A group that promotes the creation of parking lots for homeless people to use at night was awarded a $300,000 grant from the Jewish Community Foundation, it was announced this week.

The funding is part of the foundation’s Cutting Edge grant program, and is being given out over three years to help the nonprofit, Safe Parking LA for Jewish Community Safe Lots reach out to synagogues to set up such programs, which also provide supportive services to the homeless who park their vehicles on the religious organizations’ property.

The founder and executive director of Safe Parking LA, Scott Sale, said the effort to create “safe parking” sites grew out of work by members of IKAR, which describes itself as a Jewish-focused “spiritual community.”

He said the grant will allow the nonprofit to “broaden the Safe Parking concept into other synagogues within Los Angeles city and county as it attempts to provide refuge and connect the 15,000 persons presently living in vehicles.”

There were approximately 9,500 people sleeping in vehicles in the city of Los Angeles, and 16,000 in the county, according to the latest homeless count done in January.

Meanwhile, only a few parking sites have been set up since this model was first widely pushed in the city of Los Angeles. The group Safe Parking LA runs lots in Koreatown and the Veterans Affairs campus on the Westside. Lots run by other groups have also opened in North Hills in the San Fernando Valley and in South Los Angeles.

Under an ordinance known as 85.02, the city limits people living in their vehicles to parking mostly in commercial and industrial areas, though overnight parking signs are often erected in those areas that can also restrict over-sized vehicles, which may include the RVs and campers that many people who are homeless use.

The Jewish Community Foundation recently also announced a $200,000 grant for a program proposed by LA Family Housing to house homeless families in single-family homes.