Every night before Oscar and Brandy climb back into their minivan, they plaster the windows in towels and spare blankets to hide themselves from view — though most city workers who are familiar with their faces, they say, turn a blind eye.
Technically, sleeping in a car is not legal in San Francisco — though, for now, sleeping in an RV is — as long as the vehicle’s owner is working with the city to find alternative housing. But the couple has no other choice. Oscar has been alternating between sleeping in a tent under a freeway overpass on the border between the Mission and Potrero Hill and in his girlfriend’s broken-down car ever since the mobile home they shared was towed by the city at the beginning of the month.
The couple are two of three former RV residents Mission Local interviewed who have become street homeless since San Francisco began its crackdown on people living in mobile homes on public streets, closing its last free parking site last year and implementing a two-hour parking restriction on oversize vehicles in November. But there are many more like them. In the last five months, 169 large vehicles have been towed in San Francisco, the majority of which were parked in Bayview-Hunters Point.
The mayor’s office promised that it would help RV residents secure alternative housing if they enrolled in the city’s large vehicle permit program, which offers RV residents who have parked in the city since May 2025 or before a temporary, six-month permit if they work with case managers to find housing. It hasn’t always gone smoothly: An AI chatbot designed to answer RV residents’ questions about the program was rolled out with numerous errors, and many RV dwellers say they were missed in a citywide count of RVs parked on public streets last May. Just over half of an estimated nearly 500 RVs parked on San Francisco streets enrolled in the program and received a temporary six-month parking permit and the promise of support to find permanent housing.
Five months into the parking ban, 30 percent of the 271 RV dwellers enrolled in the large vehicle permit program have been matched with housing. That’s 82 people. The rest remain in their vehicles. But for some who did not obtain a permit and have been towed, the loss of their vehicle has catapulted them into life on the street.
Several excluded from the large vehicle permit program have lost housing
The three former RV residents who now live in a car or a tent did not have a permit, and thus, are not enrolled in the city’s program to secure housing. They say they were missed in the eight-day May survey count of RVs across the city that would have automatically enrolled them. Though they each tried to appeal, they were rejected for not having a license plate or valid registration, they said.
Oscar, whose last name, along with three others, has been withheld for fear of retaliation, managed to reside in his RV for nearly six years on San Francisco streets before his mobile home was towed earlier this month. His RV had been towed before. The city allows homeless RV residents to retrieve their vehicle for free one time after it is towed. But this time, he would need to pay over $6,000 in unpaid parking tickets in addition to the retrieval fee of over $500, he said. He didn’t have the money to get it back.
Oscar removed his belongings from his vehicle before it was taken to a nearby impound lot and borrowed a small camping tent from a friend for the night, fitting as much of his clothing, cooking supplies, and documents as he could inside the tent, along with his two small dogs.
Many RV residents without a permit are desperate for one to stave off losing their mobile home and entering congregate shelter — or becoming street homeless. Three other RV residents have alleged to Mission Local that outreach workers have asked RV residents for hundreds of dollars in cash in exchange for enrolling them in the permit program.
The City Attorney’s office investigated allegations against one accused worker, Jacoby Morales, who no longer works for the city as of earlier this month, according to the city’s contractor, Heluna Health.
Imminent housing is a ‘relief’ for those enrolled in the permit program
For others who are enrolled in the city’s program, it’s been a success.
Carlos Brito, 76, is expecting to soon move into permanent supportive housing for seniors along with his caregiver Darwin, 33, who also lived with him in their RV with their four dogs. For now, Brito is living in a hotel paid for by the city with two of his dogs. Brito and Darwin have already sold their RV to the city for $3,500. It’s a temporary solution, but one that Brito said has already been a relief.
Mission Local spoke with Brito in December, when he was still waiting to hear back from his case manager as to whether he would receive housing. At the time, he was living in Darwin’s 1990s Dolphin mobile home. On the pavement, he and other nearby RV residents sat in folding chairs, eating tacos off of paper plates and stroking Brito’s pet rabbit. Brito has lived in Darwin’s RV since his mother died of ovarian cancer in August of last year — he had been living with her as her caregiver, and has struggled to find housing since.
“We’re moving into a different phase of our lives,” said Brito. “I’m tired, now it’s become just a pain.”
It’s still an adjustment — their mobile home afforded the men a level of freedom that many hotels and shelters do not provide. “There are many rules,” Darwin said of the hotel. “We can’t have any visitors.” Darwin, whose last name has been withheld, has chosen to sleep in their spare truck to watch over their other two animals. The hotel, he said, only allows for two animals. The move puts him at risk of citation or arrest until they move into permanent housing together.
According to data shared by the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, of 60 adults and families that have been housed through this program as of March 13, three are in permanent supportive housing, which provides on-site social services for people stuck in chronic homelessness and a rent of 30 percent of tenants’ monthly income. Fourteen, including Brito and Darwin, received a hotel voucher, and the majority, 43, received a rapid re-housing voucher, which provides a time-limited rental subsidy at apartments that accept the voucher.
San Francisco has offered to pay landlords one month’s rent to house RV residents who receive the voucher, though critics have argued that San Francisco, which is in the midst of a severe housing shortage, does not have the available units to house the hundreds of RV residents who will need housing. According to the data shared by the department, 40 percent of people who received a rapid rehousing voucher were housed outside of San Francisco in Daly City and Oakland.
Alan Brooks, 70, recently went on a walking tour of an apartment, and will likely move there in the coming weeks. Brooks is on parole after serving nearly 50 years in San Quentin State Prison, and is thus required to reside in San Francisco. To meet his parole restrictions, Brooks has been matched with an apartment in the city, though not everyone’s preference to stay in the city will likely be met. According to the large vehicle permit program’s regulations, if an RV resident rejects their housing offer, they will be disenrolled from the program and lose their parking privileges.
‘It’s cold’: Life on the street for former RV residents
For Oscar, Brandy, and Diego, losing their mobile home has turned their lives upside down. For Oscar and Diego, it is the first time they have lived on the street, they said. Both have lived in their RV in San Francisco for nearly a decade.
On Friday, Oscar stooped on the pavement under an overpass in a slightly stained blue T-shirt, petting the two dogs he shares with his girlfriend as she squatted over frozen waffles heating on a hot plate on the sidewalk. The clothes on his back are his only belongings at the moment, he explained. The morning after the first night he slept in a tent, his possessions were confiscated by the Department of Public Works, including his clothing and his phone. He doesn’t know how to get his belongings back, he said, or why they were taken. Diego, who called Mission Local on his friend’s phone, he said, also no longer owns a phone since his RV was towed in February.
The move has come at a cost to his pets as well — since he was towed, his dog, wandering under the overpass, was hit by a car and broke its leg. Oscar’s girlfriend quickly ordered him to put the dog back in its leg brace as it still eagerly limped toward a rubber bumblebee toy.
They’ve relied on neighbors still parked in nearby RVs for help with necessities and transportation. Soon, though, there likely won’t be many RVs left in what was once a popular parking spot, they mused.
Diego, too, has set up his tent near friends who live in an RV to sleep under a roof when it rains, or to use the generator to plug in a heater. He doesn’t know how much longer he will live in a tent, and has tried to find shelter, with no luck — it’s the first time he’s been homeless.
“It’s been hard,” he said, over the phone. “I sleep close to my friend’s RV, he keeps an eye out for me,” he said. “But I want a place — I want a nice warm place. It’s cold.”