City of San Diego may stop towing cars with expired registration

A proposal to change the city of San Diego’s car-towing policies jumped a key hurdle at city hall this week.

The Public Safety Committee advanced a plan to stop towing vehicles with tags that expired less than six months ago. The proposal still requires full council approval.

Expired registration is the top reason vehicles are towed at the hands of the city. San Diego city staff, however, said that the practice disproportionately impacts vulnerable residents, including low-income San Diegans, students and people who live in their cars.

“We want to make sure that those people can get to work and get their kids to school, can get groceries, and that they’re not suffering even further,” J’nyka Faulkner, of Alliance San Diego said.

A man named Michael who NBC 7 spoke with said he lives in his truck, which is currently parked in Mission Bay. He said people fall into a vicious cycle in which their vehicle gets ticketed or towed because of expired registration, and any money they were saving to update the registration goes toward paying off the ticket or reclaiming their vehicle.

“Because of those tickets, we can’t get insurance,” Michael said. “And then you can’t finish paying off your registration ’cause you’ve got all those tickets.”

Other parking violations are still subject to towing, which Alliance hopes to see change in the future.

“It’s very important that we make sure that people don’t end up even further in homelessness and that they at least have their transportation,” Faulkner said.