Elected leaders and some advocates for people experiencing homelessness say the shed-sized structures offer a stable respite while people search for a permanent place to live. The homes can be set up faster and cheaper than traditional housing and offer a stopgap that responds to the urgency of the growing crisis, they say.
But as the region prepares to open a half dozen tiny home communities in coming months, at the cost of tens of millions of dollars, questions remain about how well this new approach will work, including whether unhoused residents will embrace it.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg says the 350 new shelters will be offered to people living in encampments along the W/X corridor, which runs parallel to Highway 50 in the central city, and to people camped along the American River Parkway. Some homes could open at Cal Expo by this fall, according to the governor.
Meanwhile, plans are moving forward for an additional 300 tiny homes at county-run sites in and North Highlands.
But in interviews this week, a half dozen unhoused residents said they鈥檇 rather stay in their tents than live in a community that restricts their movements or curtails other habits, as would be the case at the government-run camps.
鈥淚t鈥檇 be like living in prison,鈥� said Jeff Sharpe, 52, who lives in a tent just south of the freeway. 鈥淚鈥檝e already lived in prison. 鈥� You can鈥檛 get out.鈥�
Jacob Lashey, 27, who lives in a nearby tent said the tiny homes could offer stability and even a path toward sobriety. But, he said, he likely won鈥檛 go.
鈥淣ot if they鈥檙e going to tell me what I can and can鈥檛 use,鈥� said Lashey, who said he struggles with addiction. 鈥淚鈥檒l probably stick it out and try to do my own thing. 鈥� I鈥檇 rather not waste anybody鈥檚 time.鈥�
The city and county have policies allowing people to enter some shelters without being drug tested, but prohibit use onsite.
Joseph Gray interacts with unhoused residents everyday through his work picking up trash at encampments along the W/X corridor for the Downtown Streets team. He鈥檚 also unhoused and lives in his car.
The 65-year-old says the tiny homes will help 鈥減eople that want to get off the streets. But the fact is most of them don鈥檛 want to get off of the street.鈥�
Gray says he likely won鈥檛 accept an offer, either, because he doesn鈥檛 want 鈥渢o be crowded around other people.鈥�
Building a community 鈥榳ith respect and dignity鈥�
Bob Erlenbusch, executive director of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness, said he believes people on the street will eventually accept the tiny homes because they 鈥渁re a step up no matter how you look at it.鈥�
Given this year鈥檚 unrelenting rain and wind storms, 鈥淚 think people will be happy to come inside,鈥� he added.
But for the shelter programs to be effective, Erlenbusch said they must focus on fostering a community 鈥� something some unhoused residents say they already have at their encampments. After moving into a shelter, some return to their old camps because there鈥檚 nothing to do but sit inside their tiny home, several unhoused residents said.
鈥淚 totally understand people saying 鈥業鈥檓 not going [to try the shelter] if I鈥檓 not going to be treated with respect and dignity,鈥欌�� Erlenbusch said. 鈥淭hat needs to be built into the program.鈥�
Erlenbusch said each should provide basic amenities such as climate controls inside the homes and bathrooms and showers onsite. But organizers should also build community centers and basketball courts, allow participants to cook and socialize together and participate in decision-making. They should ensure groups of encampment residents who know and get along with one another are placed together at the tiny home community, he said.
Lashey, the X Street encampment resident, said organizers need to remember 鈥渉omeless people are still people.鈥� Though the tiny homes might not work for him, the Sacramento-native said he believes the stability 鈥渨ould change everybody鈥檚 life if they really made the choice to go in there.鈥�
What are the advantages of tiny homes?
Cities from to to have opened tiny homes in response to California鈥檚 surging homeless population. Supporters say the hard-sided structures are safer than tents, can open quickly and could save lives.
During a January storm in Sacramento, two unhoused residents were killed in separate incidents when trees fell on their tents. During another powerful atmospheric river in January 2021, at least two homeless residents, including a woman sleeping in a tent downtown, as winds approaching 70 miles per hour lashed out across the region.
Local advocates say they know tiny homes won鈥檛 solve homelessness alone. But they鈥檙e 鈥渁 good place to start,鈥� said Angela Hassell, executive director at Sacramento Loaves & Fishes, which provides survival gear to unhoused residents.
鈥淚deally, they aren't going to just fall down or get shredded in a windstorm or a rainstorm,鈥� Hassell said. 鈥淭hey're going to offer some more safety and security and a private space for folks to kind of take a breath and then move into some of the other healing arenas.鈥�
Two years ago, , including several outdoor sanctioned tent encampments known as 鈥渟afe grounds.鈥� But a year later, the plan fizzled out. The city closed its safe ground campsite near Southside Park and eventually at its other outdoor site at Miller Park. Officials said concerns over safety, cost, community opposition and ultimately led them to abandon the comprehensive plan.
Still, officials say there鈥檚 more work ahead. The city and county signed a in December with the goal of . The deal commits the county to opening up to 600 new homeless shelter beds, including hundreds of tiny home beds. It also requires the local governments to form .
鈥淚t鈥檚 not the city alone anymore,鈥� Steinberg explained this month at Cal Expo, where Newsom announced plans to provide 1,200 tiny homes statewide. 鈥淲e need the county, not only for operating but for the services. The mental health and substance abuse services.鈥�
Sacramento County鈥檚 plans call for case management staff to work onsite at the tiny home communities. They would help guests access documents needed to secure benefits and housing, while behavioral health staff would provide mental health and addiction assessments and referrals. The plans also call for security personnel to check people in and out of the communities.
How helpful are tiny homes at ending homelessness?
It鈥檚 hard to say how effective Sacramento鈥檚 tiny home communities will be at bringing people off the streets and helping them find permanent housing. Sacramento hasn鈥檛 opened any large-scale sites yet. But results at a small tiny home community, the city鈥檚 first to open, appear promising.
Known as , the site includes 24 sleeping cabins for homeless young adults ages 18 to 24. It opened in June 2020 near the St. Paul Church of God in Christ in North Sacramento.
So far, it鈥檚 been 鈥渞eally successful,鈥� said Erlenbusch with the regional homelessness coalition. He credited the program鈥檚 design, large homes and amenities for helping many young adults transition to housing.
shows more than half the guests, 166 out of 293, found housing in the most recent project year. Of those, 91 secured permanent housing, 68 found transitional or temporary housing and 17 were institutionalized, which can include foster care, a substance use treatment center, hospital, jail or prison.
Results in two Bay Area counties are somewhat less encouraging. A recent showed people moving out of tiny homes in Alameda County failed to find permanent housing nearly 75% of the time from 2019 to 2022. In Santa Clara County, people failed to find permanent housing more than 50% of the time, the analysis found.
But the Mercury News found the tiny home communities offered more services and helped a larger percentage of people find permanent housing than traditional homeless shelters.
It also found the tiny home programs cost more. Given increased spending on homelessness at state and local levels, some have called for more cost-effective solutions.
Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute, a free-market think tank based in Pasadena, says it would be less expensive per bed to build traditional shelters instead of tiny homes.
鈥淔rom the numbers I鈥檝e seen, it just seems like the tiny home approach is much less cost-effective,鈥� Winegarden said, adding that private organizations such as the Sacramento charity St. John鈥檚 Program for Real Change is a model for building and operating shelters for less money.
Sacramento County has approved more than $50 million to build and provide services for three tiny home communities over the past year. Altogether, the sites will include approximately 300 small shelters, offering space for one or two people each.
鈥淥ften the government, which is very good at collecting money and very good at dispersing money, is not very good at running programs,鈥� Winegarden added.
Steinberg disagreed. 鈥淭he tiny home proposal 鈥� is the essence of thinking more efficiently about housing. And, frankly, we need a lot more of it,鈥� the mayor said this week. 鈥淭he problem we have with housing, especially affordable housing in the state, is that it鈥檚 too expensive and it takes too long to build.鈥�
The mayor said he welcomes private sector involvement, especially if anyone has a vacant building or warehouse to help with the cause.
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