Kaiser Permanente donates $32 million for Sacramento homeless, low-income people
Kaiser Permanente is donating $32 million to help homeless and low-income Sacramento residents, including $5 million for two large upcoming Sacramento shelters.
The $5 million will help pay for the operation of large adult shelters with services under the W/X freeway and in Meadowview, which are both set to open this spring. The contribution will reduce the city’s price tag to open and operate both shelters for two years, which city staff said in August would be about $21 million.
The shelters, in semi-permanent tent-like structures, will include medical, mental health and rehousing services. Officials hope most guests can be moved into permanent housing within four to six months.
“This is not symbolic or a token investment, this is big,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg said. “It will allow us to construct and get going on these two major pieces of our comprehensive plan to get people off the streets.”
Steinberg said the late Bernard J. Tyson was vital in getting the funding. Steinberg made the request, and the two struck up a friendship before Bernard died suddenly in November. His staff followed through.
“I dedicated the announcement in his memory and in his spirit,” Steinberg said.
Kaiser Permanente is also donating $25 million to create and preserve affordable housing units in the county, starting with preserving 172 affordable units at three properties in Sacramento and Rancho Cordova. The properties are open to low-income residents who receive Housing Choice First vouchers, formerly called Section 8.
The company declined to disclose the locations of the properties, citing privacy concerns. The funding will support acquisition and renovation of the properties, a company spokeswoman said.
Steinberg said that money will complement the $100 million housing trust fund the city is launching using Measure U sales tax revenue to spark the construction of much-needed affordable housing units.
“All these funds will work together to aggressively produce as much supply as we can,” Steinberg said.
In Sacramento, the rent for a typical apartment has gone up 45 percent, adjusting for inflation, in the last seven years, a Sacramento Bee analysis found.
The company also donated $2 million to the Community Solutions Built for Zero initiative, which aims to reduce chronic and veteran homelessness nationwide.
The company chose Sacramento partly because of its large and increasing number of homeless people sleeping outdoors, according to a news release.
Volunteers in January 2019 counted 5,570 homeless people living in Sacramento County, mostly in the city. That was a 19 percent increase from the number they counted in 2017. About 70 percent of the county’s homeless are living outdoors.
This story was originally published February 20, 2020 at 3:40 PM.
