While thousands sleep outdoors, Sacramento has dozens of tiny homes and trailers in storage
While thousands sleep outdoors in Sacramento, about 105 tiny homes and trailers intended for the homeless are sitting in city storage.
Roughly 55 tiny homes have been sitting in storage at a North Sacramento city yard since March, said Gregg Fishman, spokesman for the city’s Department of Community Response. Another 50 trailers have been empty since June.
FEMA provided the trailers to the city in 2020, and the city used them to quarantine COVID-positive homeless men and women at Cal Expo. But the city stopped using the trailers in June when other options, mainly motels, became available for quarantine shelter space, Fishman said.
The city purchased the tiny homes for $569,859, Fishman said. They come equipped with a heating and air-conditioning unit, light fixtures and a sleeping platform.
City officials said the delay is partly because the trailers and tiny homes need water, sewer and electrical hook ups, as well as permitting and regulatory approval, Fishman said. They must also comply with federal and state laws.
“We are working as fast as we can to create more safe spaces of all types for people experiencing homelessness in Sacramento,” Bridgette Dean, director of the city’s Department of Community Response, said in a statement. “The trailers and Pallet (tiny) homes must meet federal and state laws and regulations that include accessibility for the disabled and fire equipment. That generally means the sites need to be paved. Regulations also require power, so people don’t burn things for light and heat. This is a safety issue for the residents and the surrounding community.”
Mayor Darrell Steinberg said he agreed that the sites need to be paved, but that he is trying to get approval to use generators for plumbing and electricity for both the tiny homes and trailers so they can be deployed more quickly. The issue is the city’s building code requires all structures to have full plumbing and electricity, Steinberg said.
“I’m desperate to get this inventory out,” Steinberg said. “And we’re working hard to get it out. But there are some challenges.”
Homeless advocates critical
Homeless activists are criticizing the city for letting the tiny homes and trailers sit empty this long.
“It’s absolutely unconscionable that they are sitting on 55 tiny homes for eight months,” said Bob Erlenbusch, executive director of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness. “We’re trying to keep people alive and here’s 105 places that can house 105 to 150 homeless people.”
Community activist Samantha Corbin said the city should have used the tiny homes and trailers to keep homeless people dry during last month’s storm, when more rain fell than any other day in the city’s recorded history. Tents at the city’s sanctioned Safe Ground encampment near the W-X freeway flooded, and the fire department had to rescue about 14 homeless people from a North Sacramento industrial area.
“It is sinful that those sat in a parking lot instead of having people in them when encampments were flooding,” Corbin said. “They were here for the 113-degree days and here through the torrential downpour.”
The trailers and tiny homes were “not appropriate” for emergency use for the storm, Fishman said. The city opened two respite centers for the storm, including one at City Hall, and the county opened three.
“If (we used) them for the storm emergency we wouldn’t have them available for the longer-term use for which they are intended,” Fishman said.
Corbin questioned whether the city was truly doing everything it could to expedite the opening of the tiny homes, the way Steinberg stepped in to make sure the new SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center opened in time for Hamilton in September.
“Why when it comes to people who will die, why do we not have the same sense of urgency?” Corbin said.
Four homeless men died of hypothermia in Sacramento last winter. Last year, two homeless people died of heat stroke as one of multiple causes.
Steinberg said he spends about half his time trying to find ways to get the homeless indoors, whether it’s additional shelters or homeless housing, such as a facility the council approved last month in downtown. He hopes to announce respite centers this month, he said.
“I will say no one is pushing harder on the urgency of the moment here,” Steinberg said. “We are on the verge of breakthroughs. That isn’t just false optimism. I am confident we will have significantly more capacity to bring people indoors, if not permanently, by the start of winter.”
Tiny homes announced four years ago
In January 2018, Steinberg announced he wanted to order 1,000 tiny homes to shelter the homeless. In summer 2020, he renewed the call for 500 tiny homes. There are about two dozen tiny homes sheltering homeless young people in North Sacramento, but the promise has largely not come to fruition.
The city plans to place the new tiny homes at several North Sacramento sites and under the W-X freeway, part of the City Council’s $100 million Comprehensive Siting Plan to Address Homelessness, but it’s unclear when they will open.
City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela agreed with Steinberg that city officials are getting the tiny homes open as fast as they can.
“Everybody thought you pop a tiny home on some dirt, but it’s not that easy,” Valenzuela said. “It’s taking a little bit longer, but I think it’s because it’s all so new. I don’t think it’s anybody’s fault.”
There are an estimated 5,570 homeless people living in Sacramento County, according to a January 2019 census. The city has two 100-bed shelters, two Safe Grounds, and about 400 homeless people in motel rooms, but they are all full on any given night.
This story was originally published November 3, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
