Homeless families get green light to sleep in city parking lot

San Jose families living in cars will be able to park at Seven Trees Community Center

As housing costs skyrocket and force more people to live in their vehicles, San Jose is about to launch the first city-sponsored safe parking site where homeless families with children can park and sleep overnight.

More than 100 families with kids in San Jose didn’t have a stable place to call home last year. Many sleep in cars and RVs around the city. But on Tuesday, the City Council approved a pilot program to allow up to 17 families to park safely at the Seven Trees Community Center just east of Capitol Expressway in South San Jose. Starting next month, from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. daily, families won’t have to worry about being forced to move along and will have access to bathrooms and showers.

“The face of homelessness is changing dramatically,” said Mayor Sam Liccardo. “We’re seeing more children and youth and more women and more working homeless.”

The pilot program, which will begin in November and run through June, is set to cost about $250,000. The nonprofit Life Moves, which provides services to homeless people, will run the program and be responsible for security, trash disposal and making sure that people sleep in their vehicles, not in tents.

The organization will also help families find jobs and housing. The idea, said Marc Sabin, the senior director of programs and services for Life Moves, is to help families move into sustainable housing, not to have the same 17 families parked at the Seven Trees site for the next nine months.

“We’re really going to be focusing on families that may be residing in their vehicles in that area first,” Sabin said.

Residents of San Jose will have a chance to vote on a $450 million affordable housing bond in November, which Liccardo said could help provide housing for families sleeping in their cars. And a couple of years ago, Santa Clara County voters approved a $950

million bond aimed specifically at housing homeless people. But few of the homes are completed yet and the city has acknowledged that people need immediate help.

“This is far from a solution,” Liccardo said. “This is a band-aid. But all the solutions cost a lot of money and require a lot of time. So, in the meantime, we’ll continue to explore the band-aids that can provide a safe, healthy place for homeless families to be until we can get them into permanent housing.”

If the pilot program goes well, the city could look at allowing other safe parking sites to operate. Right now, some faith-based organizations coordinate other safe parking sites in the city, but they are not officially sanctioned and they don’t generally provide as many services as Life Moves has agreed to offer.

If all goes well, Sabin said, he anticipates the city “will embrace this and move forward.”