As of late 2025, San Francisco’s newly implemented restrictions on RV dwellings are being enforced, with the City telling RV owners: Move it or Lose it. Large vehicles are now restricted to a two-hour limit in any single location, with towing and citations beginning for violators. The ordinance, passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors over the summer, aims to curb “vehicular homelessness” by banning long-term RV dwelling on city streets.
This comprehensive initiative includes a “Large Vehicle Refuge Permit” program that may grant temporary permits (with a six-month duration) to allow vehicles to remain parked without immediate enforcement, provided they are actively engaged with the city Street Team Outreach for certification, check eligibility via an online form, and potentially attend community events, with the goal of accessing services and housing while adhering to rules like waste disposal and noise limits.
Additionally, the city offers to purchase RVs from residents at a set rate based on linear footage of the vehicle as an incentive to relinquish the RV and move into traditional, indoor housing. The law sets aside millions of dollars for outreach, rapid rehousing vouchers, shelter, enforcement, and buybacks.
Dubbed “Breaking the Cycle,” the vision is one of the most significant policy shifts to address homelessness, addiction, and government failures to respond to these intractable issues adequately.
With hundreds of people needing to transition from vehicle living into a more stable living situation, this creates both uncertainty and opportunity for landlords.
San Francisco is inviting landlords and property managers to partner up with the City to connect private market rental owners and households transitioning out of large vehicles. Here are some key incentives offered to interested housing providers:
Earn one month’s rent to hold a vacant unit while the City matches a household through the Large Vehicle Rapid ReHousing (LV RRH).
Housing providers get guaranteed payments, dedicated housing support services, and a Unit Hold option once a household is matched with a rental unit with a monthly rent that falls below the amount set forward by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in their Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs), guidelines which are adjusted every year. These thresholds will vary by zip code.
Take the Mission District, for example, which has the 94110 zip code. Based on HUD guidelines, rent limits would be:
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$2,120 for a studio apartment
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$2,540 for a one-bedroom apartment
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$3,080 for a two-bedroom apartment
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$3,930 for a three-bedroom apartment
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$4,080 for a four-bedroom apartment
Landlords who successfully apply for the program and agree to hold units vacant are under no obligation to actually sign a lease with any of the large vehicle dwellers who may apply; participating housing providers will collect the fee regardless. This may be appealing to property owners as it allows them to maintain cash flow while a matchmaking process, coordinated by Catholic Charities, ensures the housing arrangement is a good fit. The payment is made once the unit is leased, or the unit's hold of 1 month expires.
Once a rental unit is available within the City’s network, its nonprofit partners will support housing providers with viewing and scheduling viewings and leasing the rental. With a burgeoning demand, this process is expected to move quickly. Once the lease is signed and the documents are gathered, partners will pay the monthly rental subsidy.
However, interested landlords and property managers must be clear-eyed about the program.
For one, the unit must be in move-in-ready condition and pass a habitability inspection. Secondly, the landlord must be open to renting an LV RRH participant with a subsidy. Finally, we are getting word from the Mayor’s Office that housing providers cannot deny tenancies to RV dwellers based on source of income or credit alone. Let’s expand on this final point.
Landlords are prohibited from using a rental applicant’s credit history or source of income when the prospective tenant has a housing voucher in hand.
California law, primarily through Senate Bill 267 (SB 267), substantially restricts housing providers from using credit checks as a sole determinant for Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) recipients. Landlords are obligated to accept alternative proof of income, like pay stubs, bank statements, and evidence of government benefits, to demonstrate the applicant’s ability to pay their portion of the rent. This 2024 law was designed to reduce discrimination against subsidized renters and expand their housing access. The subsidy itself is treated as a guaranteed income source, reducing the weight of past credit issues.
Candidly, Bornstein Law was not all that bothered by SB 267 because we naturally expect rental applicants with a housing voucher to have a checkered credit history or lack of income. Our main concern was that landlords and property owners were unaware of the criteria to evaluate Section 8 rental applicants, and would summarily reject them, potentially leading to a costly discrimination lawsuit.
In an “oldie but goodie,” our founding attorney, Daniel Bornstein, explained the perils of violating fair housing laws and the very real possibility that opportunistic attorneys would “shake down” landlords and their agents who improperly shoo away Section 8 tenants, a premonition that came to pass.
Our thoughts, for what it’s worth.
We should all agree with the public policy sentiment that motor homes are not suitable for long-term living and that San Francisco needs to clean up the streets. In a season of giving, housing providers who want to be part of the solution should consider working with the City to do their part in solving a vexing problem that impacts all of us in the community.
Our concern is that there will be limited participation by landlords and property managers. Anecdotal evidence suggests that only a “handful” of housing providers have self-selected into the program, and we suspect this anemic participation is owed to three things:
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Landlords and property managers are not aware of the initiative.
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Housing providers do not want to go through a bureaucratic process to rent a vacant unit at below market rate, especially in a landlord’s market when San Francisco rents are on the uptick.
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Reluctance to rent to tenants without strong economic credentials.
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A perception - whether misguided or not – that housing voucher recipients are more prone to create damage to the unit or create nuisances.
We know that many of you in the landlording community have a love-hate relationship with housing voucher programs. During times of an economic resurgence, as we have recently witnessed in the Bay Area, there is less appeal to receive a steady-drip, subsidized rent payment. Conversely, in periods of economic downturn and uncertainty, many housing providers gravitate towards the reliable income of getting paid by Uncle Sam.
Our role is not to make this judgment call, but to advise rental property owners and their agents on their options and alert them to this opportunity.
For those housing providers who are intrigued by San Francisco’s regime to transition RV dwellers into a more stable arrangement, it is initiated by raising your hand and expressing an interest in becoming involved.
The carefully choreographed steps are outlined here.