Guest Opinion: Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater | Safe Parking Works: Pasadena Should Be Supportive

I was disappointed to read that the city council, during its November 18th meeting, stalled the proposal for All-Saints Church to open a safe parking program with 25 spots. As Friends In Deed currently runs the only safe parking in Pasadena, I wanted to share a few stories of the people living in their cars at our site. 

Jane is a 56-year-old woman who escaped a dangerous situation from a toxic home. She works at a local grocery store but her hours aren’t consistent, so she needs to make more money to find housing. 

Maria is 70 years old, and has been homeless for some time, for a variety of reasons. She currently works at a local medical facility, and has for many years. Again, she doesn’t make enough money to find housing. 

Carl, a man in his 70s, lost his housing after 13 years in his apartment when the property management company changed, and they wanted to increase rent. He was “lawfully evicted” for repairs, but wasn’t given any relocation funds, which is common. He has been in his car since April– living on a fixed income and can’t return to his original unit or find something else he can afford. 

These are just three of the nine people that are currently in our safe parking program at Trinity Lutheran Church. Safe parkers are vetted; all are working toward stabilization; there is security, but these folks aren’t having loud parties, or large groups of visitors, which are not permitted, and they will be exited if they don’t follow the rules. These people just want to sleep safely. And they all need to move their cars during the day. Each safe parker is assigned to one of our case managers, who are in regular contact with them, as they work together to find a stable place to live. The church provides bathrooms, a locker and access to electricity to charge phones or laptops. We are partners with the church in trying to give these folks the most dignified experience possible while having to live in their car. 

Obviously, nobody wants to live in their car. However, if you are forced to endure this hardship, a safe parking program provides a secure spot for people to park at night; this helps them to avoid being targeted by police or other people, getting ticketed or towed.

I hope that everyone understands that safe parking is not the end goal, not the end of the story for folks. Just like emergency shelter isn’t the end goal. Just like interim housing isn’t the end goal. However, all of these programs are proven to provide people a much greater chance of getting to actual housing, which is the end goal. 

There was one thing I was happy to read about from the city council meeting. Mayor Gordo is quoted as saying, “Putting people in a parking lot is not getting them off the street, putting them in a hotel or in a place with four walls and a roof and hopefully a restroom and a refrigerator and a kitchen is getting them off the street. Parking lots are  not getting them off the street.” I couldn’t agree more. 

And so, as I said at the emergency council meeting last year during the Grants Pass discussion, there are motels ready, right now, today, to engage in a master leasing program for interim housing. There are enough rooms available for all of the people that are in the safe parking at Trinity Lutheran, as well as those who would be in the safe parking program that was stalled. 

There is a very successful interim housing program at a motel in Monrovia, and in my capacity as the Chair of the Pasadena Human Services Commission, I have invited the owner to address our April meeting. In addition, the commission’s ad-hoc working group for ‘people experiencing homelessness,’ one of our three priorities, is in the process of preparing an in-depth report for the council that compares and contrasts the success rates of emergency shelter vs. interim housing, in terms of moving people toward permanent housing. 

We can argue or debate all we want about how we get to functional zero for homelessness, one of the city’s goals. Or we can start engaging, and expanding, the best practices to get there, one of which is safe parking. 

Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater is the CEO of Friends In Deed and Chair of the Pasadena Human Services Commission.