SLO County’s Safe Parking Site closes for good. Here’s what’s next for residents

A thousand days after it first opened its gates to homeless residents and their vehicles and more than 90 days after its final closure was announced, San Luis Obispo County’s Oklahoma Avenue Safe Parking Site finally closed for good.

On Monday, the 10 remaining site residents departed for other places to stay in their vehicles in San Luis Obispo County, leaving the gravel lot near the county jail empty for the first time since August 2021, when the site opened to people living in their vehicles on Palisades Avenue in Los Osos.

For many residents, the departure was bittersweet.

While the site was dogged by numerous health and safety deficiencies as outlined in a 2023 grand jury report, many long-term residents said it was the only long-term community they’ve been able to form while living in vehicles in San Luis Obispo County.

By the end of Monday, all residents had moved on to their next step, which former site resident and San Luis Obispo County Homeless Union member Dave Richford said would be the campground at nearby El Chorro Regional Park on Highway 1.

El Chorro will serve as the first off-site resting spot for most residents exiting the site for the next few days, after which their paths are far less clear, Richford said.

“It’s very stressful,” Richford said. “They know that there’s no more extensions.”

Former residents face uncertain futures

In a news release, the county said the remaining residents leaving the site would be given a total of $60,000 to fund temporary accommodations and relocation assistance.

In exchange, the union agreed to dismiss an appeal to the U.S. District Court’s ruling in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and to refrain from filing any further motions to keep the site open, the county said in the release.

Effective Tuesday, the county began dismantling the parking site, removing fencing, showers and restrooms and storing any remaining vehicles and personal property for the next 90 days in sea-train containers, according to the release.

Former site resident Seabastion Salazar returned to the place he called home for more than two years to help the last residents move their belongings out and said he doesn’t envy the situation some of the former residents will face.

Salazar said he was kicked out of the parking site last year and went directly from having a reliable place to sleep and live while maintaining employment to being homeless.

“It was like a safe haven, almost an escape from being hassled all the time. We didn’t have to worry about trailers, and we came home, so it’s kind of kind of sad,” Salazar said.

According to the county’s release, the site hosted more than 125 individuals, with most engaging with case management services from the Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo at one point or another.

Around 67% of the 99 residents who entered case management were able to move on to “safe and stable housing solutions that met their current needs,” according to the release.

But many residents and homeless union members have contested the true success of those placed into what the county considers a successful outcome.

Site resident De Durlesser said she’s spent eight years searching for housing in San Luis Obispo County but has yet to find anything that can fit her needs.

She said her future will once again be left largely up to fate after the residents’ next campground reservation runs out.

Durlesser said she felt abandoned and unsure of her future without a set plan in place.

“There were times when I had money and couldn’t afford it, and now, when I have a little bit of money again, of course, the prices have doubled and tripled,” Durlesser said.

County moving on from Safe Parking Site

In its release, the county said it is going to dedicate time and resources to programming that is better suited to the county’s homeless needs.

According to the release, the conditions of the program’s original rollout in 2021 was a response to the unique needs of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the final closure of the Oklahoma Avenue site, CAPSLO’s safe parking at 40 Prado Homeless Services Center is the last place in the county remaining for homeless people living in their vehicles to stay overnight.

“Jurisdictions throughout California implemented various new program models that incorporated COVID-mitigation strategies that used open-air models and single-unit shelters,” the county release read. “While there were other models that more efficiently moved people from homelessness to housing, the county still honors the individual successes that came out of the Oklahoma Parking Site.”