As waitlist for Safe Park Indy grows, group looks to expand

Safe Park Indy, a program that gives homeless people living in their cars a safe place to park overnight, is already expanding. 

The program started in October 2024 with a parking lot on the northeast side of Indianapolis. A second parking lot is expected to be added on the city’s near northside in January.

The program gives people living out of their cars a safe place to park overnight where they don’t have to worry about being harassed, as well as access to bathrooms and rooms full of toiletries and some food.

Elizabeth Friedland, the founder and executive director of Safe Park Indy, said the unmet demand has accelerated their plans to expand. She said that after launching the program in October the waitlist quickly grew from 50 to almost 400 people.

“What’s driven this is organizations in town, particularly the faith-based community, agreeing to open up their parking lots and indoor spaces to us and understanding the need here in Indianapolis,” she said. “That has allowed us to expand really quickly.”

The expansion is also important for some homeless individuals who say driving across town to a safe parking lot burned too much gas to be worthwhile.

But Friedland said their group is still struggling to meet the amount of need they are seeing.

“When we see that we have over 370 people saying ‘I’m homeless and living in my car and have no place to go’, that is a huge number,” she said.

So far, Safe Park Indy is funded through charitable donations but Friedland hopes they will soon begin receiving grants to help support and sustain the program.

The latest location on the near northside will open sometime in January and Friedland says they are looking for another location to open by March 2025.

People can apply for the waitlist by visiting safeparkindy.org.

Contact Health Reporter Benjamin Thorp at bthorp@wfyi.org.