Encinitas may not replace the overnight parking lot program for homeless people, which operated at the city’s Community & Senior Center until the end of 2025.

“There are other ways to better serve those same clients,” Mayor Bruce Ehlers said as the City Council discussed the latest version of the city’s five-year, homeless planning document during a special meeting Wednesday.

Ehlers said he knows that some homeless people, particularly women, say they would prefer to sleep in their vehicles for safety reasons rather than going to the Buena Creek Navigation Center — a regional facility with 48 beds that opened in Vista in 2024. Considered a “low-barrier” housing facility, Buena Creek admits people who may have substance abuse or mental health issues and then allows them to work toward recovery.

However, the mayor said, people who don’t want to go there would be better served with hotel vouchers, rather than being allowed to sleep in their vehicles in an Encinitas city parking lot each night for many weeks while caseworkers attempt to find housing for them.

Established by Jewish Family Service at the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020, the former Encinitas Safe Parking Lot program was originally located on the Leichtag Foundation property. It relocated to the lower part of the community center parking lot in 2021.

When it was established, proponents said it would help the community’s “hidden homeless” — people who had recently lost their housing due to financial reasons and need temporary help before they spiraled into permanent homelessness. Participants were pre-screened off-site, and then allowed into the lot’s 25 parking spots each night. Portable bathrooms and other services were provided.

Throughout its 5-year run, the program was funded by regional grant money as well as JFS funding, while the city contributed the parking lot for $1 a year. The lot closed Dec. 31 after JFS officials said they had a grant funding gap and tried to get the city to pay the next year’s full estimated operating costs. JFS officials sought $610,000 and a one-year contract; the City Council counter-offered with $150,000 and a half-year contract. JFS officials said this wasn’t acceptable and terminated the program.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Councilmembers Luke Shaffer and Marco San Antonio mentioned that Encinitas has just begun contracting with the San Diego Rescue Mission to provide outreach services to homeless people and said the Rescue Mission already appears to be making a significant impact. Rescue Mission records indicate that it has served 98 people and made 40 placements during its first two-month period.

The city ought to give this program more time, and then “maybe we won’t need a parking lot,” San Antonio said.

While Councilmember Joy Lyndes said she wanted the city’s homeless planning document to stress the importance of having an overnight parking lot program, Councilmember Jim O’Hara said he considered the JFS lot a “regional” program, rather than one for Encinitas people. He said he would support an overnight parking lot if it was in a different city.

The mayor and City Manager Jennifer Campbell said that Dreams for Change — a nonprofit that operates other overnight parking lot programs in San Diego County — has been in contact with the city, but said there have been only informal conversations with that organization.

“We’re not negotiating with anyone at this time for a Safe Parking Lot,” Campbell said.

If Encinitas were to establish a new parking lot program, it would need to go through a lengthy procurement process, including seeking bids, she said.