Sacramento to get $18 million in state funds to address homelessness. How will it be spent?

By Jennah Pendleton and Theresa Clift

Updated October 04, 2024 3:08 PM

The city of Sacramento will receive $18.2 million in state money to address homelessness, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday.

The grant is part of Newsom’s plan to award $130.7 million to cities across the state to create new housing and to clear homeless encampments, which he announced in a press conference Friday morning. Out of the 18 local governments awarded funds, Sacramento received the largest chunk of money.

The majority of the funds, $12 million, will go to expanding the homeless shelter in North Sacramento at 3900 Roseville Road. Steinberg said that he expects to double the site’s capacity with the incoming state support. The site currently hosts 40 trailers and 60 pallet tiny homes with the capacity to temporarily house 240 people.

The other $6 million will go to a pilot program to transition 100 people from encampments into permanent housing. Beneficiaries of the program, which is modeled on similar housing-first initiatives employed in Houston and St. Louis, will receive at least 24 months of subsidized rent.

Steinberg said that it’s “a great day for the city,” and characterized the two initiatives supported by the state funding as steps toward success in reducing homelessness in the area. He pointed to the increase in shelter beds made available during his tenure as mayor — 100 to 1,350 over eight years — and a 41% reduction of people sleeping outside between 2022 to 2024 according tothe Point in Time count, a figure which has been doubted by local homeless service providers.

“We have not declared victory in any way, and yet, as I leave office, I am confident that we have laid a foundation for a substantive change,” Steinberg said.

City leaders say that doubling the capacity at Roseville Road represents an “exponential” effect on the throughput of transitioning residents out of homelessness. Double the temporary placements means an increased capacity to “move people through all of our systems,” said Brian Pedro, director of Sacramento’s Department of Community Response.

Lack of access at the Roseville Road Shelter

The expansion of the Roseville Road shelter is not popular among everyone, as the site has presented issues for many homeless residents whose encampment sites were swept and were then directed to the North Sacramento location.

“Congregating hundreds of unhoused people in an area that is not accessible and out in the middle of nowhere is very dangerous,” Crystal Sanchez, Sacramento Homeless Union President Told The Sacramento Bee. “Roseville Road does not have electricity. The city of Sacramento is doing everything in its power to move people out of sight, out of mind.”

Residents at Roseville Road are not allowed to use generators like they do at camping sites, and individual pallet homes at the site have only started to gain access to electricity in the last week, Pedro said. Some individuals directed to the shelter in the past nine months were concerned about their ability to use medical devices like oxygen machines.

Pedro said that part of the funding going to the shelter’s expansion will go to upgrading an electrical package on site.

The site also does not allow more than one pet, which presented a major issue for the 50 former residents of Camp Resolution, which was shut down in August. Sanchez said at the time that all but one of the Camp Resolution residents had more than one pet.

City spokesman Tim Swanson has denied a request from The Bee to tour the Roseville Road site.

Newsom offers $130 million to California cities

“Accountability” and “partnership” were key words in Newsom’s announcement of the grant program — he said that the issue of homelessness has reached the level of urgency that local governments and the state government can no longer point fingers at one another and need to collaborate to adequately address the problem.

The $130.7 million in funds are part of the state’s $1 billion Encampment Resolution Funds, which are meant to help communities address encampments and transition people into temporary and permanent housing. As a condition of receiving the funding, grant recipients agreed to accountability measures such as having a compliant housing element and adhering to all fair housing and homelessness laws. The governor called out cities like Huntington Beach and Norwalk as being “part of the problem” because of their lack of willingness to adhere to state law.

Steinberg thinks Sacramento received the most funding — nearly one-tenth of the total granted — in part due to the partnership between the state and the city and county of Sacramento.

“I think that the administration also knows that I, on behalf of the city, am serious about this, serious about accountability, and we’re in it for the long haul,” Steinberg said.

Sacramento’s method of addressing homelessness appears to be in line with the state’s tactic of clearing encampments and providing resources to homeless residents.

“The reality is that enforcement alone, will in fact, be a failure, but also letting encampments grow is not an option,” Steinberg said. “It’s our job, recognizing that this is imperfect, to do two things: one, to continue to fight for as many dollars as we can get to increased beds, both temporary and permanent beds, and to work in collaboration with our county partners to get those wraparound mental health and substance abuse services to as many people as possible.”

This article was originally published by the Sacramento Bee.