Sacramento council to consider opening building 24/7 for homeless services, respite
The Sacramento City Council will consider Tuesday whether to open a building where homeless individuals could escape the heat and cold, and access services around the clock.
The building, located in the former Powerhouse Science Center at 3615 Auburn Blvd., would essentially be open 24/7, for up to 55 unhoused adults and families.
“As a city, we must use available, vacant public space to help make this problem better,” said Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who proposed the idea after learning Sacramento’s homeless population nearly doubled in three years. “We must say ‘yes’ more than we say ‘no’ if we are ever going to provide the relief that people and the community need.”
The city owns the building, but is paying a nonprofit up to $3.3 million to operate it. This summer, the city only opened the center when the National Weather Service issued a heat advisory — six days so far this summer. Temperatures hit triple digits for six days in a row last week, according to weather service data, but there was no advisory so the center’s doors were shut.
Extreme heat and cold can be fatal. Two homeless individuals died with heat stroke as one of multiple causes of death in 2020, according to the Coroner’s Office. Ten homeless people have died from hypothermia since November 2020.
The council voted to open a 24/7 center at the building in March 2021, but then Councilman Sean Loloee, who represents the area, blocked it after hearing concerns from the Children’s Receiving Home, the next-door nonprofit group.
The leaders of the receiving home, which serves foster youth, are not opposing it this time, and are instead “neutral,” said CEO Glynis Butler-Stone. Steinberg worked closely with the receiving home over the last few weeks, the mayor said.
“Thus far, the CRH campus has not experienced adverse impacts from use of the respite center as a cooling center,” Butler-Stone said in a statement. “However, CRH will continue to closely monitor the center’s operations and potential effects.”
The facility would be fenced with monitored entry, have 24/7 security, and not allow guests or registered sex offenders on the premises, the city’s staff report said.
Center would be referral only
As the item is currently written, homeless people would not be able to walk up to the center and get in. Instead, they would have to be invited by the city’s Department of Community Response.
“We want to make sure we are being good neighbors to everyone involved and we have a real process,” said Nick Golling, program manager for the department.
Crystal Sanchez, president of the Sacramento Homeless Union, said the council should amend the language Tuesday to allow people to walk up to the facility and get in, even without a referral. Thousands of homeless people are never contacted by the roughly 15 people who comprise the newly-formed DCR outreach teams, who mostly respond to camps that are the subject of 311 complaints, she said.
“DCR does not have the capacity to be the only resourcing entity,” Sanchez said. “Walk-in respite is a must not only for the unhoused but the housed. This will create a lack of access for many people and will further the distrust of the unhoused community.”’
It’s unclear whether people could keep coming to the center without a referral if there is a heat advisory, or during other strict criteria in the winter.
The department will also do outreach to the camps near the building, including those along Arcade Creek, to invite them in, Golling said.
“At the outset, it will provide a whole lot of relief for people experiencing homelessness in District 2,” Golling said, referring to the North Sacramento district that does not currently have any city homeless shelters.
Homeless people could also call 311 themselves to get on the list for the center, Golling said.
‘I’m very appreciative’
Victor Koutsis and Kristin Goree, who live in their vehicle at Carmichael Park, visited the center when it opened July 11 during a heat advisory — the most recent day it was open. They sat in La-Z-Boy leather chairs while they drank water and cooled off, while staff misted, fed and gave water to their two dogs outside in crates.
“The people are really nice,” Goree said. “Being able to come in here and relax, it’s cool. I’m very appreciative, that’s for sure.”
Bathrooms, showers, food and water are available, Golling said. Pets and possessions are allowed.
If the council approves, the center would be open for overnight stays between 4 p.m. and 7 a.m., and open for daytime services between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., Golling said. Formally called the Outreach and Engagement Center, services would include help finding housing, job-readiness training, help getting state identification cards and birth certificates, and signing up for government benefits. Eventually, the site might also offer medical and mental health services, he said.
Bob Erlenbusch of the Sacramento Coalition to End Homelessness said he was glad the center would include those services, whereas the city’s previous makeshift warming center in the City Hall lobby did not.
“It sounds much more comprehensive than the cooling/warming centers in the past without any services, so this is a good step forward,” Erlenbusch said. “The only thing that’s incredibly disappointing is it will serve such a small fraction of the people who really need it.”
There are an estimated 9,278 homeless people on any given night in Sacramento County, a report released last month found. Up to 20,000 people in Sacramento will experience homelessness throughout the course of the year, the report said.
The Sacramento Homeless Union last month filed a federal lawsuit seeking a court order for the city and county to open many more public buildings as emergency weather centers in extreme heat.
The meeting will take place at 2 p.m. Tuesday, and will be live-streamed on the city’s website.
