Sacramento City warming centers host people nearly 1,200 times; hundreds placed in motels
Sacramento (Feb. 9, 2021) People experiencing homelessness have sought refuge in City warming shelters nearly 1,200 times since the first facility opened in the downtown Library Galleria on Jan. 27.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg recounted the statistics at the Sacramento City Council on Tuesday as he launched the first full Council workshop on the City’s master plan for siting and operating homeless housing solutions throughout the City. The plan is expected to come back to the Council for an up or down vote in June.
“The goal here is not to pilot a bunch of new approaches but to actually put together a plan that addresses the needs of thousands of people and the needs of all our affected communities, both business and residential,” Mayor Steinberg said at the start of the discussion.
As it pursues a long-term plan, the City of Sacramento continues to focus intently on providing immediate relief to people who want to come in from the cold.
Last month, the City formally broke away from the Sacramento County weather criteria for opening warming centers, and has operated its own centers regardless of the weather since Jan. 27.
The vast majority of the visits so far have been to the Library Galleria. The poolhouse at Southside Park, which has been open nightly, has hosted 56 guests so far. And the safe parking site at the City Hall garage, 10th and I streets, has hosted cars on 27 occasions. Sacramento Regional Transit is providing free transportation from the galleria to Southside Park.
The numbers include many repeat visitors.
The City has also made available 25 trailers each night at Cal Expo, and has placed hundreds of people in motel rooms with vouchers. The City is currently renting 312 rooms a night at three hotels, and is poised to complete agreements with two more motels for a total of 369 rooms.
Guests in the motels have been receiving meals several times a week prepared by formerly homeless women enrolled in a program at St. John’s Program for Real Change and delivered by Paratransit Inc. vehicles. The program has attracted significant donations, including $10,000 from Kaiser Permanente and $17,500 from the Sacramento Association of Realtors. You can donate to this effort here.
Mayor Steinberg made a point of thanking all of the donors, volunteers, city staff and Council members who have devoted many hours to making the warming centers work, including Councilmembers Katie Valenzuela and Angelique Ashby, Director of Emergency Management Daniel Bowers, Housing Policy Director Danielle Foster, Office of Community Response Interim Director Bridgette Dean and City Manager Howard Chan.
“We are not making a choice between short term emergency intervention and a long term plan; in fact, we are doing both,” Mayor Steinberg said.
