Eighty to one hundred people. Vulnerable families. One small church parking lot. Bellevue is calling this “Safe Parking” at Newport Presbyterian. But without real standards, it isn’t safe for anyone.

Bellevue neighbors, we must act NOW. The City is expanding its Safe Parking Pilot Program to Newport Presbyterian on 120th Ave SE, planning 80–100 vehicles in the middle of a dense residential neighborhood. Those of us who live here know exactly how small and unprepared this site is for that scale. We’ve walked by that lot and watched fights break out with no one from the church stepping in. I remember walking my dog past Newport Presbyterian and hearing a woman scream for help while being followed by a man in that parking lot (no staff present to assist her). My shouts of “are you okay?” were the only thing that drove the aggressor away.

At a recent meeting, officials told us this was already decided and there was nothing we could do. That is not compassion or good governance. It is poor planning and a lack of oversight that endangers both our neighborhood and the very people this program claims to help.

People living in their cars deserve dignity, stability, and professional care. They deserve sites that are thoughtfully chosen, with clear siting criteria, strong safety plans, and real facilities, not ad hoc placement in a small church lot. Newport Presbyterian does not have purpose‑built infrastructure for 80–100 vehicles or the on‑site medical and security resources that a high‑needs population requires. Dropping a large, vulnerable group into an undersized, under‑resourced lot sets them up to fail.

Without robust, enforceable standards (clear rules for where these lots can go, minimum security requirements, and a medical/safety plan), “safe parking” can quickly see drug use, overdoses, untreated mental health crises, and other hazards. Those harms affect nearby homes and children, but they also fall hardest on the homeless families and individuals inside the program, including any children living in those cars. Allowing drugs, chaos, or violence to take root in a supposed “safe” lot is cruel to the very people we say we are protecting.

Many in this population have complex medical and mental health needs: seizures, schizophrenia, addiction, suicide risk. Without properly trained staff and a real medical and safety plan, both volunteers and resident (housed and unhoused) are exposed to dangerous, untrained confrontations. We have seen large, hastily assembled shelter projects devolve into disasters when security and medical needs were ignored. We cannot repeat that experiment next to our children or on the backs of vulnerable people who need real care. Our homeless neighbors deserve showers, medical support, and security. Not cones and good intentions.

Real compassion means demanding a competent, professional, well‑resourced solution, not an unsafe parking lot at a site that is wrong for this scale and purpose.

What we are asking the Bellevue City Council to do:

1. Immediately pause activation of the Safe Parking site at Newport Presbyterian.

2. Hold a public review to adopt clear siting and safety criteria for all safe parking locations, including neighborhood engagement before finalizing a site, and minimum standards for security, staffing, and medical/safety planning.

3. Apply those criteria to Newport Presbyterian and relocate this planned site to a more appropriate location with proper facilities and staffing so the program can succeed without putting vulnerable families at risk.

Join us (sign and share) so we can protect our homeless neighbors who deserve better than a poorly sited, under‑resourced parking lot. We are not asking the City to abandon safe parking; we are asking them to do it right, with real standards and a safer location than Newport Presbyterian.