California Construction News staff writer
Sacramento County and its partners have broken ground on a large-scale campus to serve the local unhoused population.
The 13-acre property on Watt Ave near Roseville Road, already equipped with a 130,000-sq. ft. warehouse, is designed as a mixed-use campus with shelter, respite, and safe parking. Behavioral Health services, co-located on-site with case management, storage, pet respite, laundry services, showers, bathrooms, job training, and more, will complete the vision of having a dynamic, multi-use, co-located facility to serve the unhoused population.
“This is a project we’ve been working on for years – a large-scale campus-style shelter that will serve hundreds of people at a time and address the diverse needs each of them have,” said Rich Desmond, County Supervisor District 3. “Our staff is putting in extra time and attention to this campus, ensuring that it houses everything we need to end homelessness for people.”
Conservative estimates, based on the data from other county sheltering and respite projects, show that over 15 years, the Watt Campus will serve 18,000 people – which pencils out the cost to less than $3,600 per person – a drastic reduction to what it costs to leave people unhoused and burden the cost of response.
While having the space to serve folks at these different stages of their homeless experience, the site will allow for a myriad of community-based supports – behavioral health, physical health, employment services, treatment services (and many more) – to co-locate at the site and support clients towards a permanent exit from homelessness.
Watt will be the County’s fourth Safe Stay Community, with other locations in south Sacramento at Florin, East Parkway and on Stockton Blvd., the county said in a statement.