The last safe parking site in San Luis Obispo County is set to close in March, according to county officials. A local homeless union protested the closure in Downtown SLO yesterday.
Members and representatives from San Luis Obispo’s Homeless Union gathered outside the County Government Center with picket signs.
Mallory Mejia is a former site resident and current union member. She said shutting down the site does not help the unhoused community.
“Instead of kicking people out of the safe parking and shutting it down completely, putting them back on the streets, criminalizing these homeless people, help them,” Mejia said. “You know, work with them because nobody knows how to help the homeless unless you ask the homeless.”
San Luis Obispo County announced the Oklahoma Safe Parking Site’s closure on Feb. 1. The site was established in 2021 as a place for unhoused people to safely park their motor homes and vehicles while searching for permanent housing, according to a county press release.
In the release, the county stated that the site would close on March 18. They wrote that it was due to safety concerns and the durability of the site.
Last month, the union filed a lawsuit against the county and Community Action Partnership San Luis Obispo, or CAPSLO. The lawsuit alleges that the county and CAPSLO were infringing on the civil rights of former and current site residents. The union said in a press release that the official closure date was an act of retaliation from the county against the lawsuit.
One of the union’s attorneys, Andrea Henson, spoke alongside union members. She said that the union is seeking a temporary restraining order against the county to prevent the closure of the site during the ongoing lawsuit.
“This is very important that we want to stop the closure of this safe parking site until such time, that we can go before the court and plead their case,” Henson said.
The county said the site will still be operating until the closure and they are encouraging residents to work with case managers to develop a housing plan.
