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A new 'solution' to student homelessness: A parking lot where students can sleep safely in their cars By James Bernal for The Hechinger Report via Stacker
Mike Muñoz is a first-generation college student who now serves as superintendent and president of Long Beach City College and works to support students from traditionally disadvantaged backgrounds. | Photo courtesy of James Bernal/The Hechinger Report/Stacker
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hen Edgar Rosales Jr. uses the word “home,” the second-year college student with a linebacker’s build isn’t referring to the house he plans to buy after becoming a nurse or getting a job in public health. Rather, the student at California’s Long Beach City College is talking about the parking lot he slept in every night for more than a year. With Oprah-esque enthusiasm, Rosales calls the other students who use LBCC’s Safe Parking Program his “roommates” or “neighbors.” Between 8 and 10:30 p.m., those neighbors drive onto the lot, where staff park during the day. Nearby showers open at 6 a.m. Sleeping in a car may not sound like a step up, but for
Rosales — who dropped out of a Compton high school more than 20 years ago to become a truck driver — being handed a key fob to a bathroom stocked with toilet paper and hand soap was life-altering. He kept the plastic tab on his key ring, even though he was supposed to place it in a drop box each morning, because the sight of it brought comfort; the sense of it between his fingers, hard and slick, felt like peace. When Rosales and his son’s mother called it off again in the fall of 2024, just after he’d finished a GED program and enrolled at LBCC, he stayed with his brother for a week or so. But he didn’t want to be a burden. So one day
Edgar Rosales Jr., a Long Beach City College student who has experienced homelessness, sits in the car where he lived for three years. | Photo courtesy of James Bernbal/The Hechinger Report/Stacker
after work at the trucking company — he’d gone part-time since enrolling, though he’d still regularly clock 40 hours a week — he circled the block in his beat-up sedan and parked on the side of the road, near some RVs and an encampment. The scariest part of sleeping in his car was the noises, Rosales told The Hechinger Report: “I heard a dog barking or I heard somebody running around or you see cop lights going down the street. You see people looking in your car.” He couldn’t sleep, let alone focus. Without the ability to bathe regularly, he began to avoid people to spare them the smell. The car became his sanctuary, but also, a See Homelessness Page 03
prison. As he put it, “It starts messing with your mental health.” First, Rosales dropped a class. A few weeks later, he told his LBCC peer navigator he couldn’t do it anymore and needed her help to withdraw. Instead, she got Rosales signed up for the college’s Safe Parking Program, and everything flipped on its head. With the LBCC lot’s outlets and WiFi, the back seat of his car morphed into a study carrel. Campus security was there to watch over him, not threaten him like the police had, telling him to move along or issuing a citation that cost him a day’s pay. For the first time in a month, Rosales said, “I could just
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Altadena Forever Run to benefit those affected by Eaton Fire May S. Ruiz MayRChu56@gmail.com
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he Eaton Fire of Jan. 7, 2025, will be endlessly seared in the collective memories of the Pasadenans and Altadenans who experienced the largest blaze in the history of the San Gabriel Valley. Overnight 19 people died and 9,000 structures were reduced to ashes, among them 80 homes at Upper Hastings Ranch in Pasadena and over 4,500 in Altadena. Large corporations and private citizens across the country responded immediately to the disaster — sending cash, food, personal items and other basic necessities to the various collection sites that opened during the days following the fire. All through the year, several nonprofit organizations emerged in Altadena to continue to support those who were affected even as the rest of the country moved on to other important matters. Community leaders have worked ceaselessly to keep the momentum going and thought of ways to ensure we didn’t forget that thousands of Altadenans are still grappling with the aftermath. Two individuals — Victoria Knapp and Ethan Marquez — are collaborating on an event to benefit those who were affected by the Eaton Fire. They are co-chairing the Altadena Forever Run which will be held at 8 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 4 at the Mariposa Junction in Altadena. See Eaton Fire Page 24
Thousands of runners and community members will gather for a10K, 5K and 1K family run raising critical funds for residents still recovering from the Eaton Fire — including individuals and families who remain displaced, are living in vehicles or are running out of short-term rental assistance. Victoria Knapp is a longstanding Altadena community leader and organizer whose civic work has focused on connection, recovery, and purposeful engagement. A former Pasadenan, she made Altadena her home in 2011, where she spent the next 15 years deeply involved in community life. She played a central role in crisis communication and community coordination after the fire, helping residents navigate loss while fostering collaboration among neighbors, small businesses, and local organizations throughout the recovery period. She is a firm advocate for community-based initiatives that bring people together with purpose and meaning, including the Altadena Forever Run, which reflects her belief that shared action — like running together — can be a powerful force in healing and resilience. Ethan Marquez is a 26-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department with a career spanning custody, patrol, training, and command assignments. He was on the scene during the Eaton