Hi, how are you.
Good to see you again.
So you run the Safe Parking LA program?
Yup, Yup.
And we've been here about three months.
So we're looking at, each council district, is looking at a safe parking area, and what
needs to be done in order to get a safe park zone in our district.
We want everybody on board.
We want the County to know, the police department to know, we want everybody to know.
How did it work with this particular lot?
So we approached them, and over a few months period of time through their leadership, they
went to their vestry, went to their congregation, we went to the neighborhood council, we went
to Olympic Division LAPD, and after a few months period of time, we put the deal together
with the memorandum of understanding with who's going to do what with the case management.
All of those pieces have to come together.
So you don't have people picketing out front here.
You don't have marches going down Normandie.
And I see you're on a church lot, youth programing, right adjacent to residential both on each
side Bob, and across the street.
How did you manage....
Pre-school, elementary school....
So share with us, how did you overcome all these concerns and also you're around sensitive
sites.
Right.
So we went to the neighborhood council.
We let them be the weather vain and they told us what they wanted to do.
Is there any interaction between the use of the church and kids and the Safe Parking?
Yes.
The pre-school, no, but the basketball kids, yes.
We'll in the course of the evening, the people who are using the lot will drive up and they'll
be courteous and drive around the kids, and the kids practice here basketball Tuesday,
Wednesday, and Thursday nights until 8 or 8:30 or until its dark.
And our patrons park on that part of the lot and everybody lives harmony.
So in all today, how many people are participating in the Safe Parking LA program?
We've approved about 65 people only of the 12,000 in the whole County.
In the city it's probably 8,000 people living in vehicles.
And actually my idea now is to get every neighborhood council, all 97 of them, to want do a safe
parking site.
The only ones that are here are the ones that have been fully vetted, that have been reviewed,
that you're saying are on the path to trying to get housing...
Correct.
So can you introduce us to the congregates of the church?
Sure!
Be happy to.
We have several here who would love to tell their story.
I'm Joe Buscaino.
How are you?
I'm Bob.
We're both members of the vestry, which is the board of the church here.
Explain to Bob and I the decision making process as far as having Safe Park LA here at your
church.
We considered it amongst our vestry meetings, and we thought about all the things that were
involved.
Safe Parking said they would provide security, provide wash facilities, and toilet facilities,
and that we can limit it to how ever many cars we thought we could accommodate.
We decided start small, and we started with ten, and ten seems to be working out fine.
Did you have any resistance from some of your congregates?
Well I think that had the normal questions that people would say: What are we going to
do about bad people staying here.
Is there going to be crime?
We have kids here playing basketball, we have preschool, a head start program here.
What are we going to do to keep them safe?
I think that's a reasonable question to have, but Safe Parking told us, "we'll vet the people
that are staying there, we'll have a security guard in case something happens they can contact
LAPD and have them take care of any problems.
To date we've had zero problems.
It's a program that's exhausted here that most members of our congregation hardly even
know that it's going on.
But I've had the opportunity to talk to a few of the people who are staying here at
night and I know that we are making a big difference to those people that are staying
here.
I think it was about 8:30pm or 9 o'clock, I hear this car rumbling in.
I find out it's one of our clients who's staying here.
She and her eight-year-old daughter were just trying to get into the parking lot.
So I asked her, you stayed here last night, how was it?
She said to me, "you know, this is the first good night sleep I've had in weeks."
She goes, "when you're staying on the streets and you're trying to keep your daughter safe,
getting a good night's sleep is very difficult to do, because when you're on the streets,
you don't know who's going to hassle you in the middle of the night.
Sometimes it's homeless people, sometimes it's bad folks that are out there."
And she goes, "staying here, knowing that there's a security guard right here to help
keep me safe, lets me sleep well for the first night that I've had a chance to sleep in weeks.
If you could speak to other churches and synagogues, and mosques, and give them advice, tell them
about your experience.
What would you tell them.
Of the hundreds or thousands of churches around here, if each one of them could just do what
we do and do ten, then we've taken care of a lot of people that are living in their vehicles,
and getting them off the street and having them have a safe place to stay and helping
them so they can continue to function because, in speaking with the Safe Parking folks here,
they say that sixty percent of people that are staying in our lot actually have jobs.
While we feel like we're only doing a small thing, it certainly is a big thing to the
ten people that are parking in our lot, and that's made a big difference in their lives.
What's fascinating Scott, we just had one of your clients just pull up into her parking
space with kids playing basketball here on the church lot.
Right.
Yeah, we believe in cohabitation.
So it is possible.
It's totally possible.
With the pre-school, with the kids playing basketball, with the band kids upstairs and
our patrons here, it's all very doable.
And that's all part of the vetting process too.
I mean, it's important that we know who she is and where she comes from and why she wants
to be here, and she'll be happy to tell you her story herself.
Let's go meet her.
Angela, are you ready to say hello?
Sure I am!
I'm Joe Buscaino, Angela.
What an appropriate name in the City of Angels.
Thats right!
My colleague, Councilmember Bob Blumenfield.
Nice to meet you.
So you're ok with sharing your story with the city.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Tell us why you come here.
I come here because, ok, so, I've been homeless since January 2017 because of domestic abuse.
I decided when I was ready to make sure I was safe, that somehow I would call some organization
to help me out.
So my sister said, "try a church."
And that's when I found Scott's program and I was like so happy because I think the people
that come here actually want help.
They actually want to do something with their lives - each and every one of us.
I mean, because we talk and we're all striving for something.
You know what I'm saying?
But when you're on the street - out there, there's drug addicts, and this and this and
this - not all of them, but some of them are just comfortable with their life and I'm not,
I'm not ok.
I own my own business, and I'll be damned if take me down.
So what do you do?
I'm a dog trainer.
What's the name of your company?
Venice Beach's own dog whisperer.
Nice to meet you!
And I see your dog is well behaved...
Absolutely!
I mean it's hard because of him, but I'm not giving him up.
We hear that a lot.
One lady tried to tell me in a shelter, "you need to figure out your situation."
I said, "I'm not giving up my dog."
So you feel comfortable sleeping here.
Oh, I love it.
And how about the other nine folks who pull up here at night?
They're awesome.
If Safe Parking did not provide you a spot here, where would you be tonight?
I would be trying to find a spot where the cops can't get me and there's no drug addicts
and parties going on - prostitution, you know what I mean, yeah, absolutely.
Most likely in a residential area?
It's scary.
Yeah, but then you get tickets for that.
I do my private - I won't say where it's at, but it's a private industrial area on the
weekends.
Why do you do that on the weekends?
Because I can sleep in.
You know what?
That's real though.
It's hard being homeless.
I mean you're constantly - whether you're on foot or in a car, you're constantly doing
something.
You know what I'm saying?
Here you've gotta be out by 6AM, right?
Right.
So it keeps me scheduled and focused.
Do you feel safe with the security on site.
Yes.
I can't even tell you.
I'm getting chills talking about it - how safe I feel here.
And I'm gonna cry.
I mean, I feel really blessed.
Hey girl!
How you doing?
I'm Bob.
Aimee, nice to meet you.
I'm Joe Buscaino.
We're both Councilmembers.
Joe and Bob.
How's this work for you?
Ok, there's nothing more peaceful than going to sleep to the sound of children playing.
You know it's like when you hear kids playing, you know that things are ok.
You know that things are safe and things are good.
Yeah, it's been a great program.
I've found that there's a lot of problems with parking in random places.
It's hard to find parking, and I didn't want to be in violation.
How did you end up that you needed to be in that situation where you needed Safe Parking?
I work in TV and film and when the production ended, my work ended and I had problems finding
more work after that.
Has there been any folks here that have creeped you out or something?
No.
Not at all.
I never feel uncomfortable here.
Everybody minds their own business and everybody's polite, and everybody's peaceful.
Like the wall right here is a good indicator of how it feels around here.
Even though this is a great environment in that sense, you're still sleeping in a car.
I mean, that's gotta be freezing at night sometimes.
Oh, it's rough!
And you get up and - oh God.
Sometimes it's like, we're going....Good Morning...
Is it a struggle to find three hot meals a day, or three meals a day?
I'm pretty resourceful, so I do cook things like rice or beans.
Those are inexpensive items to cook.
And I do eat pretty good because of a lack of refrigeration, I'm eating whole foods like
fruits and vegetables.
You know everybody, I think, perceives homeless people as being bums or whatever, but just
trying to figure out how to survive, you know, the day to day struggles like where to shower,
where to stay cool, where to get warm....water.
What's your message, both of you, to community members, residents who are maybe hesitant
to accept these types of homeless services in their own neighborhood?
It's an understandable thing because when you're talking about people with mental health
issues, if you have children around, you do want to know who your neighbors are.
I guess that's one positive thing about Safe Park, your know, we're somewhat vetted to
come in here and park and the security really helps.
Well, I haven't seen any problems, so we're almost like we self regulate, but having security
around helps, I guess, prevent any bad behavior.
A lot of people, you know, haven't experience any type of adversity or trauma, they figure
you must be bad if you are homeless.
You guys are great.
Thank you for getting us out there.
Appreciate you sharing your story.
If everyone does a little, we can do a lot.
If everyone does a little, we can do a lot.
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