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How to Turn a Free Parking Space Into a Subsidized Hotel

Want to cash in on prime San Francisco real estate that the city gives away for free? Some enterprising van owner shows how it's done on AirBnB, where a listing offers a rentable camper parked on the public right of way for the budget-conscious traveler.

Want to cash in on prime San Francisco real estate that the city gives away for free? Some enterprising van owner shows how it’s done on AirBnB, where a listing offers a rentable camper parked on the public right of way for the budget-conscious traveler.

That’s right — someone has figured out how to make a killing by charging $92 a night ($480 for a whole week) for the use of this vehicle, while paying absolutely no form of rent, mortgage, property tax, or other cost associated with controlling real estate. It’s just a subsidized mobile hotel.

The city is actually starting to shoo out RVs with overnight parking restrictions on large vehicles, but only because they’re encroaching upon car-owning residents, who are apparently more entitled to store their vehicles in that space than homeless people are.

As we all know, storing private property like, say, a locker on the street is illegal, but that doesn’t apply to automobiles (so long as they don’t double as housing). And most elected officials are perfectly okay with that.

(h/t to Mike Sonn)

Photo of Aaron Bialick
Aaron was the editor of Streetsblog San Francisco from January 2012 until October 2015. He joined Streetsblog in 2010 after studying rhetoric and political communication at SF State University and spending a semester in Denmark.

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