Safe Parking lot with new shower, office space reopens in El Cajon

Following a year of renovations, the Magnolia Safe Parking lot reopened Friday on El Cajon’s North Magnolia Avenue.

In 2022, the lot opened for temporary use as East County’s first Safe Parking program. It closed in August 2024 to begin planned renovations, so clients were relocated to the Bancroft site in Spring Valley to continue services.

What was once a 17-spot facility with porta-potties and a tent serving as office space now has 16 spots with two toilets. An ADA-accessible shower and an administrative space, complete with air conditioning, were added too.

For construction, District 2 county Supervisor Joel Anderson and the Office of Homeless Solutions for San Diego County contracted with Dreams for Change, a local nonprofit organization working to serve and stabilize homeless populations.

In the new physical space, the site will continue to offer trained security personnel 24/7 and case management between the hours of 5:30 and 9:30 p.m. Residents of the lot are encouraged to speak candidly with case managers and housing navigators in the new private office during scheduled case consultations.

The site will continue to deliver hot, prepackaged meals at dinner and breakfast, and will now offer peer support and group activities. 

According to program officials, the lot, which operates between the hours of 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 a.m., is only open to individuals and households living in passenger vehicles who have been approved through a closed referral system operated by county outreach workers.

Teresa Smith, CEO of Dreams for Change, founded the nonprofit in 2009 after seeing a new segment of homelessness arise out of the 2008 recession.

“[I] was working in social services, managing anti-poverty type campaigns, and really just seeing a new kind of homeless individuals coming through the doors that didn’t fit our traditional, stereotypical kind of environment,” Smith said. “Shelters weren’t a great fit. They didn’t identify, oftentimes, as being homeless. Just ‘lost my job’, ‘it’s (the) recession,’ ‘I’m behind,’ ‘I’ll grow out of this.’ So, for me, it was, ‘How do we work with these individuals so they don’t become street homeless and start a cycle of generational poverty?’ … and leveraging the cars as a shelter option.”

Dijana Beck, director of the Office of Homeless Solutions, concurred that different homeless populations require different resources and a different approach.

“There’s the chronically homeless, there’s the first-time folks homeless, there are people that are couch surfing that might not be visible,” Beck said. “And then, there’s people living in their vehicles, and they need a specific intervention like this. So, having this option provides them with a safe place to sleep.

“They don’t get tickets on the streets,” the director continued. “They don’t have to move around every night and look for a place to park. And then they receive, on top of that, all the services that are available here on site, including hygiene facilities, food and case management.”

According to County News Center, the Magnolia site was chosen due to a large, overflowing encampment settled next to state Route 67 and underneath the Greenfield Drive overpass.

“You can hear the noise here from the freeway,” Beck said. “This was not ideal when our case managers are meeting with the clients. And so, having the renovations, having community space for people to gather around meals and activities is so important, having a storage area, having showers on site. Before, there was just a porta-potty with no showers. So, for people to be able to take a shower to go to work the next day, it’s all incredibly important for dignity of our clients that we serve.”

The site is also located in an unincorporated area in El Cajon, which affects homelessness numbers due to a lack of city resources. This is where the county, Dreams for Change and American Rescue Plan funding make up for those gaps.

“All those circumstances that just put further barriers in the way of moving forward,” said Samantha Rogers, project manager for Dreams for Change’s Safe Parking program. “So, this is a safe place where they don’t have to endure that type of harassment. This is safer for everybody. It’s not just safer for the people that access the services, but it’s safer for the community.”

Currently, the Office of Homeless Solutions and Dreams for Change do not have future Safe Parking projects planned due to the tight county budget and a lack of new state grant funding, Beck said. Instead, they are looking at other emergency housing projects, sustaining current operations and new grant opportunities.

“Every day we’re just encouraged by the success stories,” Beck said. “[It] ultimately comes down to the people we serve. Seeing families with children come through, seeing children resilient and making it while their parents are in such a transition. It’s at the same time, heart-warming and heartbreaking, and we just really look to connect them to those more stable housing options. That’s what it’s all about.”

If you or someone you know is experiencing homelessness, call 211 to find a program near you.