San Mateo isn’t enforcing RV parking regulations

Johnson and Victoria Asfour are part of the city’s homeless outreach team that tries to connect individuals and families to services that could help them secure housing. While some are receptive to the offers, it can be particularly difficult to connect those living in RVs.

“Most don’t want our services, mainly because they don’t feel like they are homeless or they don’t prefer going to a shelter over their current situation,” Johnson said. “The ones who do accept our services are typically people who are local, and they just can’t afford housing. But it’s a very small percentage that does actively work with us.”

While the city does have some ordinances that regulate RV habitation — such as prohibiting sleeping in vehicles and removing vehicles parked in the same spot for extended periods of time — the city hasn’t been enforcing the regulations for several years.

But that could change in the near future. The lack of enforcement was discussed at a council meeting May 5, when the City Council supported an effort to prioritize a reevaluation of its current nonenforcement approach.

“There are ordinances on the books that do address RVs that we can enforce. We don’t enforce those now because that’s not been the city’s policy for the last several years,” Police Chief Ed Barberini said.

Mayor Rob Newsom suggested that heightened enforcement in cities to the north and south of San Mateo isn’t helping.

“There’s been a big increase in RVs in San Mateo. … It’s significantly higher since San Francisco and San Jose have implemented bans and started doing enforcement against RVs,” Newsom said. “It’s something we want to make sure we are compassionate about, but also we don’t want to be on the receiving end of the fact that they’re enforcing laws that we also have but we’re not.”

But Junior, who didn’t provide his last name, was a San Mateo resident even before moving full time to his RV, which he has been living in for about two years. Even though he has a job working in landscaping and gardening, he still isn’t able to support himself like he used to.

“I lived in a house before this but [moved out] due to the rent situation,” he said in Spanish.

Johnson said he and Asfour are also in the process of evaluating a growing number of RVs that seem to be parked for storage purposes without anyone living in them full time.

“There are some cases where they’re just being stored there, but there are also people who live in multifamily units, who live in a large place and need a break to get away,” Johnson said.

In the meantime, they’re trying to inform as many RV dwellers as possible that just because enforcement isn’t happening now doesn’t mean it won’t happen soon.

“We just give general education and let people know there isn’t enforcement right now, but there is potential in the future that there could be … and we let them know it’s probably not the best idea to stay for a long period of time,” Johnson said.