County of San Diego reopens safe parking site in El Cajon
EL CAJON, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) -- The County of San Diego recently reopened a safe parking site in El Cajon which had previously been closed due to renovations.
- Watch the report by FOX 5/KUSI's Dan Plante above.
The site on North Magnolia Avenue was the first safe parking program in East County when it opened in 2022. It closed in 2024 to undergo a $3 million renovation.
Those renovations included replacing portable toilets with permanent bathrooms and shower facilities as well as adding a new area for dogs.
The site provides 17 secure parking spaces for people experiencing homelessness to sleep inside their parked vehicles and offers on-site case management and housing navigation services to help them find stable housing.
Before it was established as a safe parking site, it was the location of a large homeless encampment that also extended below the overpass and into the street, according to the county.
The safe parking program is now operated by the organization Dreams for Change, which also operates two similar programs, Grantville and Bancroft (Spring Valley).
The Magnolia site opens each evening at 5:30 p.m. and participants are required to leave by 7 a.m. the next morning.
Security patrols the area for 24 hours, 7 days a week. People may stay enrolled in the program until they are able to find a more permanent housing option, the county said.
