Sacramento completes new tiny homes for homeless, ‘leading the way in California’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- City and county spent $120M last five years on shelters; tiny homes cost $26K.
- Sacramento completed 135 tiny homes at 3900 Roseville Road to expand shelter.
- Added ~500 beds in 2025; only about five shelter exits led to permanent housing.
Sacramento officials gathered near Del Paso Park on Thursday morning to showcase the completion of a project described as a cost-efficient and leading strategy in the state’s homelessness response.
The announcement focused on the completion of 135 new tiny homes at 3900 Roseville Road, a shelter that has operated since January 2024. Since taking office last year, Mayor Kevin McCarty has pushed for the city to shift its resources toward the miniature dwellings and away from congregate homeless shelters. The Sacramento Bee reported last week that the city and county of Sacramento have spent $120 million in local, state and federal funding over the last five years to build and operate homeless shelters.
“Unfortunately, some of the plans that we put forward the last 10 years in California, I saw this in the Legislature, good intentions, but they’re not going to work to get people off the streets,” said McCarty, a former assemblymember.
McCarty has repeatedly compared the costs of tiny home units to those of permanent supportive housing, which is regarded as the best practice for homeless people but can range from $200,000 to $600,000 per unit. The new Roseville Road tiny homes — 70-square feet each — cost about $26,000 per unit, according to Brian Pedro, the director for the Department of Community Response.
Pedro has led the effort in the last year to scale back funding across multiple homeless providers amid an ongoing budget deficit and reduced state support. On Thursday, he praised the city’s recent approach to expanding shelter capacity, offering services and trying new approaches to address the issue. A local nonprofit estimated last month that nearly 9,000 homeless people are living in Sacramento County.
“I would proudly say that Sacramento is leading the way in California,” Pedro said.
The city added roughly 500 new shelter beds to its previous existing 1,375 total in 2025. Only about one in five guests who have exited a shelter in the region have moved into permanent housing in the last five years, according to previous reporting from The Bee.
Moving forward, the Roseville Road shelter will operate as two separate campuses.
The existing shelter on the south side of the property will continue to be run by the nonprofit shelter operator First Step Communities. That side has received 35 of the new homes to replace previous travel trailers without electricity.
The remaining 100 homes have been placed north side of the property and will be operated by housing and supportive services provider The Gathering Inn. So far, 22 people have moved into those units.
Pedro said that two different providers on the same campus reflects the need to serve a “diverse client base.”
“Each service provider approaches it a little differently, how they move people through the system, and different techniques that they use to get people stabilized,” Pedro said.
This story was originally published December 18, 2025 at 12:50 PM.
