Jun 11

Jun 11 City approves funding to add more permanent housing units at Central Sacramento Studios

Breaking News, Keeping people housed, Getting people off the street

Sacramento (June 11, 2024) The Sacramento City Council Tuesday approved a $7.8 million loan to expand Central Sacramento Studios, a permanent supportive housing complex at 11th and H streets downtown, with a new five-story building.

Opened in November in the former Best Western Sutter House motel, Central Sacramento Studios includes 92 units occupied by formerly homeless residents. The additional funds will help finance an expansion on the site of the former motel restaurant, Blue Prynt, into 52 additional units of permanent supportive housing. The units will be affordable to people earning 30 percent or less of the area median income.

“This is an exciting first phase to the already wildly successful first phase of this project,” said Councilmember Katie Valenzuela, who represents downtown.

Just over half of the $7.8 million needed for expansion comes from the City’s Housing Trust Fund, which consists of fees paid by commercial developers to satisfy their obligation to build affordable housing. The remainder consists mostly of matching funds from the state.

Developer Danco Communities is putting together other funding sources, including low-income tax credits. Danco, based in Humboldt County, has built 700 affordable housing units throughout California.

The new units in Central Sacramento Studios contributed to a 30 percent increase in permanent supportive housing units in the past four years in Sacramento. This housing supply increase – combined with an 84 percent increase in emergency and transitional housing – helped produce a nearly 41 percent decline in the unsheltered homeless population in Sacramento County since 2022. The decline was documented in the 2024 Point in Time Count released last week by Sacramento Steps Forward, the non-profit that coordinates homeless services county-wide.

“This project is consistent with our drive to increase the supply of permanent supportive units in our city,” said Mayor Darrell Steinberg. “This is what it takes – one project at a time.”