SLO County safe parking site’s problems include fire danger, drug use, grand jury says
Security issues, fire danger and illegal drug use among residents are among the problems plaguing San Luis Obispo County’s beleaguered Oklahoma Avenue safe parking site, according to a new grand jury report.
According to the report, released on Monday, San Luis Obispo County’s first large-scale safe parking site was launched in August 2022 with “minimal thought or planning” and “operated largely in a reactive mode,” which caused a host of problems down the line.
These problems hurt the program’s ability to help homeless community members find permanent housing, the report said.
Of the 117 households that were participating in the program as of the end of November 2022, only 17 saw a “positive exit” to permanent housing — or around one household per month of operations, the grand jury found.
The site’s 14% success rate was well below the median rehousing rate of 40% and average rehousing rate of 34% established in a 2021 study of 43 safe parking programs by USC, the report found.
In its current state, the program costs more than $45,000 per month to operate, and those costs will likely increase until the site is closed at a date still unknown, the grand jury report found.
San Luis Obispo County Homeless Services Division manager Joe Dzvonik said the county will work to incorporate the grand jury’s findings in its continued efforts to move residents toward permanent housing.
“As always, we are grateful for the thorough review of the grand jury and its report,” Dzvonik said in a statement Tuesday. “We appreciate the recommendations, many of which have already been implemented. While it is always useful to look back, the county’s forward leaning focus is on providing a compassionate exit plan for all the current guests at the site.”
Grand jury: Fire danger, drug use at SLO County safe parking site
In its report — titled “SAFE PARKING? OKLAHOMA is not OK!” — the San Luis Obispo County grand jury described the Oklahoma Avenue parking program a “Spartan site,” noting that little preparation work was done to make what was originally a dirt lot safe for habitation.
Though the original 20-vehicle lot was eventually upgraded and expanded to around 70 parking spaces on a gravel lot, this second iteration still failed to supply basic utilities necessary for acceptable living conditions, the report found.
Amenities such as toilets, wash basins and cold food storage were all kept in an unclean state, with little guidance from site administrators on how to maintain these amenities, the report found.
Additionally, the site was not well-equipped to store hazardous substances such as gasoline and oil, which were often stored directly on the ground without secondary containment, the grand jury found.
“Storm water runoff is not being sampled and the potential for release to the environment is a high environmental risk,” the report said. “In addition, there are numerous lead batteries that are being stored directly on the ground as well as paint and cleaning agents that can leach into the groundwater.”
Fire safety was “of the utmost concern,” the report said. Between February 2022 and March 2023, there were five fires on the parking site, with one resident dying in her recreational vehicle in February 2022.
There is no fire plan posted onsite, and flammable and combustible materials are often stored in close proximity, creating an “extreme fire hazard,” the report found.
In addition to environmental, health and fire danger concerns, the grand jury expressed concerns in its report about illegal drug use and violence among site residents.
The grand jury heard multiple reports of widespread use of fentanyl and heroin at the Oklahoma Avenue parking site, with one of the jurors witnessing a drug sale close to the entrance during one of the jury’s two visits to the site in October 2022 and February 2023.
“There has been at least one death attributed to a drug overdose that occurred onsite, and several people have been removed from the program for reasons related to their substance abuse,” the grand jury said in its report. “The problem persists and appears to be getting worse.”
These safety risks were of “paramount concern” to the grand jury, the report said, particularly because of the danger they pose to minor children.
Because California penal code makes it a crime to willfully cause or permit a child to be placed in a situation where their person or health is endangered, all children still living on the site should be moved to a safe environment as soon as possible, the report said.
“To compound the danger to these minor children, known sex offenders have resided at the site, without notice provided to other participants,” the report said.
Dzvonik said only one minor currently resides onsite in a part-time capacity.
Lack of success stems from issues with parking site, report says
Because the Oklahoma Avenue safe parking program was originally established without a third-party case management provider, mental health care or substance abuse services, the site’s administrators have struggled to maintain a productive relationship with the residents, the grand jury found.
The Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo County was contracted to provide case management at the site from Jan. 11, 2022, through Dec. 31, 2022, but ultimately failed to meet the “lofty goals” outlined in its contract with the county, the report found.
CAPSLO and the San Luis Obispo County Department of Social Services also failed to provide their quarterly reports on case management efforts to the grand jury without explanation, the report said.
According to the report, those groups erred by starting the Oklahoma Avenue parking program with a low-barrier approach that did not screen participants prior to moving onto the site, the report said.
Best practices would have used screening to identify individuals and households most likely to participate in case management services as a path to transitional housing, the report said.
In the absence of screenings or barriers to entry, the site effectively became an encampment rather than a 90-day housing placement program, the grand jury found.
As of the end of December 2022, around 85% of participants had overstayed the original 90-day limit, which the grand jury said was the result of poor enforcement of the limit.
This was also the result of confusion about who had the authority to enforce the site’s rules, the report said.
“One of the questions the grand jury asked interviewees was ‘Who’s in charge (of the site)?’ ” the jurors said in the report. “Our aim was to understand who had overall responsibility for site operations and, most importantly, who had the responsibility and authority to address problems as they arose and the ability to make timely decisions to resolve them. The varied responses to this question, lack of clarity, and overall frustration expressed by interviewees painted a telling picture.”
The grand jury also found that the unionization of some site residents demonstrated that some residents viewed the site as more than a temporary living space.
This ultimately added to the confusion surrounding which group had the authority to make and enforce site rules, the grand jury said, and contributed to a “divisive environment” that spurred conflict between between participants, security and county officials.
The report found RV owners may not be interested in case management in the first place, as they view their mobile homes as their end goal for housing.
“Those who find themselves in a position of needing a safe parking location, represent a broad spectrum of the homeless, and many vigorously hold on to their version of the American Dream, a vehicle that they call home,” Dzvonik said in his statement.
What’s the future of Oklahoma Avenue program?
Though the grand jury report recommended the county establish a closure date for the Oklahoma Avenue safe parking site by Sept. 1, Dzvonik said he wants to sit down with the service providers currently working to move residents into permanent housing to find the right time to close the parking site.
Dzvonik acknowledged that setting a hard closure date may not work, as exceptions to that date may be necessary in some cases.
In the years to come, safe parking will continue to be a need for the county, the report found.
The grand jury cited findings from the February 2022 Point-in-Time Count that showed a growing need for safe parking.
Around 370 people were living in their vehicles during the count, or, around 25% of the county’s total homeless population. Among local homeless individuals living in vehicles, around 50% were living in RVs.
As it stands, these homeless individuals are facing a safe parking shortage, with just seven overnight parking spots available at 40 Prado Homeless Services Center in San Luis Obispo, four at Saint John’s Lutheran Church in Arroyo Grande and 20 spots at the Railroad safe parking site in San Luis Obispo, the report said.
“Although the county has announced the intention to close the (Oklahoma Avenue) site, it will continue to operate for an uncertain period of time during which the above findings are still valid, exposing the residents of the site to significant risks and (San Luis Obispo County) to potential liabilities,” the report said.
Future safe parking programs should be decentralized, overnight only and backed by a third-party homeless service provider from the start, the grand jury recommended, with the possible exception of RV parking sites.
Dzvonik said the county will respond to the grand jury’s recommendations through the appropriate departments to work toward resolving the site’s issues.
“We cannot forget the success stories born out this project, and we hope those will not be overshadowed or ignored,” Dzvonik said. “We celebrate those who took advantage of the services offered and were able to find more permanent housing after being offered a respite and temporary stay at the site.”
This story was originally published June 13, 2023 at 3:35 PM.
