SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Unified School District and the City of San Diego are working together to help families experiencing homelessness. They're looking to use a district parking lot in City Heights as a safe parking site for families to sleep in their vehicles.
Students and staff moved from the old Central Elementary School to a new joint campus last year which left the site on Polk Avenue empty. Now the district is hoping to use the lot to help families experiencing homelessness.
"We have approximately 8,000 students in our district that are experiencing homelessness and of course that looks different for each student and family," said Richard Barrera, with the San Diego Unified School Board.
Barrera says these families often are sleeping in their cars. They want to open the parking lot to all families with school-aged children, not just families enrolled in the district.
"Our ability to be able to provide a little stability for a family is a gonna make a big difference for a student engaging in their school and in their academics," he said.
San Diego Unified is working with the city which would contract a non-profit organization to run the safe parking.
"The great thing about those organizations is they have on site social workers, support staff that can connect families to jobs emergency temporary assistance and just provides more security and security," Barrera said.
The city sent the following statement to CBS 8,
"The City has been engaging with officials from the San Diego Unified School District about potentially using surplus property at Central Elementary to add capacity to the successful Safe Parking Program. While these conversations are preliminary, the priority use for a potential site there would be families. We do not have other additional details or timelines to share at this time. The City is continuously evaluating sites to provide additional safe places for people experiencing homelessness, which includes continued discussions with San Diego Unified, among others.”
The district is hopeful to get the lot open soon before construction begins a few years from now. In the future, San Diego Unified looks to use the land to build affordable housing.
WATCH RELATED: Clairemont High and other schools may need new mascots | State to stop use of Native American terms