Colorado Safe Parking Initiative is a community-driven organization working to provide safe overnight environments for people experiencing homelessness in the Metro Denver area. They know that without intervention and support, many who are sheltering in vehicles fall deeper into homelessness and may eventually end up on the streets.
Colorado Safe Parking Initiative
Meeting a Mutual Need
In the last century, the city of Denver has been redesigned to accommodate not more humans, but cars. Parking lots take up nearly as much acreage in the metro area as living, working, and recreational spaces, and are often left empty at day’s end. Since its founding in 2020, Colorado Safe Parking Initiative (CSPI) has been pairing underutilized parking lots with a much-needed human service: a safe and secure place for people living in their vehicles to spend the night.
“CSPI advocates for and supports people who are living in their vehicles while they're trying to get back into stable housing,” says CSPI executive director, Terrell Curtis. She explains that the national illegality of sleeping in a car puts unhoused folks at risk of becoming victims of crime or harassment—often being relocated by police several times a night. “There’s a lot of stress and fear for physical safety, on top of the stress and anxiety of experiencing homelessness,” she says.
Thinking creatively about how to transform usable space into purposeful place, CSPI currently operates 14 lots around the Metro Denver area, most of which are owned by faith communities and
nonprofits whose lots are unused overnight. In addition to safe physical space—and, at some lots, meals and basic amenities provided by the partnering lot-owner—CSPI offers folks help with affordable housing and employment resources. Lot occupancy is kept between 10–15 cars, intentionally small so that trusting relationships can grow between CSPI community members (which the organization calls “parkers”) and lot hosts.
“We’re building a really strong system of mutual support in the lots,” Curtis says, sharing how she once saw a church volunteer swing by a lot to drop off a tie for a parker’s upcoming job interview.
Building a sense of belonging at the lots is central to CSPI’s mission, and so is enabling continuity and proximity to known supports. CSPI community members are often newly experiencing homelessness, and seeking to stay rooted. “Parkers can stay in their home community, near their family, work, and other services they need to access,” says Curtis. “These are people who've already developed a place for themselves, and we really want to support that however we can.”
This year, CSPI crafted a three-year plan that’s allowed them to articulate where and how they want to grow, which they aim to do through excellent programming, fiscal responsibility, sustainability, and partnerships. “There’s so much more need than we can meet, and that's certainly true of any homeless-serving organization,” says Curtis. “This is a whole-community challenge, so the whole community can and should be part of the solution.”
“There’s so much more need than we can meet, and that's certainly true of any homeless-serving organization. This is a whole-community challenge, so the whole community can and should be part of the solution.”
- Terrell Curtis
Colorado Safe Parking Inititative
Executive Director
Overnight Parking
The Colorado Safe Parking Initiative is
making a difference by turning underutilized
lots into havens for those in need.