Yesica Prado
@pradoreports.bsky.social
Bilingual Investigative Reporter & Photojournalist
@eltecolotesf.bsky.social |📩 yesica@eltecolote.org | Read my reporting: https://muckrack.com/yesica-prado-2
@eltecolotesf.bsky.social |📩 yesica@eltecolote.org | Read my reporting: https://muckrack.com/yesica-prado-2
The core failure: San Francisco is enforcing rules that are impossible to follow, based on data it knows is flawed, without the infrastructure to help. Advocates say it's a policy that criminalizes basic human needs.
🔎Read the full investigation: eltecolote.org/content/en/s...
🔎Read the full investigation: eltecolote.org/content/en/s...
SF’s RV towing blitz has begun. These are its biggest failures
San Francisco’s RV towing has begun. Internal records show shifting rules, scant infrastructure and hundreds of families at risk.
eltecolote.org
November 11, 2025 at 8:08 PM
The core failure: San Francisco is enforcing rules that are impossible to follow, based on data it knows is flawed, without the infrastructure to help. Advocates say it's a policy that criminalizes basic human needs.
🔎Read the full investigation: eltecolote.org/content/en/s...
🔎Read the full investigation: eltecolote.org/content/en/s...
The city is moving fast to tow. A draft budget allocates $560,000 for enforcement. Yet when asked to explain the budget, lack of a grace period amid policy changes, or the criteria for the vehicle count, the Mayor's Office and the Department of Emergency Management did not provide comment.
November 11, 2025 at 8:07 PM
The city is moving fast to tow. A draft budget allocates $560,000 for enforcement. Yet when asked to explain the budget, lack of a grace period amid policy changes, or the criteria for the vehicle count, the Mayor's Office and the Department of Emergency Management did not provide comment.
Even those with permits aren't safe from other parking rules. Every day, Marlon comes home from work & checks if his RV has been cited or towed. He has lived in San Francisco for decades, but the new policy offers no refuge at all.
“I have to keep moving,” he said. “I have no other choice.”
“I have to keep moving,” he said. “I have no other choice.”
November 11, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Even those with permits aren't safe from other parking rules. Every day, Marlon comes home from work & checks if his RV has been cited or towed. He has lived in San Francisco for decades, but the new policy offers no refuge at all.
“I have to keep moving,” he said. “I have no other choice.”
“I have to keep moving,” he said. “I have no other choice.”
The permit itself is conditional. To get one, you must agree to accept the first offer of shelter/housing. Refuse, and your permit is revoked. But only 150 new slots were created for RV residents despite hundreds of people being found in May.
The math doesn't add up.
The math doesn't add up.
November 11, 2025 at 8:04 PM
The permit itself is conditional. To get one, you must agree to accept the first offer of shelter/housing. Refuse, and your permit is revoked. But only 150 new slots were created for RV residents despite hundreds of people being found in May.
The math doesn't add up.
The math doesn't add up.
The city’s “Good Neighbor” rules of the permit also require something that doesn’t exist in San Francisco: a public dump station. Without it, RV residents face impossible choices: drive miles to dispose of waste, pay costly private services, or lose their permits and homes.
November 11, 2025 at 8:03 PM
The city’s “Good Neighbor” rules of the permit also require something that doesn’t exist in San Francisco: a public dump station. Without it, RV residents face impossible choices: drive miles to dispose of waste, pay costly private services, or lose their permits and homes.
Who gets left out? Our reporting found entire groups excluded from permits, including:
-People who recently arrived, fleeing immigration raids
-Those with inoperable or unregistered RVs
-Long-time residents not counted in May
-Rent RVs while seeking housing.
-Don't have a title.
-People who recently arrived, fleeing immigration raids
-Those with inoperable or unregistered RVs
-Long-time residents not counted in May
-Rent RVs while seeking housing.
-Don't have a title.
November 11, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Who gets left out? Our reporting found entire groups excluded from permits, including:
-People who recently arrived, fleeing immigration raids
-Those with inoperable or unregistered RVs
-Long-time residents not counted in May
-Rent RVs while seeking housing.
-Don't have a title.
-People who recently arrived, fleeing immigration raids
-Those with inoperable or unregistered RVs
-Long-time residents not counted in May
-Rent RVs while seeking housing.
-Don't have a title.
Internal city documents reveal chaos. City staff on proof of residency for the permit: “How far are we willing to go?” Another wrote: “I have a receipt from lunch in another city last weekend, but I don’t know if that should make me eligible for housing there.”
November 11, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Internal city documents reveal chaos. City staff on proof of residency for the permit: “How far are we willing to go?” Another wrote: “I have a receipt from lunch in another city last weekend, but I don’t know if that should make me eligible for housing there.”
The city promised refuge. Instead, we found a program built on broken promises & shaky data. In June, the Mayor’s office told the SFMTA Board that towing would only start AFTER all outreach was done and permits were issued. Yet, enforcement began Nov. 5 with only a fraction of households permitted.
November 11, 2025 at 7:54 PM
The city promised refuge. Instead, we found a program built on broken promises & shaky data. In June, the Mayor’s office told the SFMTA Board that towing would only start AFTER all outreach was done and permits were issued. Yet, enforcement began Nov. 5 with only a fraction of households permitted.