A place for homeless families to sleep safely in their cars

For one month of the year, Marc Farley heads to Prince of Peace Lutheran Church each morning before going to work. He unlocks a room, turns on the heat and a coffee machine, arranges a plate of pastries, and sets up a cell phone charging station. Then he opens the door to welcome more than a dozen homeless guests who spent the night sleeping in their cars on the church’s parking lot.

Farley chats with many of them and learns their stories—the mother and son who laugh easily and fell into homelessness after a series of medical issues; the man who, despite his obvious intelligence, lacks the social skills to hold down a job; and the young man who lost his place to live after both of his parents died.

Farley is a volunteer with Rotating Safe Car Park, a program led by Prince of Peace that brings together nearly a dozen houses of worship in Saratoga, California, to provide a secure and legal place for homeless guests to sleep in their vehicles each night. For him, the program is a simple way to help the growing homeless population in his hometown. It has also opened his eyes to the stark realities of homelessness in one of the richest parts of the world.