Modesto’s safe parking program expected to debut with one woman living in her car
Modesto’s initiative to provide people who live in their cars a safe place to park overnight and receive basic services is expected to debut Friday, about a year after the City Council approved the program.
The six-month pilot program has 25 spaces for people who live in cars, minivans and pickup trucks. It is getting off to a modest start as of Tuesday, with one woman meeting the program’s requirements. The Bee could not reach the woman for comment.
The program is in a gravel parking lot next to The Salvation Army’s Berberian Center at Ninth and D streets. The army will manage it. The city has budgeted $200,000 from some of its federal pandemic relief funds to pay for it.
About a dozen people have applied for the program, according to Jim Stokes, director of the Stanislaus County and Salvation Army shelters in the Berberian Center. The shelters have 393 beds between them and are running at nearly 100% capacity.
Stokes said Tuesday that a couple of the people who applied live in recreational vehicles, which the program does not take. Other applicants could not meet the requirements of having a valid driver’s license and a vehicle that is insured and registered.
One man qualified for the program but has since dropped out, Stokes said.
City officials have said the program approved by the City Council was based on best practices among other communities that offer safe parking.
Stokes said the army’s case manager will help people with getting driver’s licenses, insurance and registering their vehicles. “The case manager will be able to help them get those things all street legal so they can come into the program,” he said.
Donations taken for license, registration and insurance costs
Stokes said the Stanislaus Community Foundation is accepting donations to cover these costs and the army is talking with two other partners about providing funding.
The Salvation Army is gathering information about the people applying for the program, including the barriers they face. Modesto Community and Economic Development Director Jessica Hill said that based on that information, the program could be adjusted.
“If we need to shift the program, we can address it after we gather the data on the six-month pilot,” she said.
Hill called Friday’s debut a “soft start.” She said that over the past couple of weeks, the city has provided handouts about the program to homeless service providers but soon will expand its efforts to get the word out.
She said the city’s police officers, park rangers and homeless outreach workers will tell people who live in their cars about the program. Hill said she was excited the program was starting after many months of work.
Background check required
The Salvation Army is providing portable restrooms, wash stations, drinking water, security, trash disposal and case management. Participants check in between 7 and 9 p.m. and must leave by 7 a.m. The screening process includes a background check, and registered sex offenders are not allowed.
The program has taken a long time to start. A City Council committee first discussed the proposal in November 2021, and the council approved it in July 2022. City officials at the time said they expected the program to start later that year.
Hill said starting the program has been complicated because it involves four parties. The gravel parking lot is owned by a company affiliated with Stanislaus Foods, the cannery next to the Berberian Center. The county is leasing the parking lot, and the city is subleasing part of it from the county.
It took time to work out issues regarding risk and liability, Hill said. Stokes said it took about nine months for the contract to go through The Salvation Army’s approval process.
“If we do this well, I’d like this to expand,” Stokes said Tuesday. “It’s a good model. It has the potential to meet more people than the shelter can do. There are so many different types of homeless folks, and we want to meet them where they are. This gives us more capacity to do this.”
