GREEN BAY − Local nonprofit Wise Women Gathering Place will reopen the Safe Place parking lot, a dedicated space for people experiencing homelessness, on Dec. 2 after a temporary closure in July.
The lot provides people experiencing homelessness and living out of their cars with a designated safe location to sleep each night, as well as connections to support and resources. Here you will find everything you need to know about the reopening of the site.
What is the safe parking?
The Safe Place Parking Lot is a year-round program run by local nonprofit Wise Women Gathering Place that serves as a community resource for people experiencing homelessness. The goal of the lot is to provide a dedicated space to belong, with resources and support, according to director Beverly Scow.
Once the program reopens, the parking lot hours will be 6:00 PM to 8:00 AM. To use the parking lot, parkers must register and make an appointment at the Wise Women Gather Place at 920-883-7202. The group is not publicly sharing the property’s address to protect those using the property, as many are fleeing unsafe situations.
What is the gathering place for wise women?
The nonprofit, founded more than 25 years ago, is committed to supporting healthy relationships, healthy decision-making and healing support for Native Americans, Scow said. Wise Women Gathering Place provides advocacy, healing and prevention resources and programs related to domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, stalking, sex trafficking and crime victims.
What does the lot offer?
The Safe Place Parking Lot provides a dedicated space for individuals living out of their cars to sleep every night without fear of disruption and connects them with the necessary resources to support them during any active crises.
The lot has portable toilets, waste centers, electricity and Wi-Fi for guests to use. Volunteers often bring hot meals to guests and safety monitors are on site to ensure guests feel safe and provide basic needs.
What is the history of the plot?
The Safe Place Parking Lot opened in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to expand its reach to individuals without stable housing. Scow said one of the organization’s biggest concerns was that people were relying on couch surfing, which was against recommended COVID-19 prevention measures.
“We just saw that there are so many hidden homeless people in our community,” Scow said. “It was couch surfing, usually less than two weeks according to the host’s guest policy, and couch surfing between family and friends. And those two weeks just collided with our understanding of COVID transmission at the time.”
The nonprofit asked the Oneida Nation for permission to use an empty parking lot to serve this community, and the Safe Place Parking Lot was up and running in just two months. Although the plot was originally thought to be a response to the pandemic, Scow said it became clear it was not a temporary need.
“We found that there is definitely a gap in this community, and there is a real need for it as an ongoing program,” Scow said. “Participation in the field continued to increase each season, each summer there were more people in the field.”
Services suspended in July
The facility thrived as a community resource for four years until Wise Women Gathering Place had to suspend services in July after losing insurance coverage. By the time it closed, the parking lot served 45 cars, or 65 people, every night.
In July, Wise Women partnered with a local church to temporarily house the lot while the original site was repaved, Scow said. When they asked their insurance company for a certificate of insurance for the temporary change, Scow said the company wanted to know more about the program and then stated that they could no longer insure it.
“We never tried to hide what we were doing, but once they got more clarity about what we were doing, they said they couldn’t do that,” Scow said. “And then we thought: oh, okay, that’s surprising and hurtful. But we thought: we’ll find another insurance company.”
But finding another insurance company turned out to be more difficult than they expected. The traditional companies Wise Women approached wouldn’t cover the program, but they later found a broker who specialized in nonprofits and found a new insurance company.
The nonprofit has reached out to the community via social media for support during this time and Scow said the response has been heartwarming. As of Nov. 15, the community had donated more than $15,000 for the lot.
“It really warmed our hearts to receive every dollar that people contributed,” Scow said. “It really makes a difference.”
Now that there is a new insurance company and sufficient funds to operate the parking lot, Safe Place Parking Lot is scheduled to reopen on December 2. Although Wise Women is still looking to fill gaps in hot meals and funding as extensions have been made with some partners During the closure, Scow said she and the staff are excited to get the lot back to where it was.
“How grateful we are for the response from the community to support us so we can reopen,” Scow said. “We will continue to solicit financial support from the community and work through the patchwork of other funding sources to keep this open as we see this as an ongoing community need.”
Vivian Barrett is the public safety reporter for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. You can reach her at vmbarrett@greenbay.gannett.com or (920) 431-8314. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @vivianbarrett_.
This article originally appeared in the Green Bay Press-Gazette: Safe Place Parking Lot to reopen to homeless people in December
