Convening Paragraph
As the systemic issue of housing unaffordability continues to plague our region, our communities are experiencing an increase in unhoused people who live in their vehicles and park alongside city curbs. The presence of such individuals and their vehicles results in health and safety impacts for adjacent business owners and residents. And many vehicle dwellers report that they would prefer to live in a shelter or even in a safe parking lot, but such options are not available or have requirements they cannot meet.
The negative impacts of vehicle dwellers and vehicles on city streets are being addressed on a city-by-city level, typically by severely restricting or outright banning overnight parking, where one jurisdiction’s solution becomes another jurisdiction’s problem. The City of Palo Alto has not banned overnight parking and is seeing its numbers of such vehicles increase.
We seek to join in a solutions-oriented dialogue with others who are interested in exploring a regional approach to addressing both sides of this complex issue (the negative impacts and the needs of vehicle dwellers). Safe parking programs and other innovations have shown some success and lessons learned, though resources required and perceptions constrain their expansion.
Therefore, Palo Alto is proposing a Convening on this matter to be held in Spring of 2026, and to be co-led by the City of Palo Alto, Office of Santa Clara County Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koba, Santa Clara County Office of Supportive Housing, Joint Venture Silicon Valley, and Stanford University. Invitations to the Convening will be extended to: city and county staff and elected officials from around the region; non-profit leaders who work with unhoused people; developers, business owners, and other property owners; members of academe; and thought leaders from myriad sectors and industries.
Intended outcomes of the Convening are:
1. Conduct an outside-the-box conversation on this challenging issue that utilizes design thinking to get us to previously unexplored potential solutions that reduce negative impacts and also improve quality of life and dignity for vehicle dwellers.
2. Identify potential solutions that will address both the negative impacts of vehicle dwellers and that create a more permanent and dignified housing solution for such persons.
3. Create a task force to flesh out the solutions and identify funding sources.
Attachment to Staff Report - Overview of Regional Convening