On March 18, San Luis Obispo County officials plan to close the Oklahoma Avenue Safe Parking site.
Residents of the site, which is located by the sheriff’s office off Highway 1, were notified on Thursday.
“It surprises me but it doesn't,” one resident told KSBY.
He says before moving to the safe parking site two years ago, he lived behind the Los Osos Library.
“This has been an island and oasis of hope for myself,” he said. “Before then I was out in the field of broken dreams, lost our house due to COVID.”
Now, he lives in a donated RV and does not want to go back to camping outdoors.
“I'm preparing to go back to the library, the field of broken dreams where I came out of for two years,” he said.
Suzie Freeman, Communications Program Manager for San Luis Obispo County’s Homeless Services Division, says there are multiple reasons why the site is being closed.
“One of those was considering the ongoing public health concerns that were active at the site, and we also wanted to make sure that the program, like any program the county is behind, is safe for those participating in it,” Freeman said.
She says it was originally opened as a temporary site for people to park their vehicles while they find housing.
“We've been engaging with people at the site, providing case management, working with our partners at the site to ensure everyone has the resources to eventually move off-site, hopefully before the actual draw-down occurs,” Freeman said.
Since a closure date was announced, an attorney representing many of the homeless who live at the site says he’ll file a restraining order to stop it.
“The restraining order will be an order from the court to the County of San Luis Obispo to refrain from closing the Oklahoma site until such time as a process is put into place to see to it that people get actual housing, not put on a waiting [list], not shoving [them] into the 40 Prado shelter,” said Anthony Prince, San Luis Obispo Homeless Union attorney.
The restraining order comes on top of a lawsuit the group filed last month.
“The lawsuit is an attempt to get the court to find that the county and CAPSLO have violated the civil rights of our clients, the residents at the Oklahoma site, that [the county and CAPSLO] broke their promise to provide housing assistance and unjustly evicted them without offering them any substantive housing,” Prince said.
County officials say there are currently 21 people still living at the site.
