Sacramento opens 96-tent site to shelter homeless people. See where.
Nearly two years after closing a high-profile sanctioned homeless encampment, the city of Sacramento is now opening its own version.
The new “safe camping” site, located in the River District just north of downtown, has space for 96 tents on raised wood platforms under shade canopies. It’s missing some of the amenities offered at most of the other Sacramento shelters, such as air conditioning, heat or meals. However, the site does offer security, shade, showers, porta-potties and case managers.
“It’s not perfect,” Mayor Kevin McCarty said Tuesday during a news conference. “But I’d like to go down the street and ask if it is better than being outside. We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”
The city paid $2.5 million to construct the shelter, which is on a property the city already owned, said City Manager Maraskeshia Smith. That cost included a contract with Livermore-based G&G Builders. The city is also paying $1.2 million annually to contractors to run the shelter, including Santa Monica-based nonprofit Step Up on Second Street.
That price comes out to about $38,400 per bed — more than the nonexistent cost of the now-closed Camp Resolution, but significantly less than the cost per bed of other city and county shelters. Those entities spent about $126,000 per bed on average to open and run eight other large shelters since 2020, a Sacramento Bee analysis found.
Unlike the self-governing Camp Resolution in North Sacramento, which the city closed in August 2024, not all residents at the new site will be allowed to bring a dog, no visitors are allowed, and no residents can come and go past 10 p.m.
“We’re focused on lessons learned,” said McCarty. “There will be rules and regulations, which is different than Camp Resolution.”
Crystal Sanchez, president of the Sacramento Homeless Union, said she is concerned the rules will cause people to be kicked back out on to the streets, which happened earlier this month at city motel shelters, also run by Step Up. In addition, she said lack of air conditioning could be dangerous for guests, especially seniors. The union, which is an activist organization, has sued the city in the past over the city dismantling homeless camps during extreme heat.
“It’s a city ran shelter and if people are harmed, they are liable, including for dehydration, heat, stroke, and death,” Sanchez said.
In 2023, a 43-year-old homeless man named Efrain Hernandes died in Sacramento due to hyperthermia and heat stroke, according to the coroner’s office.
Unlike the city’s safe camping sites under the freeway, which flooded during the rain, the new site includes wood platforms. Each site has a raised vinyl cot, an Adirondack chair, and a 30-gallon storage bin where all their belongings must fit. Each spot also has a beige tent provided by the city, which the city will swap out for thicker ice fishing tents in the winter.
Dennis Atiles, 72, stood outside the gate to the new site Tuesday morning, folding a blue tarp he had slept under the night before. When the city starts moving people in on Wednesday, he wants a spot, he said. In the year and a half he’s been living on the streets, his identification card has been stolen six times.
“It looks like a very safe place,” Atiles said. “It’s gated, it’s clean. I’ve been robbed and stuff got taken. My bike, clothing, and my wallet.”
As the news conference wrapped up, Hezekiah Allen, a manager with the city’s Department of Community Response, came out of the gate to greet Atiles. He said if Atiles had talked to DCR outreach workers before, he’s probably already on the waitlist.
At any given time, Sacramento County Homeless Services and Housing Director Emily Halcon has said, there are about 3,000 people on the waitlist for a city or county shelter bed.