Safe parking programs provide designated areas for unhoused people to sleep in their cars. West Valley cities, where unhoused residents are more likely to live in their cars, held a meeting last month to explore safe parking as part of a…
This drone shot of a safe recreational vehicle parking area at Shoreline Lot B on Crittenden Lane in Mountain View was taken last year. Leaders from Santa Clara County and multiple cities therein, along with nonprofit, faith and business representatives, met last month to consider strategies for a regional approach to safe parking spaces.
When Rachel Klat was living on the streets, she languished in her trailer for 10 months out of the year due to an unspecified health condition, which put her at risk of citations because she couldn’t move her vehicle to comply with laws against overnight parking. She credits nonprofit MOVE Mountain View’s safe parking lot for granting her the stability she needed to get back on her feet.
“As a single woman, having this parking lot is really giving me a sense of security, a sense of belonging,” Klat said. A safe parking program provides unhoused people who are living in their vehicles a designated location to park overnight. These programs also help connect users with case management and wraparound services provided by the government or nonprofit organizations.
Last month, Santa Clara County Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga convened a group of over 50 city, county, nonprofit, faith and business leaders in Palo Alto to consider strategies for a regional approach to safe parking spaces. Abe-Koga, who represents several West Valley municipalities including Palo Alto, Mountain View, Cupertino, Los Gatos and Saratoga, said the strategy session stemmed from local governments in the area considering a regional approach to homelessness, which has been increasing year after year.
“I don’t look at safe parking as a solution to homelessness, but it’s a strategy,” Abe-Koga said. “The goal is to get everyone into a more permanent, affordable housing situation. ” There are almost 2,000 unhoused people in the West Valley, based on the county’s 2025 point-in-time count, which showed 37% of unhoused people in the county were living in their vehicles.
According to afunded by the City of Campbell, unhoused individuals in the West Valley are more likely to be youth or families with children and are more likely to sleep in their car or couch surf. The county’s supportive housing system offers permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing, transitional rehousing, emergency shelters and homelessness prevention, but safe parking areas have the lowest capacity at just 332 units.
Jamie Chang, associate professor of social welfare at UC Berkeley, said in an interview that vehicular homelessness has increased in the Bay Area and across the country since 2019 due to high costs and scarcity of housing. During the COVID-19 pandemic, unhoused people were moved into encampments and personal vehicles because social distancing guidelines made shelters a less acceptable place for people to stay.
Moreover, Chang argued that being unhoused is increasingly criminalized due to restrictions on overnight parking.
“If you’re experiencing homelessness, having a safe and legal place to be is one of the greatest challenges where your whole existence in and of itself is a crime,” Chang said. “In light of all of that, the safe parking programs are really an essential lifeline. ” Abe-Koga said the population of unhoused people who live in their cars in her district is diverse.
After going out with Mountain View community service officers, she saw that many people are working, but are not making enough to continue to afford their rent or mortgage. Some lost their jobs or are re-entering society after incarceration, and others, like older adults, live on fixed incomes. She also said that there was a growing number of construction workers who stay in their cars while working in the Bay Area before going back to their permanent residences.
Abe-Koga said she also encountered high-tech employees who choose to live in their vehicles because they don’t want to pay for rent.
“Their vehicles are really the last modicum of safety and control over their environment, over their dignity, over their circumstances,” Chang said. Several South Bay cities — namely Palo Alto, Mountain View, San Jose and Saratoga — have their own safe parking programs. The county funds two providers who operate multiple safe parking sites with a capacity to serve 200 vehicles countywide, according to an email from the county Office of Supportive Housing to this news organization.
The largest sites are in Mountain View and Palo Alto. MOVE Mountain View was created to operate the designated lots across Mountain View and Palo Alto, consisting of over 130 spaces across seven lots. About 96% of Mountain View’s unhoused population live in their vehicles, according to the county’s point-in-time count. MOVE Mountain View president and co-founder Brian Leong said over 100 people moved into permanent housing from the safe parking program in the last year.
The city of Saratoga operates a 25-spot rotating safe car park program for its homeless residents, all of whom live in their vehicles, according to the county. Several faith-based organizations serve as operators, and nonprofit Amigos de Guadalupe provides case management services. Guests rotate from one house of worship to another every one to two months to ensure the program’s sustainability.
Program founder and director Norman Puck said they’ve helped 214 people since 2018, adding that some former guests return to contribute to the program and that program volunteers become advocates for the unhoused. Los Gatos Mayor Rob Moore said he attended the county meeting to consider the possibility of a safe parking program in town. He said he has noticed an increase in vehicular homelessness, including on the street where he lives.
About 24% of the unhoused population in Los Gatos live in a vehicle. Although there are areas in town that specify that parking is not allowed from 2 a.m. to 5 p.m., Moore said enforcement is based more often on complaints than active pursuit. A concern shared by the directors of the Mountain View and Saratoga safe parking programs is complaints from housed residents about safe parking zones.
Prince of Peace pastor Sara Pearson, who oversees Saratoga’s safe parking program, said people have some fears that safe car parks will turn into encampments, which led to Puck launching the program’s pilot without informing residents. After receiving no complaints for 60 days, the Saratoga City Council changed city code to allow for the safe parking program.
Leong noted a similar phenomenon, saying that any uproar caused by the initial approval of the MOVE Mountain View program dissipated after three months.
“That was the brilliance of the leadership of the time to say, ‘We’re going to show them the data so they don’t get emotional,'” Pearson said. “Quite often, what happens when we start caring for the unhoused is people act out of emotion and fear rather than reality. ”Leong said the goal of last month’s meeting was to spread awareness that safe parking is very effective.
If cities were to consider creating safe parking lots, he added, they would need to pass ordinances allowing for overnight parking in certain lots, and an operator would need to be created to provide case management services. He also said the biggest lesson he learned from overseeing the MOVE Mountain View safe parking zones was to talk to unhoused residents to better meet their needs. The cost to start and fund these programs can be a challenge.
According to the City of Mountain View, the start-up cost for its safe parking program was $2 million. The city pays $700,000 annually to keep the program running, and that number will increase in the 2027-28 fiscal year to $1.4 million. The county contributes $1.6 million annually. Each household in the program also pays $30 per night.
“Maybe they can’t afford the $3,000-a-month rent, but most of them want to contribute,” Abe-Koga said. “So perhaps charging a nominal fee would be reasonable, and that could help with the funding of these programs. ” Proponents for safe parking zones agree that it is just one part of the county’s response to homelessness. Chang advocated for a system that “houses people regardless of their vulnerability,” like substance use status, mental health or other complex health issues.
“Essentially, the taproot of homelessness is stigma and discrimination against people who are extremely poor,” Chang said. After staying at one of the safe parking lots in Mountain View for 2-1/2 years, Klat, 49, said she will soon be moving into her own apartment in San Jose. She spoke fondly of the lots’ residents, saying they’re a great community where everyone is kind.
She added that she’s looking forward to having running water and enough space for her cat to run around, as well as cooking breakfast for her sons when they visit.
“Not everybody is bad. Things happen in life sometimes that are out of our hands, and that happened with me. And I’m here, but now it’s okay; we go back up,” Klat said. “The wave goes up and down. ”
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