Paul William’s journey to Geng Road took him to campgrounds throughout California, a six-month sojourn in Mountain View and a medical emergency that cost him his leg – and almost his life.
A retired security consultant who spent much of his life in the Los Angeles area, William has been enjoying a nomadic life as part of Thousand Trails, a campground network that caters to recreational vehicles. Since retiring nine years ago, William has savored the freedom that life on the move afforded him and the friendships he made with other RV dwellers.
Then one day he was camping at one of the Thousand Trails campsites when he lost consciousness.
“Next thing I know, I’m waking up at a hospital and my leg is gone,” William said.
An infection on his foot that he thought was manageable had suddenly spread throughout the left leg and was threatening to metastasize further. Even though he can no longer bike or hike, William considers himself fortunate.
“Obviously, the infection was far worse than I thought, and I wasn’t treating it adequately. … It’s part of life,” he said.
“But I’m just thankful to still be here,” he added. “Thankful that I had good people around me.”
This feeling of gratitude only grew three months ago, as William arrived at 2000 Geng Road, Palo Alto’s recently expanded “safe parking” site in the Baylands. While the site has been around since 2021, it has continued, adding more services, more staff and more residents. Today, it includes a clothes closet, a one-way library (no need to return books), a kitchen and laundry facilities. It has a neat and well-stocked pantry that is supported by Second Harvest and that is open every other Thursday to participants from any of the nine safe parking programs managed by MOVE Mountain View.
It also now has more space. About three months ago, the safe parking site expanded into an adjacent parcel of land next to the Baylands playing field. The expansion, which the City Council approved late last year, allows the Geng Road site to increase its capacity from 12 RVs to 22. As of last week, four of the spaces in the additional parcel have been filled.
MOVE Mountain View, the nonprofit that manages the Geng Road site, said that it has seen 146 participants since 2021 and has helped 114 of them move to positive housing destinations. But its job isn’t getting any easier. The organization is getting more calls from seniors who are struggling to make ends meet, said Amber Stime, the organization’s executive director. It is also getting inquiries from individuals who have homes but who fear that they will soon lose them.
“We’ve seen situations where people are anticipating they’re going to be homeless,” Stime said. “They say. ‘My rent has gone up, I’m not going to be able to afford it, can I come to your program?’ We say, ‘Do you have an RV? No? Then don’t do that yet.'”
The key to success, Stime said, is case management. It’s getting to know the clients and their particular needs and limitations. In some cases, this could entail upgrading their job skills. In others, it could mean finding family members who can help them with permanent housing.
“You know what the possibilities are, where they have been in their life and you begin a conversation in terms of, ‘If not this, then how about this?'” Stime said. “We all have friends and family that we can talk to when we have problems but when you’re alone and isolated, it’s much harder to do.”
William Coffman, who moved to Geng Road in late January, has been scrambling to find a stable living situation ever since his wife died three years ago. Coffman, who served as her caretaker, didn’t just lose his spouse. He also lost the Social Security payments that she had been receiving and that he relied on to pay rent. Last summer, he lost his apartment in Gilroy and found himself without a home or a job.
“I was kind of desperate,” Coffman said.
He received some help from his siblings, who helped buy him an RV to keep him off the street. His brother also helped him pay the $950 monthly rent at an RV park in Hayward for six months. Once that assistance dried up, Coffman was directed by a referral agency to Geng Road.
Things still aren’t ideal, he said. The insulation in his RV isn’t great. Cold days feel extra cold, hot days extra hot. Now in his 70s, Coffman is spending much of his time trying to find a part-time job that would help him return to apartment life. So far, he hasn’t had much luck.
“A lot of companies, even big companies like Amazon, FedEx, UPS, want to hire younger workers so they can pay them lower wages,” Coffman said. “That’s the reality.”
Some residents of the Geng Road site are actively looking to leave; others would like to stay as long as they could. Javier Godinez lived in his RV in East Palo Alto before moving to Geng Road in July 2022. When the Weekly spoke to him in fall of that year, he was musing about moving to Central Valley, where living is cheaper. These days, he is still hoping to buy an acre of land somewhere in that region so that he can live in his RV. But for the moment, he is happy to stay at Geng Road and avail himself of its expanding services.
“If they give me a chance to stay here, I’ll stay here,” Godinez said.
The Geng Road site isn’t the only place in Palo Alto that is designated for “safe parking.” Four local congregations – First Congregational Church of Palo Alto, Highway Community, Congregation Etz Chayim and Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto – have applied for smaller programs in their lots that provide overnight parking to vehicle dwellers.
The Geng Road program, however, is the only one that accommodates RVs and that does not limit stays to overnight hours. It is also the only one that requires an infusion of city funds. Santa Clara County had covered most of the costs for the original safe parking lot. The expansion will require the city to spend $447,849 between now and September 2026, though some of that cost is expected to be offset by a state grant.
The broader community has also stepped in to assist the vehicle dwellers. According to MOVE Mountain View, the safe parking program has received $209,067 in donations, about half of which came from large foundations. During an open house event on March 21, Mayor Ed Lauing acknowledged the donations made by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the Palo Alto Community Fund and the Rotary Club. Local congregations contributed $18,990 toward safe parking and individuals pitched in another $4,827.
Stime also noted that many of the amenities that make the Geng Road site special come from donated items, whether it’s books, clothes or fresh towers and hygiene kits.
“This is hands-on work being done by you as well as by us,” Stime told those in attendance. “If we didn’t have you, we wouldn’t be able to serve the clients that we’re able to serve.”
The number of households that rely on the Geng Road site is expected to grow in the coming months as the city moves to fill up the expanded area. The demand remains strong. According to the 2023 point-in-time count from Santa Clara County, the city had 181 unhoused individuals, 88% of whom lived in vehicles. That is a far higher proportion than across Santa Clara County, where 32% live in vehicles.
Housing costs are a leading driver but not the only one. Menlo Park last month passed a law banning RVs and other oversized vehicles for parking overnight on any city street, a move that Palo Alto officials believe may shift some vehicle dwellers across the city border. The state Department of Transportation is also now in the middle of installing bike lanes all along El Camino Real, a project that involves removing parking spaces that were formerly used by RV dwellers.
Given these existing and emerging needs, Palo Alto officials floated last month the idea of adding an additional lot near the Baylands for another ‘safe parking’ lot. During the March 21 open house, Mayor Ed Lauing lauded the recent expansion of the Geng Road site, calling it “a significant step for the city in continuing our efforts to address homelessness in the city and the surrounding areas.”
“We’re strongly behind this and strongly understand the need – and, frankly, the expanding need, that we have in our area,” Lauing said.
Council member Julie Lythcott-Haims, who strongly supports finding another location for safe parking, called the Geng Road site a “true community.” During a February hearing, she advocated for creating a new RV park and called safe parking sites “the most immediate and cheapest solution” to the housing crisis.
“There are a lot of amenities inside that make it more than a parking lot,” Lythcott-Haims said during the March 21 event. “They make it a decent place to live, with dignity. … This is the only place where a client can come and become a part of this community and not be asked to leave at 7 a. m. every day.”
After a decade of ‘embarrassing’ delays, West Menlo Triangle annexation moves aheadJanuary 15, 2026 12:45 pm
‘The end of an era’: After 36 years in Palo Alto, Il Fornaio prepares to closeJanuary 13, 2026 2:05 pm
This sounds like a well run program that provides assistance to those who need it, to establish themselves in a more permanent situation. Where is the safe parking area in Menlo Park? If there isn’t one, why not?