SF police impound homeless man’s car for unpaid parking tickets. Judge says give it back

A tow truck hauls an impounded car into a city lot near 7th and Harrison streets on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency implemented a new policy waiving the towing fees for recovered stolen cars. less A tow truck hauls an impounded car into a city lot near 7th and Harrison streets on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency implemented a new policy waiving the towing fees for ... more Photo: Kale Williams / Photo: Kale Williams / Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close SF police impound homeless man’s car for unpaid parking tickets. Judge says give it back 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A federal judge has ordered San Francisco police to return a homeless man’s car that they towed and impounded because of thousands of dollars in unpaid parking tickets that the owner couldn’t afford to pay.

Police cited a state law that allows them to tow vehicles with more than five overdue parking tickets. But U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White of Oakland said Wednesday that, unless officers have a judicial warrant, no known legal precedent “can justify the seizure and retention of a vehicle if its owner cannot afford to pay the parking tickets.”

The ruling has prompted homeless advocates to call on police to change their towing practices.

Sean Kayode, 52, was in a nearby shelter in March when officers towed the 2003 Mercedes, which was parked, its battery dead, in a street-sweeping zone on Polk Street. Kayode had bought the car in 2016 and used it to deliver food and drive passengers. He had accumulated 30 parking tickets in the 10 months before it was towed.

Kayode paid what he could, but would have had to come up with more than $11,000 to cover the rest of the tickets and the city’s towing and storage charges, according to the court ruling.

“Because Mr. Kayode is homeless, he is more vulnerable to the potential irreparable injury of continued unemployment and the harm associated with the deprivation of his personal effects,” White said Wednesday. He said returning the car “will enable Mr. Kayode to continue to support himself” and to take part in a San Francisco program that allows poor people to pay their parking tickets by performing community service.

White’s order allows Kayode to keep his car during a lawsuit he’s filed in federal court, claiming it is unconstitutional to seize property for failure to pay a fine that the owner cannot afford. Although White’s ruling applies only to Kayode, advocacy groups said it should send a message to the city to stop towing cars because of unpaid parking tickets.

San Francisco tows more than 4,000 such vehicles each year, mostly owned by low-income people, said Bay Area Legal Aid and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights in a letter to City Attorney Dennis Herrera.

“Many of those vehicle owners are homeless and rely on their vehicles for shelter as well as their sole source of income,” the groups said.

They said the city does not notify owners that their vehicles are about to be towed, find out if they are able to pay, or tell them they have other options if they can’t afford payment.

The practice hurts the city because leaving people without vehicles they rely on for income increases poverty and homelessness, said Rebekah Evenson, director of litigation for Bay Area Legal Aid. In addition, she said, “the value of these cars rarely covers the cost of tow and storage, and the cars are often sold at a loss.”

John Coté, a spokesman for Herrera, said city officials sympathize with Kayode but contend police followed the law.

“If you have a car and park it, you have to park it legally,” Coté said.

He said the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency reduced towing fees for low-income people earlier this year and has offered alternatives for a number of years, allowing owners to “perform community service or set up a payment plan to pay their parking tickets.”

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko