The city's Safe Parking Program currently operates near the Queen Mary but will relocate soon. Courtesy of the city of Long Beach.

Long Beach will relocate its safe parking program, which offers people living in vehicles secure overnight parking, from a lot on Queensway Drive near the Queens Way bridge to a spot on the north side of the Port of Long Beach.

The program also will increase its nightly capacity from 30 vehicles to 50, according to a city news release. Both the Queensway lot and the new location, a parking lot at the southeast corner of Anaheim Street and Santa Fe Avenue, are owned by the Port of Long Beach; the city signs agreements with the port to use them.

Since it opened this spring, use of the Queensway site has fluctuated. City Homeless Services Bureau Manager Paul Duncan told an advisory committee earlier this month that anywhere between 10 and 26 vehicles are there from night to night.

People who stay there are provided restrooms, security and some case management services.

The move is needed because of noise and other conflicts with a boat launch ramp next to the current site, city spokesperson Chelsey Magallon said in an email. The new site is tentatively scheduled to open in late October. The agreement to use it is for one year.

Magallon noted that the new safe parking location is a few blocks from the Multi-Service Center, which offers an array of homeless services, and added that the city is “working to identify a permanent site for the Safe Parking Program and welcomes the community to come forward with any input and recommendations.”

The new safe parking lot will be at the corner of Anaheim Street and Santa Fe Avenue. It’s tentatively expected to open in late October.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the safe parking program’s vehicle capacity.