Breed gets tough on illegal RV encampments in SF
Image by KTVU
SF City staff has started towing RVs from a controversial encampment near the San Francisco Zoo. The move is part of Mayor Breed's commitment to get more "aggressive" about addressing inhumane, illegal, and unsafe homeless encampments. SF Standard is on the story.
Some of the two dozen RVs in an encampment that was ousted last week from Winston Drive near Stonestown Galleria and relocated to a street near the San Francisco Zoo were towed away by officials Thursday morning while the remaining vehicles were tagged with 72-hour parking rule notices.
Four police officers, two tow trucks and three parking control officers took away two vehicles, said Gabriel Medina, head of La Raza Community Resource Center. A third was in the process of being towed away just before 11 a.m.
“They have been offered a hotel room and a two- to five-year voucher for rapid rehousing,” Supervisor Myrna Melgar, who represents the area, said. The voucher is similar to those under Section 8, which can be taken to any private or nonprofit landlord to offset rent.
The encampment faces opposition from nearby Pomeroy Recreation & Rehabilitation Center, a nonprofit that has served people with severe and moderate disabilities since the 1950s. On Monday, CEO David Dubinsky called on the organization’s clients to ask Mayor London Breed and Melgar for the encampment be relocated.
Melgar proposed last week that Zoo Road be reconfigured to allow people living in vehicles with children to stay in what would be, in essence, a safe parking site, a specialized shelter. City Hall has been trying to establish a safe parking site on the city’s west side for about three years but has been unable to find a suitable location. The mayor’s office opposes the idea.
People living in vehicles make up one-third of San Francisco’s unsheltered homeless population. The number has grown significantly over the last few years, reaching more than 700 vehicles and 1,400 people, according to city data.
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