On January 3rd we brought you a story about the Steiny Home homeless facility at the old Air Force National Guard site on Roseville Road at Longview Drive. Here are some of the latest developments.

The Mainstream Media have now reported on the facility. Darryl Steinberg held a photo op there announcing the City of Sacramento's intent that homeless people would be able to live there, get supportive services, and eventually transition to permanent housing. The press event was short on specifics.

Soon thereafter, homeless residents who had been staying at the Miller Park site were relocated to the Roseville Road facility. While it is good they had dry cabins instead of wet tents, according to KCRA3, the City of Sacramento has yet to provide heating and cooling for the units. There are shared bathrooms with showers, though.

The Roseville Road site was established by Sacramento's City Manager Howard Chan, who had been given carte blanche by the Sacramento City Council to provide homeless shelters. Of course, the site he found was far away from the privileged neighborhoods in Sacramento, sitting as it is on the far edge of City Council District 2 and abutting our unincorporated homeland. Where will the residents of the Roseville Road shelter go when they leave the facility?

• Out onto dangerous (speeding traffic/lots of trucks/no sidewalks/no bike lanes) Roseville Road to the county waste transfer station and beyond to an industrial area in the unincorporated county,
• Along the nearly deserted Longville Drive until they get to the convenience stores, liquor marts and fast food places of the unincorporated area
• To the adjacent light rail station that's used by unincorporated area residents. Would you want to leave your car there all day?

A few other facts have now come to light about the 240 Steiny Homes and 60 trailers at the new facility:

• The Steiny Homes, which were provided to the City of Sacramento to shelter homeless individuals during Covid, have not been used to provide shelter until now.  They have been possessed by the City of Sacramento for around 3 years.
• Planning for the facility did not include coordination with the County
• The source of money to improve and maintain the site beyond the short-term is uncertain
• Indicted City Councilman Sean Loloee resigned. Mayor Steinberg has assumed the duty of providing constituent services to District 2 constituents until the vacant seat is filled by an election or by appointment of a caretaker councilmember.

We should all hope for the best, though, shouldn't we? Homeless people should not have to sleep out in the rain and the cold. Having a roof over your head, onsite counseling and handy access to the light rail system can be a blessing. Still, like the Auburn Blvd. facility, the Roseville Road facility is really just a way to move people from "important" parts of the City of Sacramento to our unimportant, unincorporated community. We're the ones who will feel the impacts. That's not something for which we have a load of enthusiasm. Nor, given the City of Sacramento's track record, are we confident that much of anything has changed, homelessness-wise. Roseville Road is a fairly small site, given the magnitude of the City of Sacramento's homelessness situation. What are your thoughts?