Finding temporary shelter in the interim won’t be easy. As of Oct. 23, there were 377 people on the waiting list for emergency shelter in San Francisco.
With the clock now ticking, advocates for unhoused people say the city must find a solution quickly so no residents are ticketed, towed, or forced to abandon their vehicles and live on the street.
“The families on Winston Drive and Buckingham Way deserve dignity and safety, including a safe parking site and access to permanent housing,” Eleana Binder, policy manager for the homeless services nonprofit Glide, said in a written statement. “Implementing the parking restrictions without options will push them deeper into instability and homelessness.”
People like Suarez say it will be impossible to move their vehicle every four hours while at work, so they’ll have to find a new place to park to avoid the $92 parking tickets. For him, a single parking ticket is nearly half of this daily $220 paycheck.
SFMTA also noted it has payment plans for tickets, community service alternatives and discounts for people experiencing homelessness.
Jessica Coello puts a wedge under the front tire of her RV after moving it for street sweeping on Winston Drive in San Francisco on Oct. 17, 2023. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
Others said they have no other option but to try to stay and move their vehicle when they can.
Jessica Coello has lived on Winston Drive for about a year with her two kids, ages 15 and 17, who go to high school in the city. Like many of her neighbors, she started living on Winston during the pandemic after she lost work. It was cheaper than paying rent and has allowed her to save up some money for her kids’ college education.
“We aren’t going to have a safe place to go, and we’ll get a lot of tickets,” she told KQED about her fears looking ahead. “If we get a lot of tickets, they’ll tow the RVs, and we won’t have anywhere to live.”
Coello, who works in childcare and housekeeping, has struggled to find regular work after the pandemic. But she wants to stay close to her children’s school so they can graduate on time. She feels lost without options.
“They don’t accept RVs anywhere. Either they are too close to the houses, and people there don’t want RVs near, or we are on the streets, and they can’t stay there,” she told KQED. “If you put restrictions, we’ll be homeless. It will be an even worse situation for us.”
Residents chant during a rally calling on San Francisco to provide safe parking sites and housing for families living in RVs near San Francisco State University at risk of eviction on Winston Drive on Oct. 24, 2023. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
Joshua Hernandez, 21, moved to an RV on Winston Drive with his girlfriend just three months ago, after it got too expensive to continue renting their apartment in Daly City. He’s working as a plumber and his girlfriend is taking classes at Skyline Community College.
“Even if we worked long days everyday, it wasn’t enough to pay our bills and still go to college. So we moved here. And it feels way better now, we can save for our future,” he told KQED outside a rally on Tuesday morning where families living in RVs were demanding the city find a safe parking site before the new rules kick in.
For many of the families parked next to him, Suarez said, the new parking limits will “pretty much force everyone out.”
But Suarez hopes he’s wrong.
