Sacramento buys 100-acre Meadowview site for homeless parking site. What else will go there?
The city of Sacramento has spent $12.3 million to purchase a 100-acre long-vacant Meadowview property from the federal government.
City officials plan to open a large safe parking site for homeless individuals living in vehicles at the site, a dirt lot off Meadowview Road behind the Sacramento Job Corps Center.
The site could also be used for a large affordable housing complex or a large homeless shelter, said Ryan Brown, chief of staff for Councilwoman Mai Vang, who represents Meadowview. It could also be used for community amenities such as a park, open space, or a nature preserve, he said.
Vang will hold a series of listening sessions over the next three months to hear the desires of the residents — a neighborhood often considered under served and disadvantaged.
“For far too long, South Sacramento has been underinvested in and denied economic opportunities,” Vang said in a statement. “I’m proud to have led the work to ensure the City of Sacramento secured this property to ensure residents in South Sacramento get their fair share of equitable investments. We have a unique opportunity to build affordable housing, civic amenities and bring resources that will benefit our unhoused neighbors and families right here in South Sacramento. I’m excited to co-create and dream big with the community through the coming months in a series of community listening sessions to ensure we uplift every person, family, and child in South Sacramento.”
At safe parking lots, homeless people living in cars and RVs get access to bathrooms, showers, medical and rehousing services, and do not have to worry about being towed. The site could potentially host more than 200 safe parking spots, which is a significant number, Brown said.
“This acquisition is the first of several breakthroughs we expect to announce soon in our ongoing effort to create more safe spaces, beds and roofs for people experiencing homelessness,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg said in a statement. “The size of this parcel also allows us to envision permanent affordable housing and a major new amenity for south Sacramento.”
The city has a safe parking lot at Miler Park, just south of Old Sacramento, but like all shelters and Safe Grounds, it is typically full on any given day. The council in December voted to continue towing vehicles used by unhoused people. Without a safe parking lot, people who receive tow notices have nowhere to go, and their vehicles are often towed. The city tows vehicles that violate the city vehicle code by parking in the same spot for more than 72 hours.
In the first week of January, the city’s Community Development department towed 33 vehicles, according to a weekly report.
While the other parts of the plan are not yet determined, the safe parking lot is the priority, especially because the council funded the purchase from its $100 million Comprehensive Siting Plan to Address Homelessness, Brown said. The council adopted the siting plan in August, but none of the 20 sites have yet opened.
The siting plan included a vacant lot at 2875 Meadowview Rd., owned by Cathedral-Praise & Worship Center, about a mile north of the job corps site. The plan was to open 125 tiny homes there for 200 homeless people. But those tiny homes have not yet opened there, and it appears unlikely that they will (the church could not be reached for comment). Meanwhile, 105 trailers and tiny homes intended for the unhoused have been sitting in city storage for months, unused.
The safe parking lot will likely open in 2022, Brown said.
This story was originally published January 21, 2022 at 11:00 AM.
