The San Diego Housing Commission has signed off on a plan to convert an empty lot at a shuttered school into a place where homeless students can sleep in their vehicles.
The agency’s Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Friday to use the Old Central Elementary campus in City Heights as a safe parking site for families.
Officials previously said they hoped to open the 40 parking spots by Thanksgiving.
Leaders for years have been trying to use the property as a secure place for some of the many children living out of cars, trucks and vans. During the last academic year, more than 19,800 kids countywide lacked stable housing, according to the California Department of Education. Yet until recently, funding woes threatened to derail the project.
The San Diego City Council, the Regional Task Force on Homelessness and the nonprofit Jewish Family Service, which will oversee the lot, eventually agreed to chip in more than $593,000 to fund renovations and staffing.
Families with students in the San Diego Unified School District are to get first dibs. (The school board approved the project last month.) If space remains, leaders may later make spots available to kids from neighboring districts.
The lot is expected to be open nightly from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. for a year. Starting around November 2026, the property is scheduled to become an affordable housing complex for district employees.
The program comes with security guards, a large turf field and two bungalows that have space for meal preparation, homework and case manager meetings. Pets will be allowed. RVs will not.
San Diego has otherwise struggled recently to fill its safe parking lots for homeless individuals. One site in Kearny Mesa is set to close, at least temporarily, by the end of the month.