STILL NO SAFE PARKING PLAN
Homelessness has a numbers problem.
In California, that much is clear. Earlier this year, the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office presented its findings to the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review in a report titled “California’s Housing and Homelessness Challenges in Context.”
The report found that 171,500 people in the state were experiencing homelessness—a number that gives California the distinction of claiming the largest homeless population in the country.
And that number is climbing.
In the Eastern Sierra alone, California Statewide Homelessness data reported that a total of 121 people were experiencing homelessness across the populations of Alpine, Inyo and Mono County in 2017. By 2022, Inyo County reported 184 unhoused persons, alone.
But while the data analytics portray a population diverse in its composition, the policies aimed at curbing the problem often assume a “one size fits all” dynamic—failing to qualify the statistics in a manner that might accurately explain and address the wide spectrum of needs.
One such subcategory that is often neglected amid these broad-stroke datascapes is that segment of the population subjected to vehicular homelessness. A landmark study by the University of California, Los Angeles’ Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, published in 2022, noted that much of the available literature on homelessness has focused on individuals living in shelters and tents, but has overlooked the growing population seeking shelter in their vehicles.
“The unhoused population living in vehicles has different circumstances and needs than those living unsheltered in public spaces, and cities need to recognize these differences when crafting programs and policies,” write the authors of the study.
Their recommendation: safe parking programs, or sites where people are legally permitted to park overnight, and have access to bathrooms, trash receptacles, and WiFi. Such designated areas help to mitigate the risks associated with living in one’s car, such as assault and theft.
If that sounds familiar, it’s likely because back in 2021, the Inyo Mono Advocates for Community Action (IMACA) tried to get a safe parking initiative off the ground. In the proposal, IMACA staff ensured that all participants in the program would be screened prior to entry, and subjected to a Megan’s Law registration check. The proposal also guaranteed that the parking lot would be patrolled, hourly.
And while the Inyo County Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit—which would have allowed up to 15 vehicles to park in the lot beside the Church of the Nazarene in Bishop—the project was shot down in a 3-2 vote by the county’s Board of Supervisors.
Inyo County Supervisor, Jeff Griffiths—who previously voted in favor of the project—explains: “There were members of the Board who viewed it as a basic human right. Others felt that it was a bad location.”
Prior to the vote, Inyo County residents and officials on behalf of the Bishop Unified School District, voiced concerns over the safety of Bishop High students, given that the project’s proposed location was in close proximity to the school’s farm.
Since then, there has been no revised proposal for a safe parking program brought to the Board.
“The church had been willing to provide services to people,” said Griffiths. “But beyond that, there was no other location that we could find.”
But on the other side of the Rocky Mountains, in a county not dissimilar from Inyo, a similar story has been written with a different ending.
Doug Bair, co-coordinator of Unsheltered in Summit—a safe parking program founded in 2019 that provides permitted parking spaces for unhoused families and individuals in Summit County, Colorado—realized, early, the exacerbation of homelessness as a result of the housing shortages plaguing ski towns across the West.
“[Summit County] saw it happening in Aspen, decades ago. We watched it happen, but didn’t do anything about it. We didn’t learn from that example. And now there are consequences.”
Summit County is home to the mountain resorts of Keystone, Breckinridge, A-Basin, and Copper.
Bair emphasized that the housing scarcity in many resort communities often results in the middle class getting pinched; pinched between the forefinger of an elite real estate market that’s working to price gouge them out of town, and the thumb of those incentives only targeted toward populations below a certain AMI (Area Median Income) percentage threshold, or those with disabilities warranting enhanced assistance.
“The people that we serve run the gamut in terms of socioeconomic status,” explained Bair. “We do have folks that are really on their last legs, economically. I would say that’s about 10% of our population. On the other end are folks that are choosing ‘van life.’ That’s another 10%. But then, the remaining 80% is everything in between.”
Similar to the proposed project in Inyo, “Unsheltered” began in a church parking lot. And similar to the proposed project in Inyo, it faced significant pushback.
“Put a capital ‘P’ on Pushback,” said Bair. “The church, itself, welcomed us with open arms. But there was a pre-school there. And I think some of the members of the [congregation] were afraid that some of our folks might hurt the children.”
Bair explained that stigmatized narratives surrounding people experiencing homelessness impede actionable solutions.
“There are no words to express my feelings about that—that stigma. But that stigma is what we’re fighting against,” said Bair.
A few years later, when the church decided to use its lot to construct a satellite building, Unsheltered packed up and moved camp. Last summer, they were granted 8 spaces by the Justice Center in Breckenridge, which is monitored by the police department. They received another 8 spots adjacent to the Summit County Library in Frisco. Bair also explained that the organization must adjust its locations, in lockstep with the county’s peak and shoulder seasons.
It is worth noting that Unsheltered in Summit is not a county-sponsored project.
“We’ve been talking with the county and the county commissioners, pretty much from the beginning,” explained Bair. “And in the beginning they turned a deaf ear … More recently, they’ve said they want to help us. So, as governments do, they convened a committee to look into the matter.”
Bair conceded that, should the county direct fiscal support toward the organization, they would accept. But Unsheltered in Summit sources its funding elsewhere. The larger priority, according to Bair, is a culture of accountability across Summit County.
“What we’re looking for is for the county, the business owners, the individual towns to take this up themselves,” said Bair. “My philosophy is that those who have the problem, set up the solution. Employers grumble that they can’t get enough employees, but consistently say ‘no’ when we offer to help them organize a program, if only they can provide the space.”
According to Bair, much of the resistance toward providing safe parking boils down to an optics issue.
“They say it looks bad, having people parked outside their businesses. But that’s what I don’t get—these people are their employees.”
Back in Inyo County, Supervisor Griffiths is inclined to agree: “There’s a great need for safe parking here. It’s good for the folks in those circumstances. It’s good for the rest of the community, which relies on them.”
But in light of the 2021 vote, and in the absence of administrative support from IMACA—which has suffered organizational challenges in years past, Griffiths says—”there is no one left to administer a program like that anymore.”
But here’s some good news. Doug Bair requested we include his phone number at the end of this story: 970-485-4579. And, “should the powers that be cover a plane ticket from Denver,” he’d be happy to lend a hand in setting up independently-organized initiatives, similar to Unsheltered, in Inyo and Mono Counties.
