A plan to create a safe parking lot where homeless schoolchildren can sleep in their vehicles appears to be back on the table as the number of families lacking stable housing continues to rise.<\/p>\n
The project, which may open as soon as this month, would offer up dozens of spaces at San Diego\u2019s old Central Elementary School in the City Heights neighborhood, according to city and school officials.<\/p>\n
Space is to be initially reserved for kids and parents within the San Diego Unified School District. If spots later remain, leaders could extend invitations to families from other districts in the county.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery night this is not open, someone is sleeping in a less safe space,\u201d said San Diego Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera. \u201cWe\u2019ve already lost a year on this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The long-discussed project<\/a> has been hampered by disagreements over money. Voice of San Diego reported that<\/a> some city leaders walked back their support after it became clear that a grant wouldn\u2019t cover the lot\u2019s full cost, and for a time it looked like the initiative was dead \u2014 and that was before local deficits and a second Trump administration threatened to shrink a range of social services<\/a>.<\/p>\n The window of availability is also closing: The property has been slated for an affordable housing complex since the elementary school moved in 2023 to a different campus.<\/p>\n Yet representatives of the San Diego Housing Commission and San Diego Unified now say the two agencies are actively trying to hammer out an agreement.<\/p>\n As in previous versions of the plan, the school district would offer up the land, district spokesperson Samer Naji wrote in an email. Meanwhile, the City Council set aside<\/a> $250,000 from San Diego\u2019s general fund for the effort, an amount that Elo-Rivera believes will cover about half of what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n Elo-Rivera said negotiators were discussing launching up to 60 parking spots in September and having the nonprofit Dreams for Change, which has overseen similar initiatives in the region, manage the site. (Housing commission and district officials declined to discuss specifics about the proposed agreement.)<\/p>\n Additional funds should come through the Regional Task Force on Homelessness, according to spokesperson Gary Warth. Their exact contribution wasn\u2019t immediately clear.<\/p>\n The need is certainly there.<\/p>\n While some methods for quantifying homelessness show the crisis easing for the first time in years<\/a>, records kept by local schools have instead found increasing numbers of families on the edge. The discrepancy may be due to the fact that housing questionaries handed out to school families are able to capture when kids are couch surfing or sleeping in motels, segments of the homeless population easily missed by other tallies.<\/p>\n Families sometimes begin living out of vehicles after draining their savings at hotels.<\/p>\n