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HomeMy WebLinkAbout9/6/2023 Item 4a, Adams From:Rob Adams < To:Advisory Bodies Subject:Planning Commission Safe Parking on Palm This message is from an External Source. Use caution when deciding to open attachments, click links, or respond. Dear Planning Commissioners, Your Agenda for 09/06/2023 presents the history of the safe parking program but misses some important context about the reason the Railroad Safe Parking program closed. When the Railroad Safe Parking opened there were multiple ongoing issues including criminal behavior that affected surrounding businesses, employees, customers, people who live near the parking lot, and visitors to the area. The Railroad Safe Parking Program was then “RESET” in February 2022, but neighbors and businesses nearby still described increased theft, drugs, threats, “ladies of the evening”, filth including human waste, and other problems because of the program. The city of SLO and CAPSLO planned to make the program at the railroad station permanent in September 2022, but neighbors revolted and sent you documentation of the nightmare they experienced. Miner’s Hardware said they saw their stolen merchandise in the cars of the participants at the site and listed many other problems. The plan was canceled until further notice. The Railroad Safe Parking Program was again “RESET” in September 2022. The city of SLO and CAPSLO also reached out to community organizations to locate parking lots to host the safe parking program on a rotating basis. As of 09/04/2023, there are no firm contracts with any community organizations in San Luis Obispo to host the overnight safe parking program like the one in Santa Barbara. SLOPD has responded to the Railroad Safe Parking site dozens of times since the latest “RESET” in September 2022, and SLO Fire has also been called to the site because of open fires. Now the city is trying to cobble something together by closing a city street in a neighborhood surrounded by hotels and people’s homes in a last-ditch effort to “RESET” again. The plan is outrageous. I just read the San Luis Obispo Grand Jury Report from June 2023 for the safe parking program on Oklahoma Avenue in your correspondence. It’s worth looking at because CAPSLO also managed that program and it shares similar issues with the Railroad Safe Parking site. When CAPSLO was contracted to provide case management services at the Oklahoma Site they gave applicants a contract to sign that established rules which, by and large, were not followed. “It is a common occurrence for the Site rules to be violated by the participants,” according to the Report. 1 The Report says that the lax attitude and failure to enforce rules led to the ongoing problems when the approach should have been: “This is the structure. This is the way it is. Break the rules, you’re out of here.” CAPSLO and the Dept of Social Services did not cooperate with the Grand Jury. The Report says, “To better understand the work of CAPSLO at the Site, the Jury also requested information about CAPSLO’s activities, actions, and outcomes. Specifically, the Jury requested copies of all data provided quarterly by CAPSLO to DSS in accordance with the case management contract. Although the Jury requested this documentation from DSS and from CAPSLO, the quarterly reports were not provided by either party and no explanation was given. From investigation, it appears the lofty goals outlined in the contract were not able to be attained.” The Report lists examples of frequent rule violations. Participants used alcohol and illegal drugs like fentanyl and heroin and were only removed from the program in the most extreme circumstances. Participants allowed people not approved for the program onto the Site, including former participants who were banned from the Site. The Report says that “known sex offenders have resided at the Site, without notice to other participants.” Weapons are prohibited at the Site but on at least one occasion, a firearm was found by law enforcement. Also, a participant threatened another with an axe. Aggressive animals are prohibited, but a County employee was bitten by a pit bull at the Site. Although the Grand Jury has not investigated the Railroad Safe Parking site, it’s no secret that there have been many problems at the site which are similar to findings at Oklahoma Ave. You’ve read the emails from the neighbors that describe the horrible things they went through. There are also documented responses from SLOPD. It is apparent that CAPSLO does not strictly enforce the rules that they provided to the participants at the Oklahoma Ave Site or the Railroad Safe Parking. The Oklahoma Ave safe parking site is located in a remote area, away from businesses and residential neighborhoods, but the Railroad Safe Parking was close to businesses and the Palm Street location is very close to people’s homes and businesses. The Railroad Safe Parking had 24/7 video surveillance, but the Palm Street location has no meaningful security measures in place. Security is expensive, which is probably why CAPSLO is not offering any real security or monitoring of the safe parking area on Palm Street. Their solution is to appoint one of the homeless participants as a “Site Captain” to oversee the security of other participants. This doesn’t make sense. 1. The purpose of the site is to allow participants to sleep. How can they act as security for the site while they are sleeping? Are there numerous “Site Captains” who take shifts overnight? How can they rest when they are acting as security? 2. The “self-policing” policy was unsuccessful at the Oklahoma Avenue Site. According to the Grand Jury Report, the paid security guards wrote 90 violations but when the program switched to the participants providing their own security, there were ZERO violations, and the written violations from the paid security were stolen from the guard shack, presumably by the participants. The written citations just disappeared! The County began paying for security guards again to provide security for the Site. The Report says the Santa Barbara "Safe Parking Shelter and Rapid Rehousing Program" by New Beginnings has been successful. The program proposed by CAPSLO is *NOT* the same as the program in Santa Barbara!! The difference is summed up in the Report related to how the SLO program SHOULD be run: “This is the structure. This is the way it is. Break the rules, you’re out of here.” Both programs run by CAPSLO failed to do that. New Beginnings in Santa Barbara strictly follows that policy, but rules were generally not enforced at the Railroad Safe Parking or at Oklahoma Avenue. The whack-a-mole, reactive process to locate a suitable location for a safe parking lot in San Luis Obispo is not the solution. The city or CAPSLO needs to attend the workshop put on by New Beginnings in Santa Barbara. 2 Pay for the mentorship that New Beginnings offers. Tighten up their rules with zero tolerance. Provide meaningful, outside security to oversee the program to make sure the rules are followed which may mean the city needs to provide a larger budget for security. Start with a smaller number of vehicles in a parking lot further from a residential neighborhood. Develop the program gradually and make sure there isn’t an increase in crime at the site. This is the only way to have a successful program and gain support for the program in our community. CAPSLO needs to put in a lot of work and planning beforehand, especially training with New Beginnings, and have a zero-tolerance policy that mirrors Santa Barbara’s program to increase the chance that the program is successful. Don’t force a solution that is not yet consistent with the success they have in Santa Barbara where the rules are strictly enforced and participants are in sanctioned parking lots. The Palm Street location should not be approved. There’s still a lot of work to do before CAPSLO is ready to “RESET” this program. 3