Sacramento mayor takes blame for not opening homeless shelter during storm
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said Tuesday he should receive the blame for the city’s failure to open a downtown emergency homeless shelter as a powerful storm pounded the region last week, when howling winds badly damaged homeless camps and endangered the lives of those sleeping outdoors in the pelting rain.
Some homeless people were injured during vicious winds that hit Sacramento that night. Four homeless people died during last week’s storms, although it is unclear whether the weather contributed to their deaths.
“You better believe we should’ve opened a center on (Jan. 26). And we did not,” Steinberg said during Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.
The mayor said he’s accountable, and he accepts that, for failing to get the city to divorce itself from county criteria that only allows warming center to open when the temperature hits 32 degrees. The temperature didn’t meet that criteria Jan. 26, but the wind chill reached 32 degrees, or freezing that night.
Homeless activists called for City Manager Howard Chan to be fired after he decided to keep a downtown emergency homeless shelter closed as last week’s storm reached its most dangerous point.
Three City Council members have expressed public support for Chan. There were no calls from council members for Chan to be fired during the Tuesday City Council meeting.
A shelter was opened at the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria on Jan. 25 as temperatures dipped below freezing, but officials did not open the shelter the following night. The city and county previously only opened warming centers when temperatures hit freezing for three nights in a row.
Chan explained Tuesday why he decided not to call county officials to ask for approval to open a warming center on Jan. 26. He said he knew the county guidelines wouldn’t be modified to open a warming center without freezing temperatures.
The city manager also said there was no public support from the Sacramento County Public Health department to open an indoor shelter for a second night because of fears of a COVID-19 outbreak among the homeless population.
“Plain and simple, I knew what the answer was going to be,” Chan said about his decision not to seek county approval to open the warming center a second night.
Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela said she was “frustrated” because it’s evident the county criteria wasn’t the obstacle, since the city was able to open the downtown warming center the following night and continued to expand the number of available beds. She said a permanent change needs to happen to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
The city manager said the city needs to establish its own criteria on deciding when to open emergency homeless shelters.
The city issued an emergency declaration the following night, which allowed the city to get around the county criteria and open warming centers at the library and the pool house at Southside Park, along with a parking garage for homeless people to safely sleep in their cars.
The city also organized a training session from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for faith-based groups to learn how to safely open their own emergency shelter. Representatives from only one church attended the FEMA training, but the city is willing to make available the training video for those groups who couldn’t attend.
Councilman Eric Guerra said the city needs to create basic contracts for funding security and cleaning services at shelters opened by community groups in emergency situations, such as last week’s storm, so “we don’t let a bureaucracy get in the way.”
Schools and hotels eyed for more homeless beds
The city is working with the Sacramento City Unified School District to create a list of three to four schools that can serve as potential sites for emergency shelters as part of a winter sanctuary program for homeless people. The program also includes hotel vouchers that will allow homeless to find shelter while adhering to COVID-19 safety guidelines.
Steinberg said the city plans to add about 470 hotel rooms as temporary shelter at two hotels with beds for 500 to 700 homeless people.
“We have run this as a true emergency... as we would in a disaster,” said Daniel Bowers, the city’s director of emergency management.
Bowers said city staff is developing contingency plans in case of a COVID-19 outbreak at the warming centers. He said they have had to increase security at the centers after reports of minor drug use and the removal of some for “nefarious” activity, but there have not been any reported assaults.
The emergency management director said this has been a “heavy lift” for city workers who have been pulled from throughout the city to operate the warming centers over several shifts each night.
The mayor said he wants to have homeless shelters open for anyone who needs a safe place to stay throughout the year, and the ultimate goal is for the city to have 1,500 beds available.
