Oct 14

Oct 14 Intense City outreach effort moves nearby campers into new X Street Navigation Center

Getting people off the street, Keeping people housed, Keeping Sacramento safe

Sacramento (Oct. 14, 2021) -- Outreach teams from the City’s Department of Community Response helped 16 people experiencing homelessness graduate from Safe Ground camping to the X Street Navigation Center over a two-day span this week.

On Wednesday and Thursday, DCR teams helped people who were ready to transition from the City’s Safe Ground organized campground at 6th and X streets to the new X Street Navigation Center nearby at Broadway and Alhambra. Another five people moved into the navigation center from nearby encampments. Focused outreach was also conducted elsewhere in the city to get people into better living situations.

“When we have open shelter spaces to work with, we can help people get off the streets and into a much better situation,” said Bridgette Dean, director of the Department of Community Response. “Safe Ground and the X Street Center aren’t meant to be permanent housing, but they do give us low-barrier options for people who are currently living with no support at all. And the services they receive help them move toward permanent housing.”

Mayor Darrell Steinberg applauded the DCR staff and said he hoped its success could be replicated to help people experiencing homelessness while at the same time responding to neighborhood concerns about the effects of unsheltered homelessness.

The people who moved to the X Street Navigation Center from Safe Ground on Wednesday included a disabled person who goes by the name “Magic.” DCR Teams were able to obtain a wheelchair for him to improve his mobility. Another woman was able to transition from Safe Ground to an open spot in the City’s Meadowview Navigation Center.

DCR Teams also were able to persuade a woman they had been working with for weeks to accept a spot in the X Street Navigation Center. She had been living across the street from the shelter, and she and her possessions had been the subject of many complaints from residents. She was not immediately receptive to DCR’s offers of shelter, but after DCR worked with her and built trust, she was ready.