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Court stops closure of homeless parking site amid infestation at San Luis Obispo shelter

March 30, 2024

40 Prado Homeless Shelter

By KAREN VELIE

A judge on Friday extended a temporary restraining order that blocks the closure of a safe parking site off Highway 1 after receiving reports of a lice infestation at the 40 Prado Homeless Services Center in San Luis Obispo.

The safe parking site adjacent to the SLO County Sheriff’s Office was slated to close on Friday, but will now remain open until April 29. There are now 10 to 11 people currently residing at the site, down from 16 residents in mid-March.

During the hearing, representatives for the county argued there are mutiple area facilities, including the 40 Prado Homeless Services Center, where the remaining residents can find shelter.They also reminded the court that the safe parking site was always temporary, with those permitted to stay required to sign a contracts.

Attorneys representing the homeless occupants argued the CAPSLO run shelter on 40 Prado Road in San Luis Obispo is a lice invested, unsafe facility. As evidence, the attorneys showed photos of laundry with lice, residents with bites and provided documentation of health issues.

“In light of the foregoing concerns about the suitability of 40 Prado, which is the shelter most readily-available to all remaining persons, the Court finds good cause to extend the temporary restraining order for a period of 31 days to Monday April 29, 2024,” according to the court order.

Established in 2021 as a temporary safe parking site, the county began taking steps last year to close the site. Late last year, county staff told homeless individuals remaining at the site on Oklahoma Avenue to leave the location.

In January, Homeless Union of San Luis Obispo attorneys filed a restraining order request asking the court to stop the proposed closure.

Homeless parking site

Protest at safe parking site

On Feb. 1, the county gave tenants of the site a month and a half to move out. San Luis Obispo County planned to officially close the safe parking site on March 18.

On March 15, a judge approved a temporary restraining order stopping the proposed closure until March 29. On Friday, the court extended the temporary restraining order through April 29.

Since its establishment in Oct. 2021, 115 people have lived at the Oklahoma Avenue site. And during that time, emergency personnel have responded to more than 500 calls for assistance, including calls reporting three deaths, disturbing the peace, spousal abuse or battery, threats, burglary or theft and mental health issues.

 


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Dee Torres and Adam Hill are still the face of CAPSLO, 100% government funded but as a “non-profit”, no transparency, and no limit on salaries. A massive scam. If it’s a function of government, let it be government with open records, and it could hardly be less efficient. I have first-hand experience.


20

It gets worse…I just heard today that CAPSLO purchased the adjacent junkyard property at 46-48 Prado and are gonna expand! These idiots think it’s cool to turn SLO into the West Coast mecca for every bum, druggie, and vagrant within a thousand miles. Can’t wait to see the town look like Skid Row or San Francisco and laff when property values tank and insurers pull out.


0

Do you really want to help them?… then stop trying to help them… its not working…


13

Let just funnel another 5 million in taxpayer funds to CAPSLO for 40 Prado with no accountability and that will solve the problem.


17

Naked woman leads officers on chase through San Luis Obispo County. These people need either a state/county they can afford, treatment, or a job. Parking lots can not be an option.


-5

Thanks to 40 Prado, SLO’s homeless population is WAY bigger than it was before. Now the town is a hobo magnet for other cities to export their problems to. The only beneficiary is the Homeless Industrial Complex. Everyone else gets to enjoy feces, needles and crime about town.


21

How much rent do those utilizing the Highway 1 safe parking site pay? I hope that it covers the cost associated with the operation of the site.


20

You are joking, right? $20/hr jobs are unfilled, but the free-everything entitlement, drugs, alcohol, and intreated mental illness, are enabled by the County and its associated quasi-government homeless-industry organizations.


11

Attorneys representing the folks at the Oklahoma Avenue site argue that the multi-million dollar, less-than-6-years-old (and soon to be expanded) 40 Prado Homeless Services Center operated by CAPSLO is unsafe? I find that allegation highly suspect. If there is a lice infestation is the entire facility closed down or are treatment and mitigation measures already implemented? In which case the 40 Prado facility is only unsafe for the lice.


28