Winter sanctuary getting dropped. Shelters are full. Where will Sacramento’s homeless go?
Mary Ross has been sleeping in one of the many curbside tents in Sacramento’s River District all year, looking forward to late November.
“The only thing I can wait for is winter sanctuary,” said Ross, 50. She was referring to the long-standing program that has provided 100 homeless men and women with relief from rain and winter temperatures by busing them to places of worship, where they are given warm beds, hot meals and basic medical services.
But after eight years, Sacramento County will not offer the program this winter. City and county officials will instead add services, 24 beds and expanded hours to two River District shelters, a shift they say will get far more people off the streets in the long run.
“The winter sanctuary program was a wonderful and important act of charity by many in our faith communities,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg said. “But the truth of the matter is that we are purposefully shifting the priority and the model to a different kind of shelter.”
Sacramento County has hired nonprofit First Step Communities for up to $1.3 million a year to operate an 80-bed shelter on North A Street and keep it open 24 hours a day, instead of 10 hours a day, said Janna Haynes, a county spokeswoman. The city hired Concord-based SHELTER, Inc. to run the North Fifth Street shelter for up to $1.8 million a year and increase its capacity from 80 beds to 104. That facility is open 24/7, but was cut from 104 beds to 80 in June.
Between 30 and 40 places of worship have historically participated in the sanctuary program, but it’s become increasingly difficult to manage, especially last year, Haynes said.
“2018 was particularly difficult to coordinate church participation because of their volunteer capacity and older buildings that could not accommodate 100 participants,” Haynes said.
The cost to Sacramento County was also rising, from $260,000 in 2015 to $606,000 in 2018, Haynes said.
The elimination of the program, while all other shelter beds in the area are typically full on most nights, has dozens of homeless men and women wondering where they will go. Some activists are criticizing local leaders for ending the program, fearing the number of homeless deaths will rise as a result.
Ross said she did not know how to get into any of the shelters in the area, but she knew where to line up to get on the bus to the churches. And she knew it was coming up – typically just before Thanksgiving.
She’s not alone.
“A lot of folks just make due until winter comes and then they expect this program will be available to them so they can get out of the weather at the toughest time of the year,” said Joe Smith, an employee at Loaves and Fishes. “I’m afraid of what that’s going to cause.”
Winter shelter vital for homeless
In 2018, a record 132 homeless men and women died in Sacramento County, according to a report by the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness. That was up from 124 in 2017 and 71 in 2016.
The winter sanctuary model was not sustainable, though, said Bob Erlenbusch, executive director of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness. It lacked services and did not give people anywhere to go during the day. Guests arrived around 5 p.m. and stayed until around 6 a.m.
“The churches were getting warn out, quite frankly,” said Erlenbusch, who also sits on the First Step Communities board. “It was a lot of work, they weren’t getting reimbursed and they were starting to bail.”
Howard Lawrence, of Sacramento Area Congregations Together, agreed.
“We think shelters should be 24 hours, should have wraparound services and should be much more robust than winter sanctuary was able to offer,” Lawrence said. “But I’m concerned about what’s gonna happen when the rain starts falling and the shelters aren’t going to be operational.”
The expanded shelter space and hours will be available at the two River District shelters by Jan. 1, officials said.
Homeless individuals are placed in those shelters, as well as the city’s largest shelter at the Capitol Park Hotel, by referral only, meaning police officers or certain service organizations can get someone in. That’s to prevent long lines from forming and to ensure those getting a bed are most in need, city officials say. But that system also presents a barrier that the winter sanctuary program did not have, activists say.
“I can’t even refer people and I’m out on the streets every day,” said Sister Libby Fernandez of Mercy Pedalers, which provides meals to homeless via bicycle. “Providers like Loaves and Fishes, Wellspring (Women’s Center), Mercy Pedalers do not even know who to call to get a homeless guest they’re working with into a shelter.”
Ross said she did not know how to get into the Capitol Park, North A or North Fifth Street shelters.
Steinberg said the referral system is effective in getting people on a path to ending homelessness; the city’s new shelters will be referral-only.
“Referrals are effective because the existing program and law enforcement (officials), who have the most contact with people who have been on the streets a long time, they are in a position to be able to literally refer people who they know are ready to accept the help,” Steinberg said. “But we need to build enough capacity to be able to refer everyone.”
Sacramento adding more shelter beds
The City Council has been steadily trying to build the city’s shelter capacity for nearly a year, since Steinberg asked all eight council members to find sites for at least 100 temporary shelter beds in each district. A year later, only one large shelter with services is open – Capitol Park Hotel.
As of Friday, that facility had all but one of its 116 beds filled, according to data from the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, which runs the shelter.
The council has approved $20 million in funding to open two more 100-bed shelters with services. The first one, in Meadowview, will not open until March. The second, under the W/X freeway, will not open until April or May, city officials have said.
The city and county did not open warming centers the last two winters, as temperatures did not hit freezing for three consecutive nights.
Last November, the city’s Railroad Drive shelter in a north Sacramento warehouse offered 200 beds. It was later reduced to 100, then closed in April.
Even with the loss of Railroad Drive and winter sanctuary, by the end of the winter there will be more shelter beds countywide than last winter, according to data from the city. That’s when nonprofits and so-called “scattered site” beds in apartments and homes are factored in, some of which have been added due to city, county and state funding.
But the county’s homeless population is also rising. There are about 5,570 homeless people living in the county on any given night, a count in January found, an increase of about 19 percent from 2017.
Even with more beds on the way, the loss of winter sanctuary will still be felt in Sacramento, especially at the start of the winter, Fernandez said.
“This is devastating,” Fernandez said. “Come Thanksgiving, the 100-plus homeless guests waiting for a place to go at night will have no place to go. They don’t even know it yet.”
This story was originally published November 22, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
