Sacramento is quietly making progress on homeless housing. Here is how | Opinion
Frustrated by years of neighborhood opposition and City Council waffling on new shelter sites for Sacramento’s homeless, Mayor Darrell Steinberg led the charge to delegate the decisions to the city manager, then Howard Chan, in 2023. In the subsequent 17 months before resigning, Chan found a grand total of one new “tiny home” shelter site, off Roseville Road.
Then long-time city staffer Leyne Milstein took over as the interim manager. In her first eight months on the job, she is on track to finding six new sites for tiny homes, vehicles and city-managed camping. Anxiously awaiting progress is the new mayor in Kevin McCarty, who is looking to deliver on his top campaign promise.
While Steinberg responded to the COVID pandemic and the explosion of homelessness with more than 1,000 new shelter beds, historic by city standards, the pursuit of thousands more in his second term fell apart under the crushing weight of city politics. Putting a committed city manager in charge, however, is beginning to bear fruit.
Milstein, along with a staff that is coming up with some clever new ideas, is on a path to another 1,000 tiny homes, permanent housing and spaces for tents and cars. And McCarty, the front guy who doesn’t have to make the tough site decisions thanks to Steinberg, can take the political credit.
“We’re on a good trajectory,” Mayor Kevin McCarty told the City Council Tuesday night. For now, he’s right.
McCarty is going to need money to come from somewhere to expand shelter options in the city as he expects the state to no longer provide half the money. And he’s going to need equal interest and energy from other cities in the region with their own safe camping, safe parking, tiny homes and other shelter concepts.
I’m not seeing nearly the same interest at exploring new concepts from the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors in particular. Sacramento City Hall is the hotbed of creativity for two reasons. The city has the overwhelming share of the homeless problem. And now council members can focus more on how to expand housing for the homeless while avoiding precisely where it should go.
“The city of Sacramento can’t do it alone,” Councilmember Karina Talamantes of South Natomas told fellow council members Tuesday night. “I think every neighboring city has to step up in addressing homelessness and I look forward to that conversation.”
In some respects, Sacramento is looking to switch from a very expensive way of renting homeless solutions to owning them, setting up new sites with cash to drastically lower ongoing costs. The most notable case in point was the plan detailed Tuesday to establish four new “micro communities,” each with 40 tiny homes equipped with wi-fi and electricity.
It will cost $85,000 to set up each of these 120-square-foot manufactured homes, according to Brian Pedro, director of the city’s Department of Community Response. But managing each of the four sites could cost as little as $500,000 annually.
“They are economical and scalable,” Pedro said. “This is a truly affordable option.”
The four micro communities are planned for city-owned sites in North Natomas (3511 Arena Blvd.), Brentwood in south Sacramento (6360 25th St.), Sacramento Manor just north of Meadowview (2461 Gardendale Road) and an undetermined location in the seventh council district (which spans from The Pocket to Curtis Park). Only homeless residents ages 55 and older will be eligible for these units.
The city’s going to experiment with a new “safe camping” concept in the River District (291 Sequoia Pacific Blvd.) with about 100 city-owned tents under fixed canopies designed to withstand Sacramento’s stiff winter winds.
The last city attempt at a safe camping concept, a self-governed site in north Sacramento known as Camp Resolution, “was not successful,” Pedro said. The goal here is to move some of the street camping in the River District into something far more organized.
Sacramento’s also going to try a political partnership with some potentially awkward bedfellows — Regional Transit and the Trump Administration. The goal is to manage a parking site of 60 to 80 vehicles at RT’s Franklin Station off Cosumnes River Boulevard. Both the RT board and the federal administration (which helped pay for the site) would have to give their blessing.
All this change is creating the predictable anxiety. Councilmembers Mai Vang and Roger Dickinson, for example, opposed the idea of charging homeless seniors 30% of their income to live in a micro-community. Some neighbors of the North Natomas complained as well. Local Councilmember Lisa Kaplan criticized the lack of transparency in the selection process.
City Council members do not covet homeless facilities in their districts. Milstein has clearly been trying to locate new homeless facilities in each district, a political exercise in spreading pain.
Hopefully soon in Sacramento, we will learn to embrace in our neighborhoods a small village of manufactured homes, where 40 seniors are looking to peacefully live in their twilight years.
McCarty, while he is facing some stiff financial headwinds, is not planning to scale back the advances in shelter options for the homeless. He wants to move forward and continue expansion, hinting without detail about new revenue ideas. This was the issue that got him elected. Homelessness can get him unelected as well.
The real progress detailed Tuesday shows his tenure in office is off to an impressive start, thanks in significant part to capable city management that has been tasked to take the lead.
Tuesday night was a small test as to whether Sacramento truly could stomach a broader homeless solution. Some new rooftops, albeit small ones, sure beat living on the streets.
This story was originally published September 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM.