Oakland Provides Funding For Homeless Parking

OAKLAND, CA — Oakland city councilmembers voted Tuesday night to fund a safe parking program for people living in vehicles, councilmember Rebecca Kaplan's office said.

Ahead of the vote, five faith-based congregations had already offered their properties as places for the homeless to park and Kaplan said she expects more will follow.

"We haven't begun outreach," Kaplan said.

Oakland will give a grant of no more than $300,000 to an organization on behalf of the Interfaith Council of Alameda County to fund the program that starts Nov. 1 and ends Oct. 31 of next year.

The Interfaith Council of Alameda County was founded recently and includes faith-based congregations, faith-based organizations and spiritually-minded people, according to its website.

Kaplan's office said if more money becomes available, the city will increase the grant amount so more parking spaces can be provided during the grant period.

"This is a very exciting program," Kaplan said. Allowing people to park will help them access social services or
whatever they need to get their lives together rather than being moved from one homeless camp to another by police.

Kaplan expects people will be safer and cleaner than in a homeless camp.

According to Kaplan, many of the congregations have kitchens and bathrooms. Some church lots have security and security may be able to be provided at others.

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— Bay City News; Image via Shutterstock