Bloomberg Businessweek published an article about homeless crisis in LA. The article featured Safe Parking LA services for the homeless vehicle dwellers.

L., who asked to go by her middle initial for fear of losing her job, couldn’t afford her apartment earlier this year after failing to cobble together enough teaching assignments at two community colleges. By July she’d exhausted her savings and turned to a local nonprofit called Safe Parking L.A., which outfits a handful of lots around the city with security guards, port-a-potties, Wi-Fi, and solar-powered electrical chargers. Sleeping in her car would allow her to save for a deposit on an apartment. On that night in late September, under basketball hoops owned by an Episcopal church in Koreatown, she was one of 16 people in 12 vehicles. Ten of them were female, two were children, and half were employed.

Read Bloomberg’s full coverage:

The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities

A toxic combination of slow wage growth and skyrocketing rents has put housing out of reach for a greater number of people.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-11-20/the-homeless-crisis-is-getting-worse-in-america-s-richest-cities

The Chief Legislative Analyst released a recommendation to adopt the Blumenfield-Krekorian resolution to support Safe Parking programs. The resolution would require the Department of Motor Vehicles to provide supplemental services to Safe Parking programs. Read about the resolution here.

https://www.safeparkingla.org/news/2018/6/27/councilmembers-joe-buscaino-and-bob-blumenfield-visit-safe-parking-la-site

Safe Parking LA has partnered with the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to operate two safe parking lots, each providing ten parking spots, located on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood and Tujunga Avenue in North Hollywood( not yet opened as of July 10, 2018). 

Safe Parking LA has partnered with the Department of Veterans Affairs' West Los Angeles Campus to provide 10 overnight parking spaces to homeless veterans living in their vehicles. See the article below for more information. 

Link: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-parking-va-homeless-20180414-story.html

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In the grim calculus of homelessness, having a vehicle is what passes for being lucky. It means you can avoid spending the night on a sidewalk or in a creepy emergency shelter. And if that’s luck, it’s spreading: The number of cars, campers and vans serving as homes in the city of Los Angeles has gone up significantly, reaching more than 4,700 in 2017’s homelessness count.

Daily Mail article detailing California's hidden homeless population. "Hundreds of people, including nurses and chefs, are sleeping in parking lots in affluent areas like Santa Barbara as they make the most of the only homes they can afford"

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5212977/Californias-middle-class-homeless-living-parking-lots.html
 

To the Homeless and Poverty Committee: Good afternoon honorable Council Members. I am here today to beseech your help. My name is Dr. Scott Sale and I am one of the advocates and founders of Safe Parking LA that started over 6 years ago at Leo Baeck Temple. Our 501C3’s mission is to be as supportive as possible of the initiation of Safe parking lot programs in every council district. We have worked toward a City wide Safe Parking program as in every council district there are people experiencing vehicular homelessness and it is only getting worse.