LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles International Airport will soon be home to a pair of safe parking lots for homeless individuals living in their vehicles.
The Federal Aviation Administration has granted permission to Los Angeles World Airports, which operates the airport, to allow a section of Lot E and a portion of FlyAway bus overflow parking for a nighttime program that lets people sleep in their cars and RVs.
About 16,000 of LA County’s 64,000 homeless live in their vehicles, according to the most recent count from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. Safe parking is designed to provide a legal place for them to park overnight that includes restrooms, security and trash services.
“These are not encampments,” Mike Bonin told Spectrum News 1 when the idea was first proposed last year. “They are an emergency response — an alternative — to encampments, and they are temporary solutions meant to get people off the streets and into homes.”
To participate, people using the safe parking program have to be enrolled in a full case management program that is working to find them stable housing, according to LAWA. Their vehicles must be registered and in working condition. They must also vacate the premises by a set time each morning. No tents, camping equipment, or cooking equipment are allowed.
LAHSA already operates two dozen safe parking lots in the county, three of which are in Council District 11, including Westchester, the West LA Department of Veterans Affairs and Bonin’s West LA office. The sites at LAX are the first at an airport.
Lot E, on 111th Street, will allow a maximum of 50 cars to park overnight between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. The Van Nuys FlyAway Overflow Parking Lot, on Gloria Ave., can accommodate a maximum of 25 RVs and will operate from 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. daily.
Participants in the overflow lot safe parking program will need to sign a code of conduct before being accepted. Seniors, veterans, women and individuals with children will be given preference.
Both lots will use fencing to separate the safe parking area and will include a specific access point for participants to check in and out. They will be staffed with two security guards each and will also provide restrooms, hand-washing stations and trash removal services.
LAHSA will run the airport’s safe parking sites. The contract term will last for one year, although LAWA has the option to extend it beyond a year or to terminate it within 30 days if problems arise.
In granting permission to LAWA, the FAA said participants in the safe parking program must be made aware that the location where they are sleeping is next to a noise-sensitive area that is incompatible for residential use because it is near a runway.
While the FAA has approved the safe parking lots at LAX, it will be a few months before they can open, an airport spokesperson said. Council District 11 still needs to identify funding and coordinate with LAHSA to get them up and running.