Shortly after Governor Gavin Newsom promised in March to deliver 350 tiny homes to Sacramento, local officials said the Cal Expo fairgrounds should house some of the cabin-sized shelters for unhoused residents.
“We must use this available and underutilized state asset to house as many people as possible,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg urged in a news release following the governor’s announcement, which was made at Cal Expo.
Nearly nine months later, it appears the fairgrounds won’t house any of the tiny homes. That’s because the city and county of Sacramento recently asked the Newsom administration to place up to half the region’s tiny homes at a county-owned site on Watt Avenue in North Highlands, instead of at Cal Expo. Up to 200 of them are already slated for a vacant lot along Stockton Boulevard in South Sacramento.
“Given that this [Watt Avenue] site is already owned by the county, we have an opportunity to very swiftly move out to build a more comprehensive homeless service center,” Emily Halcon, Sacramento County’s director of homeless services told the Board of Supervisors at their meeting on Tuesday. “We believe that this is the best strategy to quickly use the resources the state is bringing.”
Halcon said the state has yet to respond to the request, but added she expects to update the board in January on plans for the 13-acre site at 4837 Watt Ave.
Supervisors last month approved a safe parking program at the location, one that will allow up to 30 unhoused residents at a time to legally park their vehicles outdoors and receive social services.
Meanwhile, the tiny homes would be installed inside a large warehouse at the site, according to county officials. It would operate as a Safe Stay Community, a county model designed to offer shelter, meals and other services to unhoused residents currently living in nearby encampments.
Bob Erlenbusch, executive director of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness, said city and county leaders made the right call in bypassing Cal Expo, for now.
“That site has some problems with it, as I understand. It’s in a floodplain,” Erlenbusch said of the fairgrounds.
He said wheels would have to be installed on tiny homes at Cal Expo, something that’s “not that insurmountable,” but would complicate plans.
Erlenbusch added the city and county should continue to study plans for using the fairgrounds for future projects given its large size.
“We need all the resources we can get. It’s really underutilized,” he said.
Plans for Stockton Boulevard site move forward
Also on Tuesday, county supervisors approved initial plans for the Stockton Boulevard Safe Stay community in South Sacramento, which is expected to open sometime next year. The vote authorizes nonprofit First Step Communities to operate the site through June 2026.
The county will use $17.6 million in state encampment funds to pay for the program. As many as 200 of the state’s promised tiny homes will be placed at the long-vacant site.
The property was recently acquired by WellSpace Health, a nonprofit community health system that plans to create a “wellness campus” on the remaining property, including a health center, crisis call center, and a number of inpatient and outpatient treatment buildings.
Supervisors said the Stockton Boulevard plans show the region’s local governments can work together to address the unhoused crisis. Advocates for unhoused residents, business leaders and others have long criticized the city and county for failing to work together on the problem.
“It seems like this is the way it ought to work,” Supervisor Pat Hume said. “The city and the county are working together. We have two very qualified private sector partners standing up to operate and provide the site here. And the state is actually chipping in resources to make it happen.”
“I really think this is the formula for success that has been eluding us,” added Supervisor Rich Desmond.
Contact CapRadio news reporter Chris Nichols at [email protected]
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