Central Elementary Safe Parking Is Back from the Dead and Cheaper than Ever

On Tuesday, San Diego’s City Council approved a budget that walked back many of the significant cuts in Mayor Todd Gloria’s budget. They also added some items of their own. 

One of those additions was allocating $250,000 for a long talked about safe sleeping site for families with children at San Diego Unified’s now-vacant Central Elementary. The move was spearheaded by Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, whose district includes the school and who has consistently advocated for the project, even after city officials essentially left it for dead. 

“I think this is incredibly important … primarily because of who this is going to provide a safe place to sleep for – students and families who are living in their cars,” Elo-Rivera said. “When we’ve identified a safe place for them to go and resources to give them some support in that safe place, I think we have a moral mandate to do what we can to make that thing happen.” 

District leaders first floated offering up the empty school to the city to use free of charge as a safe parking site nearly two years ago, and it initially seemed like a slam dunk for both organizations. Not only are homeless families with children, a broadly sympathetic population, the proposed site was spared the gauntlet of public pushback homelessness projects usually elicit. 

But despite a year of back and forth, the project seemed to have died late last year when city officials received far less than they’d hoped from a Regional Task Force on Homelessness grant.  

City leaders’ attempt to shift that funding to another project ultimately led the Task Force to rescind the grant. A lack of communication about that attempted funding shuffle, and other elements of the project, ruffled feathers of pretty much everyone involved. Even a year and a half in, city and district officials still couldn’t agree on the specifics of what was offered.  

Another big change: This new city funding was far from the only development for the project. Thanks to a new cost estimate from the nonprofit Dreams of Change, the project’s price tag was also significantly slashed.  

San Diego officials originally estimated it would cost nearly $1 million to operate the site once client housing costs were factored in. The new quote from Dreams of Change, which operates several safe parking sites in San Diego County, put the cost somewhere between $350,000 and $400,000. 

Even with that lower cost estimate, a significant gap between what the city was allocating and what was needed remained. But Task Force CEO Tamera Kohler said her team is ready to swiftly review another city funding proposal and contract. 

“We have spoken with City Council members and committed to reallocating the previously awarded funding amount for this project to the city, pending approval of the city budget,” Kohler wrote in an email.  

The reallocated Task Force grant, the new city funding and the cheaper price point, potentially leaves hundreds of thousands of dollars to spare.  

So, the project is a done deal, right?  Not so fast. The City Council on Tuesday passed a modified budget with a 7-2 supermajority. That budget, which added in funding for the safe parking site, also includes a slew of precarious assumptions about new revenue from as-of-yet untapped and untested sources. 

Gloria could attempt to do a line-item veto of funding allocations like the Central Elementary project. It would then be up to Elo-Rivera and his colleagues to override that veto.  

Elo-Rivera said Thursday he’s seen no indication that will happen, but that he “would fight very, very, very hard to put it back in if they were to be removed.”  

City spokesperson Matt Hoffman declined to comment on next steps, cost estimates for the project or other details, noting that the budget process isn’t over yet. 

Barrera, another key booster of this project, also feels optimistic it will get done.  

Both Barrera and Elo-Rivera credit the coalition that came together to keep pushing for the project, even after it seemed bound for the dustbin. That included advocacy from members of the district’s teachers union and the nonprofit Center on Policy Initiatives.  

Some hard feelings linger: Even given the seeming victory, Elo-Rivera said he remains upset that the project didn’t move forward sooner, meaning families who might have found a safe haven couldn’t access one. He is adamant that the city could – and should – have moved forward sooner. 

How quickly this project got done is no small issue here, because while the site is currently empty, it’s slated to be turned into housing as early as mid-2026, permits allowing. So, even given the potential greenlight, the site’s lifespan is shrinking every day.  

“There’s the opportunity cost, the time,” Elo-Rivera said.   

Off to the races: Now that the pieces are in place, everyone involved is itching to get the project off the ground. As it stands, what’s planned is likely more bare bones than what city officials envisioned, which is part of why the price tag is lower. Funding for client housing alone made up $350,000 of the original nearly $1 million price tag. 

Elo-Rivera said he will be urging the city to move forward swiftly – and to perhaps bolster the program once it’s open. 

“Let’s get the baseline in place which will be a significant improvement in safety, in stability, and support for the families who are staying there and then once we know that that’s locked in and moving forward can we figure out how to layer additional components on top to make it even better for them,” Elo-Rivera said.