For first time in a decade, Sacramento County opens Cal Expo to shelter homeless in storm
As a series of storms that has already killed two homeless people again ramps up, Sacramento County officials are taking a rare step — opening the state fairgrounds as an emergency shelter.
Local and state officials have floated 350-acre Cal Expo campus as a shelter option as the region’s homelessness crisis worsened. Thursday marked the first time it happened in at least a decade.
Cal Expo’s Building 8, located behind the water park, will serve as a 100-bed weather respite center for the homeless during the storms.
The building, near the American River Parkway, is close to the hundreds of people camping along river banks. The river is expected to rise this weekend, potentially flooding their encampments and putting them in danger.
County employees will refer or transfer homeless individuals to Cal Expo. The shelter will not accept walk-ins.
Sacramento, which has been slammed with a series of atmospheric river storms since New Year’s Eve, is under another flood watch Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. Hundreds of encampments along both sides of the river have not yet dried out from the storm’s previous downpours..
Last weekend, Rebekah Rohde, 40, and Skip Sorensen, 61, died when trees fell on their tents during 70 mph wind gusts. Rohde’s tent was along the Parkway in the River District, while Sorensen’s was along Roseville Road in North Highlands.
Since the storms began New Year’s Eve, the city and county have opened several weather respite centers most nights. None has more than 50 beds. The county’s Board of Supervisors on Jan. 3 discussed the possibility of opening Cal Expo, but decided against it.
About 9,300 people in Sacramento are unhoused on any given night, with most of them sleeping outside. The city and county have roughly 2,300 shelter beds open, aside from the weather respite beds.
If Cal Expo fills up, the county will open additional locations somewhere in the county, spokeswoman Kim Nava said.
Bob Erlenbusch of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness praised the county for opening Cal Expo, but urged officials to open additional buildings within the sprawling campus and to allow walk-ins so homeless people could get in even if they hadn’t come across a county outreach worker.
“I am glad the county is finally opening Cal Expo which will provide respite 100 of our unhoused neighbors, but my question is why they did not do this more than a week ago and why not have more beds available with more than 7,000 homeless people outside?” Erlenbusch said. “I hope in the future the city and county shift their planning from a reactive mode to a proactive mode and have these plans in place and to the scale of the need and ready to implement, so no people experiencing homelessness have to die in a storm. If not, it will be clear to our unhoused neighbors and the community that we have learned nothing from these tragedies.”
Sacramento shelters open through Wednesday
Sacramento City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela, who represents the central city and River District, urged the county to accept walk-ins at Cal Expo, as well as vehicles, since it is so close to the Parkway.
“Consolidating services at a larger and more central location makes a lot of sense,” Valenzuela said. “I am hopeful that the county will accept vehicles at this location, and walk-ins, so we can get as many people to a safe location as quickly as possible before the next round of bad weather hits.”
The city and county opened two respite centers in the River District for the storms. The city also has a 50-bed respite center open at 3615 Auburn Blvd. All of them, along with Cal Expo, will be open until Wednesday.
People can bring pets and possessions into the respite centers at Auburn Boulevard and Cal Expo.
The county Thursday closed its 40-bed respite center at the HART senior center in midtown, moving the 35 people there to Cal Expo, leaving no respite centers in midtown or downtown.
The county has placed over 350 people in motels it opened specifically for the storm, Nava said.
Could Cal Expo house more homeless?
City of Sacramento elected officials in recent years have proposed using Cal Expo for various homeless shelters. One proposal in 2019 l called for a safe parking site off Ethan Way near the RV lot. Another suggested using Lot P.
Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021 signed a bill that clears the way for state and county officials to open a large homeless shelter at Cal Expo’s so-called Lot Z. The goal was to get hundreds of people off the Parkway, where camps have damaged the levee in some areas. A shelter there has not opened.
The city is no longer providing free bus shuttles from City Hall to the centers, but people can ride Regional Transit buses and light rail for free if they are going to the centers.
This story was originally published January 13, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly said Sacramento County had not opened Cal Expo as an emergency shelter until this week. It is the first time the county opened Cal Expo as a shelter since the Great Recession.
