Sacramento homeless response: YMCA could be rebuilt to add affordable housing, childcare
The YMCA in midtown Sacramento could be demolished and redeveloped into a new YMCA, childcare center and eight stories of affordable housing for homeless families.
The YMCA is interested in the plan, but outreach still needs to be conducted with residents of the surrounding area and YMCA members, said City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela, who represents the central city.
“This is exactly the kind of thing that gets us out of the homeless crisis,” Valenzuela said. “I don’t want us to lose sight of the fact that shelter is not the goal but housing is the goal.”
The number of units that would be built at the site, at 21st and W streets, is not yet determined. The units would likely be three to four bedrooms, which is a “huge rarity in the city,” Valenzuela said.
Valenzuela is also dropping plans to place tiny homes for homeless people nearby under the W-X freeway — an idea that prompted a September lawsuit against the city from a group and a nearby business owner. The lawsuit claimed the plan skirted an environmental review and would place the homeless amid air pollution. Plaintiff Michael Malinowski, owner of Applied Architecture Inc. on X street, said he is now satisfied.
“I think it means we won,” Malinowski said. “I think it validates the concerns I had about it.”
Valenzuela said she’d rather have city staff work on housing than tiny homes. But the housing will also take much longer to open than the tiny homes — at least “a couple years,” she said.
Meanwhile, the city has about 105 tiny homes and trailers sitting unused in a city lot.
Sharna Braucks, President and CEO of the YMCA of Superior California, expressed support for the YMCA project.
“This important community issue takes many partners to address, and we are eager to be part of the solution,” Braucks said in a news release. “The YMCA and city partnering to address a critical community need of today by providing homes for families experiencing housing insecurity extends the Y’s mission, programs, and legacy of service we have provided in Sacramento since 1866.”
Mayor Darrell Steinberg also supports the project, and said he wants it to be a model used across the city.
“I want to thank Councilmember Katie Valenzuela for working so diligently to find sites in District 4 where we can offer the services, safe spaces and permanent housing needed to alleviate Sacramento’s crisis of unsheltered homelessness,” Steinberg said in the release. “Replicating such facilities city-wide is the only viable path for us to reduce the numbers of people suffering on our streets and alleviate the distress felt by business owners and residents.”
To sufficiently address the city’s housing shortage, the city would need to create 16,769 new housing units for low-income residents by 2029, according to a state-mandated report. Low-income households are those in which a family of four earns $69,050 or less.
New homeless Safe Grounds
The city is also opening a new Safe Ground sanctioned tent encampment with a capacity of 60 tents at an undisclosed location in Valenzuela’s district, she said.
The new Safe Ground will be open in January, she said. The existing Safe Ground under the W-X freeway near Southside Park will close in the next few weeks and the roughly 50 remaining guests will be moved to shelter or housing, she said. The existing safe parking site at Miller Park will remain open.
“Nobody will be displaced,” Valenzuela said.
As of September, the two Safe Grounds served 368 people, and at least 85 had moved to more stable and permanent living situations.
“We’ve really demonstrated that Safe Ground can be a really important entry for folks who need to build that trust,” Valenzuela said.
After the city announced the W-X Safe Ground, tents and RVs started lining the streets outside the site, hoping to get services. Valenzuela is not announcing the site yet in the hopes of avoiding that, she said.
“When you publicize these things, folks who are looking for shelter from all over the city are going to come to that location,” Valenzuela said.
Priority populations for the new Safe Ground will be those living in encampments along the Sacramento River levee, outside the W-X Safe Ground and other encampments in the downtown area, the release said.
The Safe Ground at the Sierra Health Foundation property off Garden Highway will also open in January for the roughly 60 homeless seniors who are camping at an island near Discovery Park, Valenzuela said.
At Safe Grounds, while homeless people are still in tents, they are often raised off the ground with cots. Residents are provided with showers, bathrooms, running water, medical and mental health services and help finding housing and indoor shelter. The sites are also much cheaper and faster to open than traditional shelters.
The site will be open for three months, which should be long enough to get residents into shelter or housing, given their age and their needs, Valenzuela said. People will still be able to stay at the island if they choose, she has said.
Some medical providers visit the island, but the pathway to the island often floods from Steelhead Creek, making it difficult, Valenzuela said.
“A bunch of the elders are getting sick,” said Twana James, the unofficial mayor of the island. “We try to get to the doctor but we don’t know where to go. We don’t like going to hospitals. Nobody has cars.”
Several island residents have died at the island without making it to a hospital, including Michael McSwain, 60, who died in June.
The residents of the island are open to the idea of moving to a sanctioned camp, but need to hear more information, James said. She doubts the site will be big enough for all 60 residents because they have dogs they don’t want to put in cages and they need to be spread out, she said.
Sacramento County will provide services to the guests of the Sierra Health Foundation Safe Ground — the first time it will be providing services at a Safe Ground, Valenzuela said.
There are several planned Safe Grounds for tent and vehicle camping in the $100 million siting plan the council approved in August, but none have yet opened.
This story was originally published December 20, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
