Elk Grove will open a temporary homeless shelter this winter. Here’s how it will work
Elk Grove plans to open a temporary winter shelter for the city’s unhoused, starting later this year and lasting for five months.
Officials on Tuesday announced the plan for the vacant Rite Aid drug store at Elk Grove Boulevard and Waterman Road. The city-owned site would open Nov. 1 through March 31, officials said.
Dubbed an “Enhanced Winter Sanctuary,” the site will be able to house up to 30 people and will provide opportunities for people to access social services, resources and housing, said Elk Grove housing and public services manager Sarah Bontrager in a statement.
“Having available shelter options for seniors and other vulnerable people experiencing homelessness provides compassionate care to those who have an especially difficult time during the winter months, when weather conditions have led to deaths in other communities,” Bontrager said.
Guests will be selected via a referral system and will be vetted by a social services agency. Pets will be allowed. Families with children will be referred to motel voucher programs.
The site will be monitored by Elk Grove police. Drugs are not allowed. Registered sex offenders and people with serious behavioral health challenges will not be permitted entry, city officials said.
Elk Grove purchased the property for a new library on the site to replace the library’s longtime home at Elk Grove Boulevard and Elk Grove Florin Road. Library construction is slated to begin in mid-2024.
Elk Grove City Council will consider an operator for the sanctuary site at its Sept. 27 meeting. An open house at the address, 9260 Elk Grove Blvd., is planned for a later date, city officials said.
“Caring for our residents is important,” Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen said in a statement announcing the plan. “The community clearly told us that they want to help Elk Grove’s unhoused population and establishing a winter sanctuary is an important first step toward accomplishing that.”
Elk Grove will continue to open overnight locations for people without shelter or adequate home heating during the winter months as dictated by the Sacramento County Office of Emergency Services, officials said.
The east side sanctuary comes two years after Elk Grove city leaders, clergy and homeless advocates teamed to open overnight warming locations, or OWLs — places of worship across the city that opened their doors during the cold, wet winter months.
The overnight warming locations were successful in their first year, but results were decidedly more mixed last year as the city-led coalition which leaned on the faith community and volunteers struggled to organize, staff and open.
Homeless advocates at the time said Elk Grove needed to shoulder more of the load of sheltering homeless and vulnerable Elk Grove residents.
“They need to provide a facility,” longtime Elk Grove advocate Mark Hedlund told The Sacramento Bee last December. “I’m talking about an emergency shelter in the winter months. They have the resources to do that. The city needs to do more than buy sleeping bags.”
Money from Elk Grove’s Measure E will fund the winter sanctuary program.
The voter-approved 1% “quality of life” sales tax hike to fund public safety, roads and efforts to tackle homelessness passed last November and went into effect in April. Residents at the ballot box, community meetings and town halls, including a heavily attended February forum at the city’s District 56, said tackling homelessness should be a priority for city leaders.
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