, permit applicants were required to provide documents such as vehicle registration in their name, insurance, towing records and vehicle purchase, requirements that can exclude secondary occupants like Mercado. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A city official, speaking on background, said permits are intended for the people living in the RV but acknowledged that assistance depends on outreach teams knowing those occupants exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If they’re not known to city outreach teams… that is going to have an effect on them,” the official said. Mercado\u2019s case illustrates this program gap. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Miguel Mercado, 58, holds his Nicaraguan passport, one of the few things that he carried throughout his migration journey, in San Francisco, Calif., on Dec. 8, 2025. Mercado, who has lived in a friend\u2019s RV, will once again be out on the street with very little resources available to him. Photo: Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote\/CatchLight Local<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The official added that the purpose of the buyback program is to buy RVs that people are living in, “not to buy back RVs from owners who are not living in them.” But without a system to track who actually sleeps inside, that distinction can be lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Emergency Management (DEM) did not provide data on how many people may be living in vehicles they do not own, nor did they clarify what options exist for secondary occupants once a registered owner exits the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Mercado, the consequence is immediate: he has no roof over his head. Without the RV, he says memories of his early days in the U.S. resurface \u2014 standing in the rain with only his passport after his belongings were confiscated at the border and sleeping on the streets after exiting the immigration detention center, while battling pneumonia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, as the program has ended for him, he fears reliving it all over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey make it difficult, even when one wants to better oneself and not be a burden,\u201d Mercado said. \u201cThe immigrant doesn\u2019t want to be a burden. But they become a burden. Why?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the last minute, a friend from church offered him a lifeline: a broken-down car to sleep in, parked in El Sobrante in the East Bay. It kept him off the sidewalk, but pushed him into a life he didn’t choose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kathia Z., 30, who was eight months pregnant, holds Yerservi M.\u2019s hand on her belly outside their RV in San Francisco\u2019s Bayview\u2013Hunters Point neighborhood on Nov. 7, 2025. Photo: Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote\/CatchLight Local<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A promise of housing, a return to temporary shelter<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Kathia Z., who recently gave birth to her first child, believed the permit program would provide her family with a lasting housing opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kathia and her husband had repeatedly been denied<\/a> a Large Vehicle Refuge Permit. Then, in December \u2014 after El Tecolote’s<\/em> reporting on allegations that a Homeless Outreach Team worker sold permits for cash<\/a> \u2014 they were placed in a hotel for 90 days through the city\u2019s shelter program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kathia said an outreach worker made her a clear promise: stay at the hotel and then you will qualify for an apartment. \u201cWhen two or three months pass, we’re going to place you in a permanent place,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kathia said she was also told that giving up the RV would help her qualify for permanent housing through the LVRP program and its buyback option. Instead, the same day they moved into the hotel \u2014 Dec. 19 \u2014 the vehicle was towed. The family has since been unable to locate it and retrieve all their personal belongings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three days later, on Dec. 23, Kathia gave birth to her son via emergency C-section. “The baby was tangled in the cord,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Melissa Millsaps, an investigator with the City Attorney\u2019s Office, and Eric Karsseboom, an inspector with the District Attorney\u2019s Office, speak with Yerservi M. about a Homeless Outreach Team worker accused of illegally selling him a Large Vehicle Refuge Permit in San Francisco on Dec. 17, 2025. Photo: Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote\/CatchLight Local<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

On Feb. 19, Kathia, her husband and their newborn were moved into another shelter run by Compass, where they could remain for another 90 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Kathia recently asked her social worker about transitioning to permanent housing, the answer was bleak. She was told that permanent placements are now largely reserved for people with disabilities, serious illnesses, or addictions \u2014 the very factors that score highest on the Coordinated Entry System, an assessment that determines who qualifies for housing. For her family, a permanent home was “very unlikely.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contrast with other RV families is stark. Kathia said she knows of another family who, through the program, had their RV paid off and were placed in a home for two years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Why not us?” she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer, she was told, lies in the scam she never asked to be part of. When Kathia pressed for more help from the city, her outreach worker told her they no longer qualified for certain programs because they had obtained an “illegal sticker.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the scams continue. The Coalition on Homelessness said it recently received another call from an RV resident, reporting a permit was offered to him for cash. While the Homeless Outreach Team worker was fired, it appears concerns about fraud persist.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Kathia Z., 30, who was eight months pregnant, stands inside the unpermitted RV she shares with her husband, Yerservi M., in San Francisco\u2019s Bayview\u2013Hunters Point neighborhood on Nov. 6, 2025. Photo: Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote\/CatchLight Local<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In a statement, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) acknowledged the allegation against the HOT outreach worker and said it is “committed to maintaining the utmost integrity” of the permitting process. However, the department did not respond to questions about the most recent scam report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Kathia’s family, reporting the fraud set off a bitter exchange. They gained a temporary hotel room, but lost their RV, their belongings and security. They remain in limbo, caught in the fallout of the alleged scam, still waiting for the stability that they were promised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI asked to at least return the RV, or help me find something stable,\u201d Kathia said. \u201cI\u2019m thinking, \u2018do we have to leave San Francisco?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her family\u2019s case highlights one of the key tensions in the rollout: while the permit program is designed to transition residents out of vehicular homelessness, some families say they have instead cycled through temporary placements without securing long-term stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City officials stress that the permit program is not the only gateway to assistance. “The permit is not a prerequisite to receive services,” said Jackie Thornhill, communications manager for the Department of Emergency Management. Anyone experiencing homelessness is “still eligible to engage with city outreach workers,\u201d receive problem-solving assistance and potential shelter or housing placement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as El Tecolote\u2019s<\/em> reporting<\/a> has documented, eligibility is far from a guarantee. According to city data, from July 2024 to May 2025, 1,826 families were assessed for rental support. Only 30 \u2014 less than 1.6% \u2014 were placed into housing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Kathia’s family, that math means the promise of stability remains just out of reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bob Kauffman, 70, closes the blinds of his RV in San Francisco on Jan. 21, 2026. His vehicle has been towed three times since the rollout of the city\u2019s Large Vehicle Refuge Permit Program, as he navigates the two-hour parking law aimed at removing RVs from city streets. Photo: Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote\/CatchLight Local<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mounting fines and towing pushes residents to the brink<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For residents who remain outside the permit system, the two-hour rule has translated into mounting fines and repeated towing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bob Kauffman, 70, vividly remembers a parking control officer telling him, \u201cWe\u2019re going to come get you tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next day, his RV was towed, requiring two trucks to haul it away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kauffman has three vehicle homes: two RVs and a shuttle bus. All the vehicles have mechanical issues except the bus, but all are registered under his name and paid off, he said. One of his RV\u2019s housed his friend \u2014 an 80-year-old mechanic with memory issues. But thieves have repeatedly tried breaking into the vehicles, damaging ignition systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bob Kauffman, 70, rests inside his van in San Francisco, Calif., on Jan. 20, 2026. Photo: Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote\/CatchLight Local<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Since enforcement began, Kauffman says he has spent roughly $4,000 on impound and towing fees. Even with a low-income waiver, he pays just over $100 per impound, plus approximately $700 to transport the vehicle back to its parking spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citywide, the two-hour ordinance has generated 631 citations at $108 each, which is worth $68,148, according to the public dashboard.<\/a> But that figure captures only one slice of enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even before the two-hour rule took effect in November, San Francisco was towing RVs at a steady pace. According to city data, from June to November \u2014 as the city was preparing to roll out the Large Vehicle Refuge Permit program \u2014 police towed 152 RVs for expired registration and violation of the 72-hour rule. Nearly 40% of all tows were for registration issues alone, providing another tool for the city to clear RVs from its streets without offering housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kauffman said he was only able to secure one permit sticker. Because the city issues one permit per vehicle and does not allow multiple permits for one person, his 80-year old friend was displaced from one of the unpermitted RVs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s sleeping in his car now,\u201d Kauffman said. \u201cHe\u2019s old \u2014 very old.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bob Kauffman, 70, relocates his RV to another street to avoid getting towed again by the city, in San Francisco, Calif., on Jan. 21, 2026. Kauffman has been towed three times since the city\u2019s Large Vehicle Refuge Permit Program, and has been navigating new parking restrictions that aim to eliminate RVs in the city. Since his RV is inoperable, he\u2019s had to pay $700 to tow it out of the city\u2019s tow-yard, and paying $107 in San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority fees. Photo: Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote\/CatchLight Local<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In response, DEM\u2019s Jackie Thornhill said \u201done individual cannot occupy multiple vehicles, and therefore should not be issued multiple permits.\u201d Thornhill did not comment on how the city addresses situations where vehicles are used as shared shelter among friends or relatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, the 70-year-old has adapted to enforcement by changing his strategy on where he parks his other RV. In early February, someone smashed the windows and ransacked the RV. He then had it towed across the city line to Daly City, hoping to avoid more problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He implores the city to change the LVRP rules, so more people can be met where they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow has anything changed since that program? We\u2019re just paying the costs,\u201d said Kauffman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kauffman is not the only one. The Coalition on Homelessness is hearing often from people getting towed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jennifer Friedenbach, the coalition’s director, described one recent case: an in-home care worker who was at his job \u2014 caring for someone else’s home \u2014 when his own home was towed away. His dog was inside. “The dog didn’t get hurt, but that’s very dangerous because all the stuff falls down,” she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man, who had $60 to his name, needed $107 to get his RV back. He asked the Coalition about shelter options, but with shelter waitlists stretching months long, there was nothing they could offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\nLeft:<\/strong> Jos\u00e9 Ar\u00e1mbula, 48, stands outside his RV in San Francisco on Nov. 11, 2025. Photo: Pablo Unzueta for El Tecolote\/CatchLight Local \nRight:<\/strong> After his RV was towed, Ar\u00e1mbula and his pitbull, Kira, now live in a small car in San Francisco\u2019s Mission District on March 6, 2026. He plans to sell the car\u2014the only shelter he has left\u2014to save enough to buy another RV. Photo: Erika Carlos for El Tecolote\n<\/figcaption>\n\n\n\n

Jos\u00e9 Ar\u00e1mbula, 48, experienced a similar loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last Wednesday, the trailer he had been sleeping in was towed in the Mission District. Ar\u00e1mbula could not obtain a permit for his RV, despite his multiple appeals<\/a> and living in San Francisco in his vehicle for nearly a decade. He had been visiting a friend nearby when neighbors called to warn him a tow truck had arrived. Ar\u00e1mbula said he rushed over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I got there, it was gone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His beloved pitbull, Kira, had been inside the vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery time they take one, they take everything,\u201d Ar\u00e1mbula said. \u201cThey give you a phone number to recover your things, but nobody ever answers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said losing documents during previous tows has made it difficult to replace his identification or recover his belongings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy IDs were in there. My clothes. Everything,\u201d he said. \u201cYou lose it all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ar\u00e1mbula said he was able to retrieve Kira, but not his belongings. He now has only the clothes he was wearing and is sleeping in his small car with his dog. He said he plans to sell the vehicle in hopes of saving enough money to buy another RV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey promise help when everything is happening,\u201d he said. \u201cBut once things calm down, they forget about the people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jos\u00e9 Ar\u00e1mbula smiles at his pitbull, Kira, who sleeps in the car with him on March 6, 2026. Days earlier, the RV he had been living in was towed from San Francisco\u2019s Mission District with Kira still inside. He was able to retrieve his dog but lost his IDs, clothes and most of his belongings. Photo: Erika Carlos for El Tecolote<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Friedenbach also noted that despite the program budgeting funds for parking signage, many warning signs have yet to appear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ordinance<\/a> states the city intended to install 400 signs warning drivers of the new enforcement zones. But parking control officers no longer chalk tires to warn residents of time limits, she said, meaning many people don’t know they’re at risk of being towed until it’s too late. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This idea that they needed to hammer people and scare them in order to push them into housing is silly,\u201d she said. \u201cThere’s nothing positive about the rest of the program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gap to widen as permits begin to expire<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

LVRP permits are set to expire by April but could be extended for up to six additional months for eligible residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe city is currently making arrangements for extensions for those vehicles and will work directly with permitted occupants on the process,\u201d wrote DEM\u2019s Jackie Thornhill in an email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advocates say that’s not enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Coalition on Homelessness is calling on the city to follow the LVRP legislation’s requirement for “automatic renewal” without a new application process \u2014 and to keep renewing permits every six months until residents secure housing. They also want the city to reopen the permit process for people who were left out and people who have become homeless after the qualifying date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Our affordability crisis is going nowhere,” said Friedenbach. “We’re going to continue having folks who rely on RVs to shelter themselves. The city needs to plan for that.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Latino residents, she said, additional barriers compounded the problem: few Spanish-speaking outreach workers, schedules that conflicted with work, and heightened fear of Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) after recent federal raids. “Folks are nervous about answering their doors,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As permits begin to expire this spring, the uneven outcomes of the rollout are likely to become more visible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Mercado, the stakes could not be higher. His asylum case hangs in the balance. He is required to check in with ICE in June, but with no stable place to live and no money for a lawyer, he doesn’t know how he will manage it. One misstep could mean deportation to a country he fled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is no one who advocates for the immigrants who are on the streets, who are surviving \u2014 not at the government\u2019s expense,\u201d he said. \u201cBut through their own survival.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s Note: This story was first published in print on March 19, 2026, and has been updated to reflect the city\u2019s most recent data.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Miguel Mercado, 58, opens the door to his RV parked along Treat Avenue in San Francisco\u2019s Mission District on Feb. 12, 2026. Mercado, an immigrant from Nicaragua, began experiencing homelessness after arriving in the United States. Photo: Yesica Prado for El Tecolote<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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