Two 'Sprung Structures' will house homeless women in Meadowview

The Sacramento City Council Tuesday approved an agreement to buy two “Sprung Structures” for use in a shelter for homeless women on city-owned property off Meadowview Road.

The Meadowview Navigation Center will be open 24 hours a day and will include wrap-around services designed to help women stabilize their lives and transition to permanent housing within several months. Residents will enter by referral; there will be no walk-ins or lines outside.

Sprung Structures comprise a Navigation Center in San Francisco

Built by Sprung Instant Structures in Utah, the prefabricated buildings are comprised of tension fabric supported by a metal frame. They can be erected more quickly than traditional construction but feel like an ordinary building inside, with heating, air conditioning and sanitary facilities.

According to the company, the only building left standing in Buras, LA, after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was a Sprung structure.

The Meadowview Navigation Center is expected to open by late spring with 100 beds for women. Otto Construction has been hired to build the project for a guaranteed maximum price of $3.6 million. It is expected to cost about $6 million to run the shelter for two years, including the cost of community mitigation, case management and rehousing services for residents.

Council members also voted Tuesday to sign a contract with Zenith Engineers to design and oversee construction of a second Navigation Center planned for men and women on a piece of state-owned land under the W/X Freeway near Alhambra and Broadway, an area already heavily affected by homelessness. That shelter is now expected to open shortly after Meadowview with 100 beds.