Sacramento may not reopen the 80-person ‘Safe Ground’ homeless site. Here’s why
The city of Sacramento’s only sanctioned camping site for the homeless is closed and may not reopen.
The city opened the site, a so-called “safe ground,” about a year ago. It included rows of identical tents for roughly 80 unhoused people to live, with bathrooms, showers, fencing, and drinking water, as well as hard to come by mental health, medical and rehousing services. Those amenities are typically unavailable to the thousands of people people who live in unsanctioned tent encampments throughout the city, along the river banks and under overpasses.
Closing the Safe Ground would affect Sacramento’s shelter inventory. It would eliminate about 80 beds, bringing the total number of city and county beds down to about 2,200. A January 2022 count found there are roughly 9,300 homeless people living in Sacramento County, most of whom sleep outside. All shelter beds are typically full.
Due to flooding risk at the site located along the Sacramento River, city staff last month shut down the Miller Park Safe Ground amid a series of severe rain and wind storms. The city moved the residents into motels and indoor shelters.
Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela, who led the opening of the Safe Ground, said she thought the plan was to reopen it after the storms. She said she was “shocked” this month when she received a text message from City Manager Howard Chan saying he does not plan to reopen it due to a plan to shift the funding to affordable housing.
“With Miller Park specifically, the city currently is exploring options to better leverage its limited resources and provide more cost effective and sustainable solutions,” Jennifer Singer, a city spokeswoman, said in an email. ”As we saw in the recent storm, Miller Park is not an ideal location for a Safe Ground due to its proximity to the river and vulnerability to the elements. The city is working to make its final determination on next steps for the Miller Park Safe Ground as soon as possible.”
Did council approve closure?
It’s unclear from a city staff report whether an October council vote to subsidize over 800 units of new affordable housing units across the city included direction to staff to close the Safe Ground. Valenzuela, who represents the area, said she did not believe that vote meant the Safe Ground would close. The council last month voted to allocate $3.2 million to First Step Communities to keep the Safe Ground open through the calendar year. Valenzuela alleges Chan closing it anyway means he did not follow the direction of the council, to whom he must answer.
“Not reopening Miller Park makes absolutely no sense,” Valenzuela wrote in a text message to Chan on Feb. 3. “And doesn’t align with the direction we’ve given as a council, as recently as a week and a half ago when we voted on that contract.”
Chan responded: “Agree to disagree.”
Valenzuela said she plans to bring up the topic at Tuesday’s council meeting.
Unlike indoor shelters, residents of the Safe Ground are still in tents and therefore exposed to the rain, wind, heat and cold, which can be fatal. So far this winter at least two unhoused people in Sacramento have died from hypothermia.
Valenzuela said while not perfect, the Safe Ground provides people a space that is better than the dangerous streets, where women are frequently sexually assaulted, and homicides are relatively common.
“It’s not a panacea,” Valenzuela said of the Safe Ground. “It would be better if we had more space, it would be better if it was indoors. However until we get better space, we really can’t afford to lose something that is working for some people.”
Since it opened, about 450 people have spent time at the Safe Ground, Valenzuela said. Of those, 40% were able to move indoors after leaving the Safe Ground, typically due to the services they received while there. They went to indoor shelters, housing, and some went to live with friends or family.
This story was originally published February 10, 2023 at 3:14 PM.
