SLO County confirms eventual closure of safe parking site, promises new solutions 

San Luis Obispo County's safe parking site on Oklahoma Avenue will continue down a path to permanent closure, county supervisors confirmed on May 3.

"As I listen to the wider issues that surround it, I think that, for now, we should be on our track toward the humane drawdown of that site to closure," 2nd District Supervisor Bruce Gibson said at a May 3 board meeting.

The Oklahoma parking site—which currently serves about 60 households living in vehicles—is not a suitable location for a long-term program, county officials said.

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• File Photo By Bulbul Rajagopal
• SET TO CLOSE SLO County will phase out its safe parking site on Oklahoma Avenue, promising a slow drawdown that allows current residents ample time to relocate.

Since it launched in 2021 as a pilot program, the county has struggled to safely manage the site and deliver social services to its residents. Officials added that they've failed to find a service provider willing to take over site management.

"As a result, the transitional outcomes as originally envisioned have not occurred," a staff report for the meeting read. "Over half of the nearly 60 households currently participating in the program have been at the Oklahoma site for 12 months or more."

In addition, developing the county-owned property with housing or other structures is complicated by it being located on a former Camp San Luis Army landfill.

Gibson argued that the county is better off looking at other locations to establish a safe parking site going forward.

"We talked about potentially establishing that at Chorro regional park," Gibson said. "I thought that was a great idea, but at the time it didn't get any further support."

While he supported the closure, 4th District Supervisor Jimmy Paulding promised that the site would be shuttered slowly, with current residents given ample time and support to find new accommodations.

"No one will be forced to leave," Paulding said. "Whatever we're going to do, we're going to work with all the individuals on-site to make sure they are housed and they are safe. I think it's important we understand the individual needs of the community that's living out there. Because, in fact, it is a community."

SLO County Homeless Division Manager Joe Dzvonik said that social workers will start working with site residents this month to begin planning their eventual exits.

"Although no new participants will be allowed on the site, no household or person on-site as of March 1, 2023, will be asked to leave until all efforts have been expended to place them in a housing solution, which staff believes is 100 percent achievable," Dzvonik said.

A few residents of Oklahoma Avenue spoke during public comment to ask that the county save the site. Resident David Richford added that if the county could establish a no-cost RV park elsewhere, "we'd probably clear about 20 people out of [Oklahoma Avenue] real quick."

While the county firms up plans to close Oklahoma Avenue, it's also looking ahead to future projects to address homelessness. Dzvonik's staff report outlined four new transitional housing projects that the county is partnering with local cities and nonprofits on.

The projects collectively could add roughly 100 modular-style transitional housing units in Paso Robles, SLO, and Grover Beach, and dozens more low-income apartments.

In Paso Robles, the "Pine Street Project" would turn a downtown city parking lot into 20 interim shelter beds to address encampments in the Salinas Riverbed. In Grover Beach, the county and Five Cities Homeless Coalition are looking to add 30 interim shelter beds that expand on the nonprofit's existing "Cabins for Change" program. In SLO, the city and county are working with People's Self-Help Housing on a project to acquire and repurpose the Homestead Motel and with the Good Samaritan Shelter to install 80 modular units to a gravel lot behind the county Department of Social Services building on Higuera Street.

All four projects would be funded with state grants.

"We obviously have a huge continuum of need with a lot of gaps, but I'm excited," Five Cities Homeless Coalition Executive Director Janna Nichols said during public comment. "I've been around this table a long time, and I see hope." Δ