The last sixteen people who live in their cars in a safe parking lot in San Luis Obispo County can stay a little longer.
The county planned to close the lot this week, in the midst of a legal battle with the residents. But, a federal judge has said the safe parking site should stay open until the end of the month.
Next to the County Sheriff’s Office on Highway One, RVs, trailers and cars are scattered across a gravel lot. Dogs bark. Generators hum. People’s belongings spill out of their vehicles.
Over the past few years, 115 people, like Michael Maez, have called this place, the Oklahoma Avenue Safe Parking Village, home.
“I've had a job for three years and it's allowed me to go to work and come back and know my trailer’s still here,” Maez said.
Maez is in his early 60s and works at a local hotel. He and the 16 others left at the Oklahoma Avenue parking lot, live in their vehicles. San Luis Obispo County created the lot for people like them in 2021.
In fact, people living in their cars are one of the fastest growing segments of the homeless population nationwide. According to the county’s data from the 2022 Point-in-Time Count, some 400 people were living on the streets in their RVs, which is illegal in the region.
For Mallory Mejia, the Oklahoma Avenue lot was one of the only spots to park in overnight.
“This was the only area that we were able to come where the cops wouldn't bother you,” Mejia said.
While the lot has provided many a safe haven, county officials said the arrangement was always meant to be temporary until people got back on their feet.
Suzie Freeman is the communications program manager for the county’s homeless services division.
“It was never intended to be a long-term environment for someone to be living in, RVs are also inherently not designed for long-term habitation,” Freeman said.
About five months after the lot opened, the county teamed up with Community Action Partnership San Luis Obispo, or CAPSLO, to provide case managers to help people get services and find permanent housing. But Maez said in his two and half years at the lot, the county and CAPSLO never helped him.
“There is no case management, there isn't,” Maez said.
And Mejia said in the year and a half that she lived in the Oklahoma Avenue lot, she only got one flier from CAPSLO.
“It was just a number that was circled on that piece of paper saying to call that and then I was supposed to get help with housing,” Mejia said, “and you call that number and it's disconnected.”
CAPSLO and county officials would not comment on Mejia’s, Maez’s or any other individual cases for confidentiality purposes.
But, Lawren Ramos, CAPSLO’s community services director, said earlier this year they worked with people living at the parking lot since the beginning of their contract. He said this was by “going out and connecting with folks” and “figuring out what resources and supports they need in order to move forward, and trying to connect them with that, and ultimately trying to find housing solutions for them.”
Safe parking sites aren’t new to the central coast. In Santa Barbara County, the non-profit organization New Beginnings has been running a safe parking program in the area for about 20 years. They currently overlook 27 parking lots and 178 spaces.
Cassie Roach is the senior programs manager for New Beginnings. She said that safe parking programs like this one can only be successful with heavy case management.
“It's harder for folks to self-start sometimes and navigate a really convoluted system,” Roach said. “And so without the extra support from folks who can better navigate those systems, it's going to be harder to get back into housing and get back on their feet.”
Out of frustration, Maez and Mejia both joined the San Luis Obispo Homeless Union, which residents at the site formed a couple of years ago.
The union recently sued the county and CAPSLO. The lawsuit alleges both did not provide case management services and evicted residents without proper cause.
It also claimed that the county and CAPSLO did not accommodate residents with disabilities and seized property from site residents.
Mejia says the union wants justice.
“Somebody needs to take accountability for the fact that this failed because of the case management,” Mejia said.
Neither the county nor CAPSLO would comment on the ongoing litigation.
Shortly after the suit was filed, the county announced that the Oklahoma Avenue lot would shut down this week on March 18. The union claims that was retaliation, but a county spokesperson says the closure was already planned for nearly a year and residents were notified ahead of time.
Freeman said the closure was in part due to safety concerns like not meeting fire safety codes and concerns over long-term funding and staffing of the project.
Late last week, a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order at the homeless union’s request. It keeps the lot open and prevents the county from evicting residents off the site until at least the end of the month.
In the meantime, the union hopes to find housing for the remaining residents or a safe and legal place to park their RVs. Mejia said that closing the site for good could bring harm to residents.
“If you want to figure out a solution it's not kicking people out of a safe parking and putting them back on the street,” Mejia said.
She said she found an outside service provider that’s helped her move into an apartment. And as for Maez, he’s not sure where he’ll go if the lot closes.
