City opens new 'Safe Parking' site on south Front Street for people staying in vehicles

(Video: David Coyle, and April Croyell, both 27, live in a bus with their daughter Cillian, who will soon turn 3. They lost their concert industry jobs when Covid hit. This week they arrived in the South Front Street Safe Parking facility with the goal of connecting with services to help them find housing)

City opens new ‘Safe Parking’ site on Front Street

The City of Sacramento this week opened an additional “Safe Parking” site in a parking lot on the southern section of Front Street.

Known as South Front Street Safe Parking, the site is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and can host approximately 60 vehicles, depending on their sizes.

The site, which is staffed around the clock, also offers port-a-potties, storage and meals. Case managers work out of a trailer, offering social-services support and housing coordination. The City’s new Department of Community Response has taken the lead on establishing these locations and managing the programs available on site.

 The launch of South Front Street Safe Parking comes less than two weeks after the City opened its first “Safe Ground” site near W and Sixth streets in Sacramento. In addition to a place where people can safely camp, that site also offers safe parking, case management, and access to social services and meals.

 “This is not a permanent solution, but this is the first step in getting people on a path where they can start getting permanent housing,” said Councilmember Katie Valenzuela, who represents the district where the two new sites are located and spearheaded the projects. “I’m so proud this is happening in our district because we have a huge need and I get calls every day from residents, from business owners, what can we do, where can they go, how can we help. This is finally giving people hope that a solution is on the horizon.”

 The new South Front Street Safe Parking and Sixth Street Safe Ground are part of the comprehensive master plan the City is developing to address homelessness. The City Council plans to hold district-specific discussions about additional Safe Ground/Parking, triage and shelter sites in the coming weeks.

 “These new Safe Ground sites will be a key part of our new master plan for homelessness, which will offer a variety of housing solutions and services across the city to get at least 3,500 people off the street at a time,” said Mayor Darrell Steinberg. “Our hope is that we can provide better help to people and clean up areas of our city that are currently not safe and not healthy.”