San Francisco (AP) – San Francisco has banned homeless people from living in RV by accepting strict new parking restrictions that the mayor says are needed to keep the sidewalks clear and prevent garbage accumulation.
The policy, which has received final approval from the supervisory authorities in San Francisco on Tuesday, is aimed at at least 400 recreation vehicles in the city of 800,000 people. RVS serves as a shelter for people who cannot afford a home, including immigrant families with children.
Those who live in them say they are a necessary option in an expensive city where it is impossible to find accessible apartments. But Mayor Daniel Luri and other supporters of politics say that motor homes are not suitable for long -term life and the city is obliged to provide shelter for those in need and clean the streets.
“We absolutely want to serve those families, those who are in a crisis in San Francisco,” says Kuna Modi, who advises the mayor of health, homelessness and family services. “We feel the responsibility of helping them to come to a stable decision. And at the same time, we want to make sure that this stability is indoors and is not exposed to the public road.”
However, critics of the plan say it is cruel to force people to give up their only home in exchange for a shot in traditional homes, when there are almost enough units for all people who need help; The mayor only offers extra money to help 65 households.
Jennifer Friedenbach, CEO of the homelessness Coalition, says urban officials are lagging terrible in establishing details of a accompanying permits program that will release RV residents from parking restrictions as long as they work with homeless employees to find housing.
“I think there will be people who lose their RV. I think there will be people who are able to enter a shelter, but at the expense of” people with higher needs, such as those who sleep on the sidewalk, “she said.
San Francisco, like other cities in the United States, has observed an explosion in recent years of people living outside vehicles and RVs as the cost of living has increased. The prohibition of oversized vehicles is part of Lurie’s promise to clean the streets in San Francisco and part of the increasing tendency to require homeless people to accept shelter or risk -arresting or towing.
Strict new rules
On Tuesday, about three dozen people gathered outside the mayoralty and gloomily passed through the building, hoping to influence the supervisory authorities to vote against the measure. But this cleared the advice of the supervisory authorities with two out of 11 supervisors who voted no. The supervisors did not make any comments.
The proposal sets a two-hour parking limit throughout the city for all RV and oversized vehicles longer than 22 feet (7 meters) or higher than 7 feet (2 meters), whether they are used as a dwelling.
According to the accompanying permits program, RV residents registered in the city since May have been released from the parking boundaries. In return, they must accept the city’s proposal for temporary or long -term homes and get rid of their RV when it is time to move. The city has provided more than half a million dollars to buy RV from residents of $ 175 per leg.
Permissions will last six months. People in RV who arrive after May will not be entitled to the Permit Program and must comply with the two -hour rule, which makes it impossible for the family to live within the city.
RV residents cannot afford rent
The 55 -year -old Carlos Perez was among the residents of RV, who told the supervisory authorities this month that they could not afford the high rents in the city. Perez works full -time as a supplier of production and supports his brother, who lives with him and is unable to work due to disability.
“We are doing nothing wrong. We are trying to keep this street clean,” he said, as he recently showed his RV to an Associated Press journalist. “It’s not easy to be in place.”
Still, Perez also loves where he lives. The green RV color is decorated with a homemade joint and has a sink and a tiny stove on which Carlos enchanted beans soup recently afternoon.
He has lived in San Francisco for more than 30 years, for about a decade of which he has been in RV in the Bayview neighborhood of the working class. He can go to work and is close to the hospital where his brother receives dialysis several times a week.
Zack Bonynger began to live in the vehicle ten years ago, after he realized that as much as he worked, he was still struggling to pay rent.
He now works as a driving driver and pursues his love for photography. He parks near Lake Mercid in the city near the Pacific and pays $ 35 every two to four weeks to properly discard the waste and fill the vehicle with fresh water.
He says Luri’s plan is my short -sighted. There is not enough housing and many prefer to live in RV because of staying in a shelter, which may have restrictive rules.
For Bolinger, which is difficult, maintains a clean space and has no dependent, moving to a shelter would be a step down, he says. However, he expects to obtain permission.
“If the homes were available, there is a very good chance of not being here,” he said.
City recently closed his only batch RV
RVs RV say San Francisco has to open a safe parking lot where residents can empty garbage and have access to electricity. But the city authorities closed Lot RV in April, saying it cost about $ 4 million a year to serve three dozen large vehicles and failed to switch people to more stable housing.
The mayor’s new offer comes with more money to apply RV parking, but also an additional $ 11 million, largely for a small number of households to move to subsidized homes for several years.
Officials acknowledge that it may not be sufficient to accommodate all RV residents, but notes that the city also has vouchers for hotels and other residential subsidies.
Erika Kish, CEO of the non -profit Compass Family Services, who supports the families of the homeless, says that they do not support the criminal nature of the proposal but are grateful for the additional resources.
“The confession is that households do not have to live in vehicles, that we have to do better for families, as well as for the elderly and for anyone else who lives in a vehicle,” she said. “San Francisco can do better, for sure.”