190-space safe parking lot for people living in cars to open near San Diego Aiport

A former first-responder training facility near the San Diego Airport is set to open this weekend as a repurposed safe-sleeping parking lot for unhoused residents.

The H Barracks site off North Harbor Drive between Kincaid and McCain roads will provide 190 parking spaces for use by individuals and families living in their vehicles. The site will be managed by the nonprofit Jewish Family Service of San Diego, who operates the program at other locations across the city.

“The individuals and families served through the Safe Parking Program are our neighbors, and many are experiencing homelessness for the first time — needing just a little bit of help to get back on their feet,” Mayor Todd Gloria said when the new site was approved in mid-April. “Programs like Safe Parking give us a chance to intervene early and get folks on a path back to housing, and with the H Barracks site, we’ll be able to help hundreds more struggling San Diegans.

Jewish Family Services CEO Dana Toppel said the program is intended to provide additional services that can provide residents a “pathway to stability.” Their sites include restrooms, housing navigation, mental health services and job training, and participants work with case managers to create individual housing goals, according to the city.

The additional parking spaces will bring San Diego’s Safe Parking Program to about 400 spaces. H Barracks also includes space for recreational vehicles.

The city’s director of the city’s Homelessness Strategies and Solutions Department, Sarah Jarman, said the program targets a different need among San Diego’s unhoused population.

“We know from the latest Point in Time Count that the need here has grown and not just for cars, but for oversized vehicles too. Investing in multiple types of sheltering options is key to meeting people where they are,” Jarman said previously.

The city has filed a permit application for a 600-bed facility at the H Barracks. NBC 7’s Omari Fleming reports some residents are questioning the city’s transparency about the project. 

Some members of the nearby Point Loma community opposed the location for the new site while others agreed action should be taken to provide people a path toward housing.

According to a city staff report, just within the last year, JFS has served more than 1,000 individuals across all four safe parking sites. Of those, more than 800 exited the program with more than 250 of them moving into permanent housing.

The H Barracks were previously military barracks and served as a police and fire department training facility, but the crumbling buildings were torn down earlier this year. The area is the future site of a San Diego Pure Water treatment facility. Paving was completed last month at the location and mobile office trailers for program staff have been added, with electrical work and lighting upgrades to be completed soon.

The site could be open through 2029. The city has four one-year options to renew the agreement before the Pure Water facility begins operations.