New Sacramento homeless site to open at Regional Transit lot after breakthrough with agency
A long-delayed effort to open a safe parking lot for homeless individuals to live in their vehicles at a Sacramento Regional Transit site is on track to open this year after a breakthrough between the city and the commuter agency.
The Roseville Road Regional Transit light rail station parking lot, near the I-80 overpass, will contain space for unhoused individuals to live in about 70 vehicles, with access to bathrooms, showers, food, water, 24/7 security, and help finding housing.
The City Council included the site in its $100 million homeless siting plan it approved in August, but its opening stalled, partly because it needed approval from not only the city, but also Regional Transit, Caltrans, and multiple federal agencies.
During an April 12 council meeting, Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who spearheaded the siting plan, criticized Regional Transit for the delay.
“I think RT is sending a message,” Steinberg said at the time. “I don’t feel a sense of urgency from RT and I love RT, love (RT general manager and CEO) Henry Li. I think they don’t want to do this. And I think in many ways they’re sending that message loud and clear. That’s problematic to me.”
City Manager Howard Chan then met with Li, where they worked out an agreement on a sticking point regarding site security, which the RT board approved earlier this month, Steinberg said.
Homeless parking near rail site
Hundreds of unhoused individuals, including families with children, live in vehicles and RVS along Roseville Road near the site in a growing encampment. Those people should have priority to get into the safe parking site, which will provide relief to the area, Steinberg has said.
The site still needs approval from Caltrans, the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit
Administration. That should be coming in a matter of weeks, not months, said Councilman Jay Schenirer, who sits on the RT board.
The site will open this summer at the earliest, said Jessica Gonzalez, RT spokeswoman.
Councilman Sean Loloee, who represents the area where the Roseville Road station is located, did not return a request seeking comment.
Other Sacramento RT sites
The progress on Roseville Road could be a sign that the two other two planned safe parking sites at RT light rail stations could also open soon. Those sites are both in south Sacramento — one on Franklin Boulevard and one on Florin Road.
Councilwoman Mai Vang has been holding community meetings about the Franklin Boulevard site and is eager to open it soon, she said. Staff told her it could open in the fall, she said.
“I’m doing my best to make sure we move it along,” Vang said. “I want to make sure it doesn’t fall to the wayside. We need to make sure we have safe spaces for our families and our neighbors.”
The site is in Councilman Rick
Jennings’ current district. Vang will represent it after new boundaries from Sacramento’s once-a-decade City Council redistricting take effect.
Jennings also strongly supports the site, and wants it to open as soon as possible, he said.
The Florin Road station site, which Schenirer originally proposed in 2019, could open after the other two, Schenirer said.
“What we committed to RT is we would see how one works,” Schenirer said. “We have expanded that to two. I think Florin would be following a years’ worth of good work.”
The city has funding to continue operating its roughly 1,100 homeless beds and spaces in the fiscal year that starts July 1, including a safe parking lot near Miller Park, but might not have the funding after that, Chan has said.
A recent estimate from
Sacramento Steps Forward found a whopping 16,500 to 20,000 people likely experience homelessness throughout the course of the year in the county. The official number from the federally-mandated Point in Time count is due out in the coming weeks.