(The Center Square) – Bellevue’s Safe Parking program for homeless families is likely to be extended into 2025 and 2026.
The pilot program provides a parking area that is off-street for homeless people living in their vehicles.
Bellevue’s Lincoln Center is where the program is located, providing 37,000 square feet of parking space. Participants also have access to a day center where clients have access to on-site amenities including restrooms, a kitchen, laundry facilities and Wi-Fi, plus support from staff for finding housing.
Currently, there are 18 households enrolled in the Safe Parking program. Since the program’s inception, 30 households have been served.
On an individual level, 107 people have been served, with 66 being minors.
So far in its first year of operations, the Safe Parking program is seeing a success rate of 36.6%, with 11 out of the 30 households exiting the program and moving into housing. That means 43 people, including 28 children, have found housing after participating in the program.
City officials found the program’s initial results promising based on its newly proposed budget, which includes a continuation of the Safe Parking program run by 4 Tomorrow, a Latino- and youth-focused organization based in Bellevue that serves East King County.
The city’s preliminary 2025-2026 budget dedicates $450,000 to the program each year. That matches the original allocation of funding the city proposed to organizations willing to take on operation of the parking area.
According to Bellevue Deputy Communications Officer Emily Inlow-Hood, everyone who has been served at the site is part of a family with children. Some of the children are enrolled in the Bellevue School District, while others are enrolled in neighboring school districts.
Participants are referred by the Bellevue’s Homelessness Outreach staff, the Bellevue School District, other safe parking programs in the region, and other agencies that work with children who are experiencing homelessness.
Any Safe Parking program participant is required to be screened by the city’s outreach staff prior to referral.
Inlow-Hood added that the program has been receiving support from the Bellevue community.
“Our community has also shown a lot of positive interest, with many community members volunteering or donating,” Inlow-Hood said in an email to The Center Square.
