Of the 9,660 students in the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District, about 20 percent are defined as homeless. That doesn’t mean they are unhoused, necessarily – some students and their families cram into a single room in a home, for example, or they may be staying in a hotel – but it means that their housing situation is unstable and, most likely, not conducive to schoolwork outside of the classroom.
Carlos Diaz, MPUSD’s homeless liaison, says 63 percent of those 1,958 students are based in Seaside, so it seems fitting that the district’s pilot safe parking program will be located there, at the district’s Monterey Adult School on La Salle Avenue.
On Nov. 2, Seaside City Council unanimously approved a safe parking facility license for One Starfish Safe Parking and Supportive Services, a nonprofit that operates a handful of such sites, which serve people who are sleeping in their vehicles throughout the Monterey Peninsula.
Dorian Manuel, One Starfish’s programs director, expects the program to launch in the next few weeks. It will have room for 20 vehicles, and will have a bathroom and handwashing facilities on site; fencing will screen them from public view, and a security guard will check in the participants at 6:30pm and make periodic check-ins throughout the night until the lot closes at 7am.
Diaz says the district currently has 23 students who are either living on the street or in vehicles.
MPUSD Superintendent PK Diffenbaugh first brought this idea to MPUSD’s board about a year ago – navigating the permitting process took some time – and he says the program “will be there as long as the need is there.”