STORY: Safe Parking at a City Heights School Isn’t Happening. Here’s Why
SAN DIEGO -- More than 18 months ago, San Diego Unified pitched the city of San Diego on a plan: The district would offer up its former Central Elementary campus for a safe parking lot for homeless families if the city could get a contractor to run it.
That safe parking lot now appears unlikely to materialize.
For months, school board members publicly questioned why a project they saw as a win-win wasn’t moving forward.
The city, meanwhile, said it concluded last year that it couldn’t proceed after receiving far less money from a grant than it needed for the project. A spokesperson said city officials shared that news with district staff last August. The city also quietly inquired about potentially using $342,450 awarded by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness to the Central Elementary project to help fund its planned H Barracks safe parking lot.
The school district project hit another impasse last month after City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera’s last-ditch effort to pull together the city’s housing agency and other players to try to work out a plan.
Housing Commission Senior Vice President Casey Snell told Voice of San Diego that her agency, which Elo-Rivera looped in to try to save the project, ultimately decided it couldn’t deliver after weeks of discussions with safe parking provider Jewish Family Service, the district, the Task Force and city staff.
Read the entire article: https://voiceofsandiego.org/2025/01/22/safe-parking-at-a-city-heights-school-isnt-happening-heres-why/