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Plans to build a tiny-home community for Sacramento's homeless has been delayed due to push back from neighbors
On Tuesday, Sacramento county supervisors put off a vote on a proposed 100 unit tiny home community for homeless people at the corner of Florin and Power Inn roads, just east of Highway 99. Announced by county officials earlier this month, the relocation process would include both single and double-occupancy cabins, bathrooms and communal gathering spaces. Known as a “Safe Stay Community,” it would become the largest scale homeless housing project in the county, according to officials. The postponement could mean that a site for homeless services that was expected to open by the summer or early fall now may not be ready until later in the year towards November, according to county staff
Supervisor Patrick Kennedy, whose district surrounds the project location, made a motion to move forward with the project, but didn’t garner enough support. “This is the greatest humanitarian crisis facing our community,” Kennedy said before the vote. “We hear all the time: How come the county’s not doing anything? And we know we are. We know we have programs and this is another step toward doing something that I think is vitally important.” Issues from local residents who claim to be "blindsided" by the project has put pressure on the voting boards to move forward with the proposed motion.
County CEO Ann Edwards also pointed to the pressure county officials have been feeling to move quicker when it comes to tackling the homelessness crisis as a "misstep" in communication for the project to get underway. “We’ve been told that many, many times: go faster,” she said, adding that it’s “very, very difficult” to find a site that’s acceptable to all stakeholders.