Sacramento OKs nearly $5 million in rental assistance for 1,000 households. Is it enough?
The city of Sacramento is set to spend about $4.7 million in federal funding to help keep people in up to 1,000 households from becoming homeless during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Sacramento City Council approved the rental assistance program Tuesday — part of a package to address homelessness that could hit $62 million if California officials approve an application for an additional $25 million.
“This spreadsheet is $62 million worth of life-saving opportunities for thousands of Sacramentans,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg said Tuesday after the unanimous vote, holding a piece of paper outlining the initiatives. “It may be hard to get people off the streets, but the harder part is preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place.”
Officials plan to give preference to low-income families with minors, those who are unemployed due to the coronavirus, are facing eviction and not receiving other financial assistance, Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency officials said.
The details could change, though. City officials plan to meet with stakeholders and community members to decide on the specifics before the item comes back to the council Sept. 22 for final approval.
Councilman Eric Guerra suggested the city also give preference to immigrants and refugees who have been unable to receive federal assistance.
Is the money enough for rental assistance?
Community activists say $5 million for rental assistance is not enough to keep Sacramentans from becoming homeless in the coming months. Councilwoman-elect Katie Valenzuela, The Sacramento Housing Alliance and the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness are urging the city to increase the allocation.
Bob Erlenbusch, head of the coalition, said the council should at least double the amount for rental assistance. He said Sacramento State University researchers estimate 38,000 households in Sacramento County are at risk of being evicted in the coming weeks — about six times the number that were evicted in 2019, he said.
“While $5 million being proposed is a good start, it is not to the scale that will be needed,” Erlenbusch wrote in an email to council members before the meeting.
Valenzuela agreed.
“I hope this $5 million is not the last,” said Valenzuela, who will be begin representing the central city and Land Park on the council in December. “They did multiple rounds of money out to small businesses, so I hope we can do the same thing for the workers of those businesses in the community, as well.”
The council has allocated $22 million in federal coronavirus funding toward small business recovery and assistance, $18.7 million toward youth and workforce training programs, $15.6 million on homeless and housing, $7.5 million on arts and tourism, and $4.6 million on social services. The city has about $11 million of the $89 million in federal coronavirus stimulus check left to allocate.
Sacramento County received about $181 million in federal coronavirus stimulus funding, but has not yet allocated any money toward rental assistance.
The city’s residential eviction moratorium is set to end Sept. 30, meaning renters will have until Jan. 28, 2021 to pay the back rent and avoid eviction unless state lawmakers take further action, said Kelli Trapani, a city spokeswoman.
“Hopefully the state legislature will step up on eviction protection and ensure more people do not lose their housing,” Steinberg said.
Erlenbusch said the City Council should also spend some of the remaining federal money on a long-discussed safe parking lot where homeless could safely sleep in their vehicles.
Motels, other initiates funded
Other items in the approved package include:
▪ $9 million toward acquiring two new hotels and turning them into permanent housing for the homeless, pending state approval and $25 million in funding under the Project Homekey program. The hotels include the Hawthorn Suites on Bercut Drive, just north of downtown, and the WoodSpring Suites near the intersection of Mack Road and La Mancha Way. Both hotels would serve about 100 people in permanent housing for 55 years, according to SHRA officials. The Hawthorn would serve as interim housing for the first three years.
▪ $4 million for up to 500 tiny homes to be placed at “Safe Ground” type encampments across the city.
▪ $4 million toward the county’s flexible housing program, to provide rental subsidies and supportive services to house up to 200 households in existing units.
▪ $2.7 million to continue Project Roomkey motels to shelter homeless people during the pandemic. The program will be extended through December, but the number of beds will not increase to 850 as originally planned, so officials can focus on finding housing for them, said Emily Halcon, the city’s homeless services coordinator. As of July 26, there were 619 people staying in the motel rooms, a county spokeswoman said. More than 1,100 people have spent time in the motels since early April.
▪ $2.2 million for 62 beds in 31 new manufactured units.
▪ $1.2 million for a meth sobering center in the central city with 20 beds open 24/7.
▪ $1 million for up to 66 beds at City of Refuge and Saint John’s Program For Real Change.
“This is exactly what we said we would do and we’re doing it,” Councilwoman Angelique Ashby said of the package. “There are (more than) 170 women and children in the City of Refuge and Saint John’s Program alone.”
