Sacramento to open homeless warming center for first time in years, but only for a night
For the first time in four years, the city of Sacramento will open a warming center for the homeless Tuesday night.
The Tsakopoulos Library Galleria, at 828 I St. in downtown Sacramento, will operate as a warming center from 9 p.m. Tuesday through 6 a.m. Wednesday, the city announced in a news release Tuesday morning.
City and county guidelines say warming centers should not open unless temperatures hit 32 degrees for three nights in a row. Earlier this month, amid pressure from homeless activists, Mayor Darrell Steinberg announced a plan to open the library galleria if temperatures hit 32 degrees for one night, instead of three, among other initiatives.
The National Weather Service forecast a low of 32 degrees for Sacramento on Tuesday night, prompting the city to open the center. Wednesday night temperatures are expected to hit 41 degrees, prompting the center to close, even though there is a chance of rain. The Thursday night low is expected to be 36 degrees.
Homeless activists are urging the city to keep the warming center open all winter, as thousands are sleeping outdoors, and all shelters are full on any given night.
“I am glad for our unhoused neighbors that the warming center will be open today, but outraged that it will only be open for one day when the weather is forecast to be cold (and colder with the wind chill) and rainy,” said Bob Erlenbusch, of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness. “The city must abandon the temperature-driven criteria and open warming centers from Dec. 1 through March 31 because that is the humane thing to do.”
But the more nights the city opens the warming center, the more it risks a coronavirus outbreak among the vulnerable homeless population, Daniel Bowers, the city’s director of emergency management, has said.
County officials have so far tested 3,418 homeless people since March, at encampments, shelters and motels, said county spokeswoman Janna Haynes. Thirty-four have tested positive. At least two of those were guests at the city’s new Meadowview homeless womens’ shelter, according to Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency spokeswoman Angela Jones. Once they test positive, they move to isolation trailers at Cal Expo to prevent the spread of the virus.
The library galleria, which the city opened in the summer as a daytime cooling center, has multiple floors to allow for social distancing. Resting spaces will be set up 12 feet apart, separated by partitions, and guests will be required to wear masks unless they are sleeping.
The city will admit guests to the center on a first come first served basis, said city spokeswoman Jennifer Singer. The city previously said the center would hold 60 people, but Tuesday said it was unknown how many people would fit, depending partly on how many people sit and how many sleep, Singer said.
To access the warming center, attendees should use the Galleria patio entrance located on 9th Street between I and J streets, the release said. Guests will receive snacks and warm beverages at the center.
“With temperatures expected to dip down to the low 30s tonight, we will open a Covid-safe warming center at the Library Galleria at 9th and I streets,” Steinberg tweeted Tuesday. “Thank you to our (city of Sacramento) and (Sacramento County) public health for finding a way in the pandemic.”
Steinberg also announced a plan earlier this month to use the 62 trailers at Cal Expo for homeless warming centers for women and children, after the county no longer needs them to isolate homeless people who are infected with the virus. As of Sunday, there were 17 people in the trailers, Haynes said. As cases surge, the county currently plans to continue to use the trailers for positive cases at least through mid-January, Haynes said.
Earlier this month, the city also paid $35,000 in federal coronavirus stimulus money to fund additional motel vouchers, with priority given to families and those most vulnerable. The county is planning to allocate $600,000 in state funding to expand motel vouchers this winter.
Separately, since the pandemic started, more than 1,300 homeless people in Sacramento have spent time in motels and trailers under the state’s Project Roomkey program, the release said. Three of those hotels are still open, but it’s unclear how long they will stay open.
Volunteers in January 2019 counted 5,570 homeless people living in Sacramento County, mostly sleeping outdoors and mostly in the city — a 19% increase from 2017. About 10,000 to 11,000 people would become homeless throughout the course of 2019, the report estimated. The count will not be conducted this winter, but the crisis appears more visible on Sacramento streets amid the pandemic.
This story was originally published December 29, 2020 at 12:18 PM.
