Warming center for homeless opens in south Sacramento as city grapples with long-term fixes
The city of Sacramento has teamed with a church in the Lemon Hill area of south Sacramento to open a “warming center” for the homeless this week, less than a month after some homeless died during a major wind and rain storm in Sacramento.
The center at the Sacramento Capitol City Seventh-Day Adventist Church has room for 35 people indoors, city officials said. Fifteen cars will be allowed to park overnight in the parking lot for homeless who are living in their cars.
The site, at 6701 Lemon Hill Ave., will be run by the First Step Communities group under a city contract. It will remain open at least until March 31.
First Step will employ workers called “navigators” to canvass the south area for homeless people to direct to the warming center site. Access, however, is by referral only. Walk-ups will not be allowed, city officials said.
“We made a commitment to be more than a building in our city,” pastor Damian Chandler said. “We take seriously our call to be good and godly neighbors, and to be a place where our community knows it can find help. So, when we were approached by the City to use our building as a warming center, it was a no-brainer for us.”
Councilman Eric Guerra, who helped pull the deal together, said the concept should be expanded in areas of the city outside of the downtown.
“For our unhoused neighbors suffering outside the central city, we need equitable access to warming centers to meet them where they are, especially during extreme weather events,” Guerra said in a press statement. “This isn’t a solution to addressing the long-term issue of homelessness, but it does save lives if done in every part of the city.”
The city was forced last week to temporarily close down its two warming centers downtown after a staff member, two volunteers and one overnight visitor tested positive for COVID-19. Those sites are expected to be closed until March 1.
The city’s parking garage at 10th and I streets is open, however, for people to spend the night.
“Opening overnight shelters during a pandemic poses risks, but people are also at grave risk every day they live on the streets,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg said in a statement published by his office. “High winds, cold, rain and extreme heat make their situation even more miserable and dangerous. We are doing our best as a City to balance these risks every day and keep people safe.”
The city is conducting neighborhood discussions currently as part of an effort to put together a master plan for getting more people off the streets. The goal is to have an action plan approved by June.
This story was originally published February 24, 2021 at 12:03 PM.