3 on streets froze to death in November. Now, Sacramento will use warming centers more often

Theresa Clift
·2 min read
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After three homeless people froze to death in November, the city of Sacramento will open warming centers more often this winter, the City Council voted Tuesday.

The change, proposed by Councilwomen Katie Valenzuela and Caity Maple, will loosen the criteria that will prompt the city to open the centers in the winter and summer.

It’s a topic that has attracted strong criticism of city leaders in recent years.

Of the three unhoused people who died of hypothermia in November, two of them occurred on nights the city and county did not open walk-up warming centers. In January 2021, the city and county did not open any walk-up warming centers the night of a severe rain and wind storm. The criteria at the time did not take rain and wind into effect, only temperature.

Under the new criteria, the centers will open under any National Weather Service extreme weather events, including wind, flood, or rain events, according to the city staff report.

In addition, the centers will open on bad air quality days, when the Air Quality Index is 151 or higher. Those days typically happen during the fire season in the late summer and fall.

Cooling center also affected

Extreme heat also can be deadly to the unhoused and those without air conditioning. In September, Michael Hooper, 49, died of heat stroke while living in his van near a Sacramento park.

A city homeless services building at 3615 Auburn Blvd. will be open as a weather respite center at least until March, with a capacity for 100 people, the staff report stated. The city has also opened the Pannell Community Center in Meadowview as a weather respite center, and will likely do so again.

Under an amendment from Valenzuela, the city will give at least 24 hours’ public notice that the centers will be opening. The city and county will have at least three centers open in different parts of the city each time they do.

Despite the changes, there are still no 24/7 year-round walk-up weather respite centers in Sacramento — something homeless activists have been requesting for years.

“I don’t wanna lose sight of fact in the long term, as we build partnerships with the county and the state, we ought to endeavor for year-round respite,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg said during the meeting. “Not weather based.”