Sacramento to shelter homeless in cabins, trailers in 3 neighborhoods to slow coronavirus
Sacramento officials plan to open cabins and state-issued trailers for homeless people who are most at risk of contracting the coronavirus at three city sites, Mayor Darrell Steinberg told The Sacramento Bee Thursday.
“This has now become my priority 1A for the next number of days,” Steinberg said.
The mayor said Sacramento County is expecting to receive at least 50 emergency trailers from the state.
The city was planning to erect large semi-permanent tent-like structures under the W/X freeway and in Meadowview, but those shelters were not set to open until late spring.
“It doesn’t mean those strategies are off the table but the timeline for W/X and Meadowview were several months away for those Sprung structures,” Steinberg said. “And we cannot afford to wait several months.”
The new cabins and trailers will be placed at those two sites, along with a third site in north Sacramento where officials have been constructing 24 cabin-style shelters for homeless young adults, Steinberg said.
Homeless people who are elderly, have underlying medical conditions or are experiencing symptoms will have priority to get into the trailers and cabins, Steinberg said.
The city is reaching out to Seattle-area based Pallet, and other companies that construct cabin-style shelters to see which ones can open the fastest, Steinberg said. In November, Pallet workers constructed two shelters without tools in about 20 minutes outside City Hall, wooing officials.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is deploying more than 1,300 emergency trailers across the state and identifying more than 950 motels and hotels that can be converted into shelters, he said Wednesday.
So far no rooms have been announced in Sacramento County, but officials are working aggressively to find them, Steinberg said.
“We are as we speak reaching out to every vacant or under-occupied hotel and motel in Sacramento County to see if they are willing to work with us to house as many homeless people, whether they are currently sheltered or unsheltered, as possible,” Steinberg said. “We should have more clear answers on what that will look like within 24 hours.”
Hotel rooms for homeless
The state Tuesday executed leases for two hotel properties and transferred control to Alameda County, according to a news release from Newsom’s office. That resulted in 393 rooms in Oakland for the homeless.
Los Angeles plans to open 6,000 shelter beds inside its community centers, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Wednesday. Sacramento’s community centers are closing temporarily at 5 p.m. Wednesday; a new use has not yet been announced.
Sacramento is also working to add beds to existing shelters and find ways to isolate residents who get sick, Steinberg said.
Bob Erlenbusch of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness praised officials for their plan to urgently place cabins and trailers at the sites. He also urged them to place portable bathrooms and showers at campsites, and to direct police to stop telling homeless people to relocate and stop towing vehicles that are left on streets for more than 72 hours.
“The mobile shower and bathroom program is incredibly important along with hand washing and hand sanitizing stations and a moratorium on sweeps,” Erlenbusch said.
The city has set aside $250,000 for sanitizing and other homeless services, which is being combined with county funds, Steinberg said.
Activists, working with Councilwoman Angelique Ashby’s office, earlier this week placed 30 hand washing stations near encampments around the city, funded by cannabis company Perfect Union, along with private donations.
The coronavirus is most dangerous for older adults and those with underlying conditions, making Sacramento’s homeless population especially at risk. Volunteers in January 2019 counted 5,570 homeless people living in Sacramento County, mostly sleeping outside and mostly in the city. About 30 percent of those sleeping outdoors were over age 50. About 20 percent were over 55.
All the city’s shelters are typically full on any given night.
There are so far no known positive cases of the virus in Sacramento County’s homeless population, Steinberg said.
