A program that was born out of a March 10 decision by Colorado Springs City Council to ban car camping on public streets within city limits for more than 24 hours is close to launching, according to organizers.

“We understand there are a number of families in the Colorado Springs community who are, if not continuously then at least periodically, living out of their vehicles, and they need to have a safe and legal option for being able to park during the time they’re trying to stabilize,” said Tim Close, executive director of Family Promise of Colorado Springs.

The nonprofit organization, formerly known as Interfaith Hospitality Network of Colorado Springs, has joined forces with Ascending to Health Respite Care, a longtime local street health care program, to build Families First Safe Parking as an extension of Family Promise’s existing shelter model.

For 30 years, Family Promise of Colorado Springs has rotated homeless families to inside accommodations at different congregations for temporary overnight stays until they are placed in stable housing. The organization also runs a day house, which has rooms for families as well. Meals, case management, computer access for job hunting, laundry facilities, space for kids to do homework and other services are available for clients.

Now, churches are opening their parking lots in addition to their basements or other rooms for families to bed for the night.

“Because this hasn’t been done before, we’re proceeding on a learning and trial basis to hopefully have it be a longtime viable solution,” Close said.

Under the new safe parking initiative, up to 10 families at a time will be accommodated in a parking lot for a two-week period at a participating church, Close said.

There are 11 host congregations signed up, with most being in the downtown core and mid area of the city, he said.

The Rev. Carrie West said First United Methodist Church, where she’s pastor of discipleship, has been a longtime supporter of Family Promise and regularly provides 15 to 20 volunteers for its existing programs.

“So it made sense for us to continue to support this particular program,” she said of the parking initiative. “We have the space for it, and we’re really impressed with the goals and the planning Tim and his staff have done to make this a potentially very great program for our city.”

Family Promise received city approval to lead the new program, according to Close.

“We have met with the city a number of times as we’ve been planning this and kept them informed of our plans,” he said. “We have been responsive to their input.”

Family Promise acts as the program manager and overseer, arranging for qualifying families to participate and handling on-site logistics.

The organization will provide temporary bathroom facilities, a 2-yard Dumpster for refuse and security for the duration a church is hosting the program, Close said. All materials will be removed from the property and placed at a different host church after the 14-day period.

Host congregations have the option of providing hospitality to families in the form of snack bags, water bottles or grocery cards for food and gas.

Families also will receive case management from Family Promise and frontline medical care from Ascending to Health. Other organizations will be at the churches to provide other assistance, such as getting rehoused.

“We’re working with families to ensure we’re providing a safe place for families to park, but the real focus and purpose of this program is to get these families into stabilized housing as quickly as possible,” Close said. “To help them identify and apply for and get placed into stabilized housing, whether through our shelter or partner agencies.”

Hours of safe parking operation is up to each church but in general will be around  7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Cars must vacate the premises during the day, as churches conduct their normal business.

Organizers now are waiting to finalize liability insurance, which Family Promise also will cover for host congregations. Close said he’s hoping that will happen in the next few weeks, as people who are living in their vehicles wait for the program to begin.

City Council voted 7-2 at meetings in February and March to prohibit camping in cars and trucks and set penalties for violators. The prohibition was added as a new city ordinance and also was part of a broader change to consolidate all municipal laws pertaining to illegal urban camping in public places and standardize fines. Camping in RVs on streets, parks and other public property remains prohibited, as does tent camping in city limits and near waterways.

Parents with minor children are the initial focus of Family First Safe Parking, Close said, but if need and ability show that youths, seniors and other individuals who are living in their vehicles also need safe parking, his organization will work on expanding services.

“We don’t know how many families are living in vehicles – we have anecdotal and experiential type of information,” he said.

From January 2024 to October 2025, anywhere from 10 to 33 people indicated they were primarily living in their cars in the city in any given month, according to data from the Pikes Peak Continuum of Care, which coordinates local homelessness prevention and services. But that data is incomplete, officials have said.

Efforts by other organizations to develop a “safe parking” setup in Colorado Springs have been tried in the past but did not receive enough support to fully materialize.

Close said he talked with leaders of a similar program in Loveland, who advised his team to stay disciplined in how the program operates and is administered.

“So, it’s sustainable and scalable as needs go forward,” he said. “When it tends to get looser and more opened to where there isn’t as much structure, the intention to get people into homes as a primary mission doesn’t happen.”

Denver’s formal safe parking initiative ceased operations in December 2024 as pandemic relief money dried up. Some churches in the Denver area continue to offer the service independently of the organization though.

Family Promise, a secular organization, is fundraising to help pay for its new safe parking program and has raised about $30,000 to date, according to Close. He’s also working on securing a matching grant from a private foundation to help defray costs of staff time and on-site equipment for personal hygiene and trash.

For more information, go to the website, https://www.familypromisecos.org/.