Councilmember Dan Strauss's six-bill package regulating RV residency in Seattle, including a residential-street width ban, a permit system, and funding to move people out of vehicle homelessness.
The Seattle City Council's Public Safety Committee on Tuesday passed Councilmember Dan Strauss's package of bills that would ban RVs without permits from parking overnight on most streets. The program requires people living in RVs to park in designated areas and discuss shelter options with service providers; those who do not participate could lose their vehicles after a few warnings. Strauss said the package would encourage people to move into more stable housing.
The legislation next goes to the full City Council for a vote.
My Ballard · on Seattle's Vehicle Resident Assistance Program six-bill package
The Seattle City Council's Public Safety Committee held its first briefing on Councilmember Dan Strauss's Vehicle Resident Assistance Program package, with a committee vote scheduled for September 22 and a full council vote expected in October. The legislation directs $5 million in existing city funding toward safe lots, vehicle storage, and outreach, creates permits allowing people to keep living in motorhomes or travel trailers on city streets while awaiting shelter, and limits unpermitted motorhomes and travel trailers to two hours of street parking at a time.
Councilmember Dan Strauss's RV legislation package allocates $5 million — $1.5 million one-time and $3.5 million ongoing — and funds eight new positions, pairing a one-time permit program for people living in RVs with a ban on RV street parking from midnight to 6 a.m. and a two-hour daytime limit. Permit holders could decline up to six shelter or housing offers before losing the permit; the city's Unified Care Team has tallied 145 vehicles meeting the program's definition, a figure Strauss said he believes is an undercount. The package sets an April 30 deadline to stand up the permit program and parking restrictions, with enforcement beginning by July 31.
Strauss said he expects the public safety committee to discuss the package again on or before September 22; one safe-parking lot, Glassyard Commons in West Seattle, opens in November.
Councilmember Dan Strauss's six-bill RV package was submitted to the City Council's Public Safety Committee this week, including a measure that would ban RVs more than 6 feet 8 inches wide from residential streets starting in July 2027, restricting them to permitted overnight parking in industrial zones. Strauss said unpermitted RV residents would get three warnings before towing. Critics including We Heart Seattle and the Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness questioned the balance between the punitive and support elements of the package.
The package as announced August 7 included $5 million to move people out of vehicle homelessness, and a companion bill would cap RV residency permits near 500 people.