Lake Merced RV dwellers ramp up protest as long-feared eviction looms

They’ve been asking city officials to help them relocate to a city-backed safe parking site for years. But now time is quickly running out for the dozens of families living in RVs along Winston Drive near Lake Merced as the city prepares to begin a road improvement project sometime next month.

Facing impending displacement, the residents and their advocates staged a rally Tuesday morning in a last-ditch effort to press their demands and ask the city to reconsider its plans.

“We’re asking for help,” said a woman who identified herself as Yamilet as she stood among fellow residents holding up placards. “We’re pleading for help because we have nowhere else to go. Once they evict us from here, we’re going to go to the streets.”

Advocates estimate that roughly 60 households are living in RVs along Winston Drive and its cross street, Buckingham Way. Dozens more live along nearby Lake Merced Boulevard.

Those living in the cluster of RVs have become a tight-knit community made up largely of Spanish-speaking immigrants, many of whom lost their housing during the economic turmoil of the pandemic.

Last year, those living along Winston Drive were put on notice after the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority proposed a four-hour parking limit along the roadway , a plan requested by Supervisor Myrna Melgar and later approved by the agency’s board in September.

The signs for the parking restriction went up in April but are not yet being enforced.

First, SFMTA plans to repave Winston Drive as part of a broader road-safety project aimed at slowing traffic along Lake Merced Boulevard , portions of which have been plagued by a high rate of traffic injuries and fatalities.

Before the road work begins sometime in July, those living in RVs will be notified that their vehicles will be towed if they are not moved.

While The City has been working to identify a place to locate a safe parking site for RV dwellers on San Francisco’s west side, so far those efforts have been unsuccessful.

“Despite assessing dozens of sites over the past two years, to date, we have been unable to identify an appropriate property for a safe parking program,” the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing said in a statement.

In the meantime, the department has been offering other housing options to residents. According to the agency, it is in active contact with 70 families living in the area, offering many of them housing vouchers as well as other support services.

However, some residents are still reluctant to abandon their RVs, especially given that many of those vouchers would only cover housing for a temporary duration.

“Their fear is that if they go to something temporary they’re going to end up in the streets again,” said Yessica Hernandez, a peer organizer with the Coalition on Homelessness who helped stage Tuesday’s rally. “Families need long-term permanent solutions.”

Others who have received the vouchers said that they have been unable to find any landlords willing to accept them. That’s the case for Jessica Coello, who said in Spanish that she has been searching for an apartment for three months to no avail, having applied for 15 apartments and been rejected each time.

Coello told the Examiner through an interpreter that the last year and a half spent on Winston Drive has been hard for her and her three children.

“Living here has made the kids live with a lot of stress and has changed them a lot,” she said.

Still, Coello said, with no better option yet on offer, she also fears getting pushed out “because this is a really safe community and we always take care of each other because we all have a need.”

Supervisor Myrna Melgar — whose district includes the Lake Merced area and who has been spearheading the traffic-safety improvement project — said in a statement that her office has been part of the effort to identify a safe parking site.

“I am deeply disappointed that the search has failed so far due to bureaucratic hurdles and seeming lack of prioritization,” she said.

While she expressed sympathy for those who stand to be displaced, Melgar also warned that having so many people living in RVs out on city streets poses a number of safety risks, including traffic and sanitation concerns, as well as fire dangers.

These tricky housing conundrums are faced elsewhere in The City as well.

Citywide, the number of vehicles on San Francisco streets with people residing within them surged to a high of 1,355 during the first year of the pandemic, according to an online dashboard maintained by the city. As of April, the number of such vehicles stood at 719.

For now, the residents on Winston Drive and their advocates are promising to continue protesting.

“We’re just asking the city for some time for the programs that have provided some resources or help,” said Coello. “We need some time to look for apartments. That’s what we’ve been asking for.”