SF supervisors, MTA cut deal to reduce city’s towing charges

The cost of retrieving a towed vehicle in San Francisco will drop by $111.25 — to $380 — under an agreement reached Thursday between the Board of Supervisors and the Metropolitan Transportation Agency.

[...] for the first time, there will be an amnesty program so that low-income people may retrieve their vehicles for $294.

The issue of tow charges arose because the MTA needs the supervisors to sign off on a $65.4 million, five-year contract extension with tow company AutoReturn.

The administrative fee helps fund a variety of expenses not related to towing, including part of MTA Director Ed Reiskin’s salary.

The deal marks a major success for critics of the tow fees who say the charges are unduly burdensome for poor people, who risk losing their cars because they can’t pay the fees.

The low-income discount will apply to anyone who qualifies for a public-benefit program, such as Medi-Cal, low-income housing, the Healthy San Francisco program or the Section 8 housing voucher program.

Elisa Della-Piana, legal director for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco, said it’s really exciting to see some progress on this.

Supervisor Scott Wiener has warned that reducing the tow charges will mean less funding for Muni, and MTA representatives have said it could impact their ability to provide free Muni travel for youth and seniors.

MTA spokesman Paul Rose said the proposal “aims to lessen the burden on drivers who are towed and, if approved, we will determine how this impacts other services within our budget in the coming weeks.”