Sacramento (March 15, 2024) Construction has begun on a 175-bed emergency shelter and service campus on Stockton Boulevard that will use sleeping cabins provided to the City of Sacramento by the Newsom Administration.

The state Department of General Services (DGS) started work on the south Sacramento site on March 7. This week, DGS continues the process of readying the parcel for the installation of the cabins, focusing on site clearing and utility layout planning. Construction is scheduled for completion in Fall 2024.

The Safe Stay Community at 6780 Stockton Blvd. will be operated by Sacramento County on behalf of the city under the terms of the City-County partnership agreement to address unsheltered homelessness. This groundbreaking agreement, adopted in December 2022, has resulted in greater coordination of services and outreach, including new multi-disciplinary outreach teams that include county behavioral health workers.

The Stockton Boulevard Safe Stay is the first in the state to break ground under the Newsom Administration’s program of providing direct assistance to local governments to construct new tiny home/sleeping cabin/small home communities.

“Sacramento is demonstrating leadership among local jurisdictions in its efforts to provide small homes for Sacramentans in need,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom. “As the first location to break ground on this project, Sacramento exemplifies the can-do spirit needed to reject the status quo and find innovative ways to get people off the streets and into housing.”

The sleeping cabins will be run as a temporary use while property owner WellSpace Health carries out its plan to build a regional Community Wellness Campus with comprehensive medical, dental, and behavioral health care services, primarily for people covered by Medi-Cal.

“We’re proud to be leading the way with Governor Newsom and the state in deploying these innovative sleeping cabins,” said Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg. “This project shows how state and local governments can support each other in addressing our crisis of unsheltered homelessness. In partnership with Sacramento County and WellSpace Health, we will provide the services and supports needed to get people healthy and housed.”

Mayor Steinberg at the Safe Stay site with Hafsa Kaka, Gov. Newsom’s senior adviser on homelessness

The new Safe Stay community will provide three meals per day, bathrooms, showers, laundry, community rooms, and computer labs. It will accept pets (with some limitations). Sacramento County has partnered with First Step Communities (FSC) to manage the site.

Support services will include case management, rehousing, job readiness (employment services), and connection to community providers that offer therapy, pet care, medical care, and other supports.

The Stockton Boulevard site will be the county’s third Safe Stay community, including one nearby at Florin and Power Inn roads. The City of Sacramento runs two sleeping cabin communities in north Sacramento, one serving transition-aged youth and a recently opened facility on Roseville Road that serves adults. Both of those are also operated by First Step Communities.

“I’m proud to welcome another Safe Stay Community to my district to serve people experiencing homelessness,” said Sacramento County District 2 Supervisor Patrick Kennedy, who represents south Sacramento. “We’ve already seen so many positive results from the existing two Safe Stay Communities, and with this larger site, in partnership with the state, City and WellSpace, we’ll be able to provide a deeper level of services, on location, than we ever have before.”

The new campus, whose operation is funded by a state Encampment Resolution Grant, will provide much needed bed space for the community. There will be no walk-up admission. Guests will enter by referral only.

Emergency shelters are considered critical infrastructure, so no camping will be permitted outside the gates. The operator will follow a good neighbor policy to help ensure the area around the shelter remains clean and safe. The fenced site will have security gates, security cameras, and 24/7 staffing.

“We are committed to working with the community as we move forward with this Safe Stay site,” said City Councilmember Eric Guerra, whose district includes the WellSpace campus. “We are working to reduce homelessness in the neighborhood while also increasing safety. Ultimately this WellSpace Community Wellness Campus will be a vital new resource in south Sacramento, and I’m proud to see this important health partner growing in District 6.”

Before it was purchased by WellSpace Health last year, the 13-acre Stockton Boulevard property had sat vacant since 2003, when a developer built a retail center that never opened. The existing buildings will be rehabilitated to include an outpatient clinic, a behavioral health crisis stabilization center, a dental center and a state-of-the-art headquarters for the WellSpace-operated 988 suicide and mental health crisis line.

WellSpace, a non-profit provider that serves more than 125,000 people annually in the Sacramento area, is also planning new buildings that will house behavioral health treatment and recovery facilities, a community health center, and senior housing tailored for older Southeast Asian residents of south Sacramento.