The Lompoc City Council said no to a safe parking program proposal, for now, citing a lack of funding and concerns about a potential U.S. Supreme Court decision on the rights of people sleeping in vehicles.
During Tuesday night’s meeting, Mayor Jenelle Osborne and Councilwoman Gilda Cordova wanted to move forward with the overnight parking program for homeless residents, while Councilmen Jim Mosby, Dirk Starbuck and Victor Vega voted to continue the item.
The proposed program, like similar ones in Santa Barbara and elsewhere, would designate a place for people could park their vehicles and recreational vehicles for the night to sleep. Programs usually include services, such as security, lighting and restrooms, in addition to a safe place to park overnight.
The city’s financial woes caused concerns about funding the program.
“We don’t have any money to do anything we’re dreaming about here,” Mosby said.
Late last year, the city received complaints about people living in vehicles on two streets in the community, prompting talks about how to end the activity.
“Homeless persons sleeping in their vehicles and recreation vehicles throughout the city has been having an adverse effect on the residential community as well as the business community,” Community Development Director Christie Alarcon said.
A barebones safe parking program could cost the city at least $55,000 with signs, permits and portable restrooms. A more extensive program, with security and lighting, could cost $300,000 or more, Alarcon said.
“The cheaper you get the more risk you put yourself at,” she added.
While Lompoc has wrestled with the homeless encampments of people living illegally in the riverbed — with ongoing problems leading to a massive clean-up effort last fall — the homeless residents sleeping in their own vehicles represent a different population, the city said. Many people living in their vehicles hold jobs locally, but cannot afford rent.
Alarcon said the program done properly would ensure people have registered vehicles in good condition with participants required to enroll in programs to help improve their situation.
City staff originally suggested the City Hall parking lot, off Ocean Avenue, as a site for the program, and mentioned the parking lot at Johns-Manville Park’s, which is busy with youth sports, as another option.
A parking lot at I Street and Ocean Avenue also could host the safe parking program, but has some of the same negative aspects as the City Hall site.
“I don’t think it’s good economically to have it on the main streets,” Vega said.
Osborne said she hoped to see the program established.
“What I’d like to do is find a way to make this happen because we are causing pain on our residents, causing pain on our public safety by not being able to put this into play,” she said.
She added she hoped to get proposals from a local nonprofit which could qualify for grant funding and shepherd the program.
Council members also decided to delay the program due to a pending court case. A U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth District case from Idaho determined cities can’t cite people sleeping in vehicles parked on streets unless a safe parking program or other option is available.
City Attorney Jeff Malawy said the appellate ruling does not allow police to ticket people sleeping in vehicles, with the court opinion calling it “a cruel and unusual punishment” to cite someone sleeping on public property if there is not an available shelter bed or other place for them.
Lompoc, along with other cities, has signed on to support Boise’s appeal of the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court with a decision pending on whether the panel will even consider the matter. If the court accepts the case, a final decision on the constitutionality could be months away.
Council members questioned why the city would implement a program now if the law might change with the Supreme Court decision, and wondered how the city could again foot a costly bill for homeless-related matters.
“It’s taxpayer versus homeless again right here and it’s not working for the city especially the way we are now so I’m very indecisive on this,” Councilman Dirk Starbuck said.
During the meeting, one businessman objected to the program and proposed downtown locatons.
“We struggle enough now to try to make things go in Lompoc, and then you want to bring in these RVs that are homeless people downtown,” he told the council. “What are you thinking?”
Pastor Brian Halterman from Micah Mission and manager to Bridge House Homeless Shelter, said he hears people repeatedly say, “if we build it they will come.
“Do we realize that they’re here? And do we realize ‘they’ is a person. Not a motor home. And not a car,” Halterman said.
Good Samaritan Shelter applied for grant money to help out, but needed funding, and faith-based organizations would step up to help, he added.
“But they also need to see a City Council and a city that’s willing to step up to the plate at the same time and put some skin in the game,” Halterman said.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.