Local
Seattle approves new RV permits and 72-hour parking limit
A six-ordinance package will require people living in large vehicles to get a permit to park more than two hours and move every 72 hours. Advocates warn the rules could push residents out of Seattle unless safe parking and housing services expand.
The Seattle City Council approved a package of six ordinances Tuesday, Oct. 20, that will require people living in RVs and trailers to obtain a permit to park for more than two hours and move their vehicles at least every 72 hours, even with a permit.
The rules, sponsored by Councilmember Dan Strauss, are intended to address sanitation and livability complaints in industrial neighborhoods while expanding outreach and services for people living in vehicles. The two most contentious measures, including the permit system, passed 6-3.
People seeking permits will have to be included in a one-time count of vehicle residents, maintain valid vehicle registration and keep their vehicles in habitable condition. Permits could be revoked after six refusals of shelter offers deemed appropriate. Those requirements may exclude residents whose vehicles are unregistered or considered too damaged to be habitable.
Strauss said limiting eligibility to the one-time count is deliberate, arguing that an open-ended system could draw RV residents from elsewhere in the region. He said he did not want Seattle to become a destination for people living in vehicles.
Homelessness advocates say the rules could function as a ban by making it difficult for many current residents to qualify. Graham Pruss, executive director of the National Vehicle Residency Coalition, warned that people displaced from Seattle could be pushed into communities beyond the city limits.
The Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness urged the council to reject four of the six measures. The coalition objected to spending money on eight additional enforcement staff, saying those funds would be better directed to outreach. It supported more outreach funding and designated city parking where people entering shelter could keep their vehicles.
Seattle currently has no operating safe lot for vehicle residents. The Low Income Housing Institute’s Salmon Bay lot closed in May 2025. Its planned Glassyard Commons site is expected to open in November, with space for 72 vehicles and 20 tiny houses. Mayor Katie Wilson included funding for a second safe lot in her budget proposal, and Strauss said he is sponsoring an amendment to retain that funding.
The planned lots would serve only a portion of the people living in vehicles in the region. University of Washington researchers estimated that nearly 4,000 people across King County live in vehicles on a typical night, including more than 600 in large vehicles such as RVs.
Tiffany Taylor, a former resident of the Salmon Bay safe lot, said the program allowed her to keep her trailer, but she had to give it up when the site closed. She later moved into a tiny house and was evicted after installing an unauthorized air-conditioning unit, leaving her homeless again. Taylor said the new system needs to ensure residents are not simply moved along without support. “They need to do a better job of making sure that people are really taken care of and not just cycled out and left with nothing,” she said.
Wilson has not taken an official position on the legislation and has raised concerns about the cost of implementing the permit system. She could veto the measures, but the council has enough votes to override a veto, according to the reported vote count.