New Sacramento County budget spends on American River Parkway homeless crisis

Using a flood of money from a federal COVID-19 relief package, Sacramento County plans to extend some services for homeless people along the American River Parkway and set funds aside to open a shelter near the regional park.

It allocated the money last week when it adopted a $7.3 billion annual budget, locking in plans to continue providing portable toilets and other services at sprawling encampments in the county, including those along the American River.

The budget also includes money to move people from those encampments.

The Board of Supervisors set aside $5 million in funding to go to a potential American River Parkway Homeless Reserve — a project pitched during budget hearings by the American River Parkway Foundation in collaboration with Supervisor Phil Serna.

Sacramento County Director of Homelessness Initiatives Emily Halcon said the foundation is interested in partnering with the county to identify sites that could serve as shelter for homeless people living on the Parkway.

Park rangers estimate that up to 2,000 unhoused people may be camping along the parkway. Lawmakers and environmental advocates at the American River Foundation and beyond have called on the area to be cleared, citing increased crime and fire risks, while some advocates for unhoused people have said that clearing the parkway without an adequate solution would only serve to drive people into local neighborhoods or more unsafe encampments in the woods.

A site for the project has not yet been identified, Halcon said.

“I’m grateful to my colleagues and staff for supporting my proposal to assist the American River Parkway Foundation in their well-coordinated efforts to proactively assist those living in the Parkway so we can save the Parkway,” said Serna in a Friday news release.

On top of the proposed reserve, the Board of Supervisors in April also pledged $2.45 million of money from the American Rescue Plan, or ARPA, to construct an American River Parkway shelter. The shelter, which is funded through December 2024, would have 60 beds.

ARPA funding played a significant role in Sacramento County’s new budget, and especially in its funding allocations for homelessness and housing issues. In the last fiscal year, Sacramento County has set aside significant funds — $59.5 million — from ARPA to be used for housing and homelessness through 2026.

“The county is investing unprecedented dollars into creating new programs, capacity and infrastructure.” said Halcon. “But beyond dollars, we are creating a collaboration system-wide that will stretch both new and old dollars even further, making the greatest impact possible.”

Beyond the American River Parkway, ARPA money is funding a slate of new homelessness initiatives outlined in the new budget, including a two-year continuation of sanitation stations in homeless encampments throughout the county. The sanitation stations include port-a-potties.

ARPA money will also help fund initiatives such as community nursing for homeless people and those at risk of homelessness, water distribution to encampments around the county and varied shelter and affordable housing construction projects.

This story was originally published June 15, 2022 at 5:25 AM.