Okay.

We'll reconvene our Sacramento City Council meeting.

Please call the roll.

Thank you, Councilmember Kaplan.

Councilmember Dickinson.

Vice Mayor Talamantes.

Councilmember Pluckybaugh.

Councilmember Maple.

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Gata.

Presente.

Councilmember Jennings.

Councilmember Vang.

And Mayor McCarthy.

You have a quorum.

Okay, let's proceed.

So we have do we um city attorney?

Do we have a report out from closed session?

Nothing to report out.

Thank you.

We move to the can um we have one special presentation, Hispanic Latino Heritage Month.

This is presented by you, Mayor McCarty, Vice Mayor Talamantes and Mayor Pro Tem Gata.

Yes, thank you.

We are excited tonight to recognize Hispanic Heritage Month.

I know it was a long council meeting.

We have a busy agenda, but this is an important topic that we wanted to address.

And so I know that um Vice Mayor Talamantes and Mayor Protem uh Guetta also have some comments, but um, you know, this is a special place here in Sacramento, and nearly one in three of our residents are of uh Latino Hispanic descent, and so we want to of course recognize this month.

This is a special day as well.

Uh last night we had the pleasure of joining our consul and our friends to celebrate the grito over at the state capitol.

Today's, of course, uh Mexican Independence Day, 916, uh special day for multiple meetings.

But uh, this is a community that's for uh decades um valued and uh honored our Latino uh neighbors and and friends here.

Uh these are difficult times for our Latino community, so we want to make sure we stand up for this community every day, especially uh during these times here in California.

I I want to note too we have two, of course.

We're gonna hear from a second, uh two outstanding council members who happen to be of Latino descent, and I know their their parents and grandparents uh from Mexico would be super proud to see them representing us today.

Uh 1971, we elected our first uh council member of Latino heritage, Manuel Ferales, who was in the Gardenland Northgate area.

Uh about a decade later, we had our first Latina councilwoman.

Uh, she was appointed, she wasn't elected Ava Garcia, she's still around today.

We know uh her her daughter and her son are still very active in the community.

About a decade later, we had our first Latino uh elected to mayor of Sacramento, of course, Joe Cerna.

Uh then a few years later we had a Latina elected to the city council again from your district, Deborah Ortiz, and then uh 20 years later, we've got uh councilmember Guerrin.

A few years later, Councilmember Talamante, so the fifth and sixth Latinos serving the great city of Sacramento.

Wanted to recognize uh you all.

So this is a special uh special day for us in the council, and with that, Councilmember Gera.

Uh thank you very much, uh uh Mayor McCarty.

Uh first I I want to uh you know uh thank uh you for uh bringing this resolution forward this year and to recognize so many folks involved in uh the celebration of uh Latino Heritage Month, National Hispanic Heritage Month that dates back uh even to Lyndon Johnson, but uh you know President Nixon and President Reagan were involved in uh in recognizing this efforts and it bore out of many uh of those who of our Latino descent who had served in our armed forces and came back and were not treated as equals as equals after serving their country, and then and the time and the duration, the month that they declared of when to uh celebrate it, begins on September 15th and it goes to October 15th.

And it coincides with the the dates of independence for many countries.

Uh, yesterday uh was the independence of El Salvador, and so we have many contributions from those the community of El Salvador, uh, you know, in the chambers today, Matthew Miranda from the Sacramento V, his family come from El Salvador.

Uh and uh, and then today we are celebrating, you know, the the celebration of Mexican Independence Day uh as well.

Uh and many uh who have contributed uh to that uh time frame as well as Guatemala during this month, and we see Jim Gonzalez from the Economic Council here, who's you know, very proud, Guatemalteco over there.

Uh but Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, all of them were declaring independence and happened during this time frame uh against the tyranny in the monarch of Spain, and interestingly enough the fundamental principles that uh then uh why we declare for example today Mexican independence day father Midel Hidalgo uh who wanted economic justice for uh all people and at the time it was many Africans many uh indigenous people and creoles and people who had you know what have California has become a melting pot they wanted the equal justice and also also the abolition of slavery so in 1810 at the cry of the of the lores the uh in Indolores uh Father Midal Hidalgo y Costilla was the one who went out there and said we need to end slavery and we need to provide economic justice to all people so that they can control and have control of their own life and destiny uh we had many uh folks in there and today we'll also sell uh another item uh Maria Morelos who was uh an indigenous person who uh also from Morelia who fought and said we need to continue this effort and then Vicente Guerrero so Hidalgo uh Morelos and Vicente Guerrero also the first black president of the Americas an African who uh who was elected and was involved in the independence movement all during this time frame an important time frame when you had a tyrannical government that was picking people off the street taking people without due process and uh and ensuring that that uh that they weren't being put in the caste system because the uh independence of Spain was an attack against the caste system based on who they were as a person how they what they spoke and what they said.

Interesting you know relevance uh from 1810 to where we are today and so today we celebrate uh National Hispanic Heritage Month uh and for uh for all all of our communidad is unplacer to reconocer todos los uh hispanos todos los membros de la comunidad de la comunidad indigena de los can contribuido de las uh differentas de Mexico Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Nicaragua son de todos somos aquí estamos y no nos vamos and with that uh mayor I want to you know just again thank you again for that and to give a recognition and round of applause for all those who have contributed this month from the our uh Latino community big round of applause for the thank you and to close it out and to present the resolution Vice Mayor Talamantes.

Thank you so much mayor um so recently the Los Angeles Times reported um about the gnome versus Vasquez Perdomo uh case the Supreme Court and a majority of the justices gave a silent blessing to immigration raids in Los Angeles that target people for looking Latino for speaking Spanish and for working jobs that build this country but never enough to live in it and this decision came down without full briefing no real oral arguments no record rich with evidence just a late summer shadow cast from Marble Heights as reported by the LA Times and Justice Sonia Setamayored refused to let it pass unchallenged I'm just gonna read her quote we sh we should not have to live in a country where the government can seize anyone who looks Latino speaks Spanish and appears to work a low wage job she wrote rather than stand highly by while our our constitutional freedoms are lost I dissent and the day that she quoted this and it came out in the newspaper I was nearly in tears because of the reality of where we're living at today where kids are scared to go to school where people are scared to go to work where people are being advised when they go to work when they leave the construction site to change their t-shirts into a not a bright orange, red, or green, to go out in pairs to avoid the streets and drive the freeways, and all the cautions that we have to take that were taking place and that we're preparing for in the current political times that we're living in.

But regardless of what's happening in this world, September has always been Hispanic Latino Heritage Month since 1968.

And for that, we're gonna continue to celebrate our culture, to celebrate our diversity, to celebrate our language, to celebrate our cultura, and to celebrate who we are because America is a melting pot.

And it's what we do here in Sacramento and what we do here in California, and we're gonna continue to stand up for each other during these challenging times.

So to everyone here, now more important than ever, is it important to reach out to your neighbor to have a conversation and to stand up for each other as we endure the next three and a half years.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We're gonna ask Claudia from the Fuel Network to uh come up, and on behalf of let's say probably 155,000 Latinos in city of Sacramento recognize this uh this day and accept the proclamation.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Claudia Rios Manso.

I'm the coordinator for the Sacramento Fuel Program.

The fuel network provides critical education services and support to the Sacramento immigrant community.

And over the last seven to eight years, it has developed into a comprehensive and dynamic network that is trusted by the community, houses extensive knowledge and expertise, and serves as a central hub for collaboration among Sacramento residents and organizations with the goal of protecting the most vulnerable among us.

We know that many of those targeted by increased ICE enforcement actions and through hateful rhetoric in this time as the Latino community.

This increase in enforcement has led to heightened anxiety and fear amongst our neighbors.

In this time of crisis, our community relies on the fuel network more than ever.

Our fuel partners manage an emergency hotline for the community, provide legal intervention during ICE arrests to prevent deportations and family separation, and deliver critical legal services, education, and advocacy in accessible languages.

Our partners are committed to standing alongside our community and working together to support all those that are being negatively impacted.

Thank you, Mayor McCarty, Vice Mayor Telamantes, and Mayor Protemp Guerra for bringing forward this resolution.

This resolution documents this significance and importance of contributions of Latinos to Sacramento, and it also reaffirms the city's responsibility to continued advocacy and commitment to be proactive and take action during this critical moment.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Well, um excuse me, we have two more speakers.

I think we have the Hispanic chamber and the representative from the Mexican council to speak as well.

So it's good evening now.

So good evening there and council members.

My name is Kathy Rodriguez Aguirre.

I'm the president and CEO of the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Thank you for inviting me to be here for this special resolution and recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Tomorrow, our chamber will host our annual State of Hispanics event where we will release the third edition of the Hispanic Economic Report.

Each of you has received an advanced copy.

When we first launched this report in 21 and 2021, our goal was to highlight the impact of the Latino community on our regional economy.

Now in 2025, we can clearly see where progress has been made and how Latinos continue to be a driving force for growth across Sacramento.

I want to take a moment to ground that story here in downtown Sacramento.

I've been in many conversations about the exciting future of our core, from new housing to Sacramento State's presence downtown to the rail yards and Kaiser Hospital.

But the truth is revitalization is already happening thanks to Latino businesses.

In just the past two years, businesses like Legend has it, Con Carinho, Conaso Car Cafe, Cerveza Landia, La Costa Café, Alma Wine Bar, 916 Bueno Café, Chicas Peruvian Restaurant, Octopus Peru, and Urban Mercado have all invested in downtown, adding vibrancy and creativity.

These businesses are more than storefronts, they are destinations.

Gona Socur is now welcoming 20,000 customers monthly, drawing people who then explore the rest of the area.

916 Bueno opens its doors to pop-up vendors on weekends.

Alma Wine Bar has become the networking hub.

Legend has it is reviving vinyl culture while collaborating with food entrepreneurs.

Casa de Espanol continues to educate and celebrate culture.

And hospitality leaders like Ernesto Delgado and Chando are expanding their footprint, bringing energy and innovation to K Street and beyond.

They are not waiting for revitalization.

They are revitalization.

And we cannot forget we are also great consumers.

At Golden One Center, Latin Music has topped attendance with three of the five biggest concerts in 2024 led by Latino artists.

And just last month, Halo Fest brought thousands to Capitol Mall for a two-day ticketed Latino Music Festival, proved that our community not only invests but creates opportunities that benefit the entire city.

So during the Sispanic Heritage Month, I hope we will all take a moment to recognize not only the incredible economic and cultural contributions of Latinos, but also the spirit of collaboration and unity that fuels this progress.

Much of this momentum has been built by businesses working together, supporting one another, and finding creative ways to succeed, even without significant outside assistance.

That spirit of resilience and unity is what makes Sacramento stronger, and that's why we know that juntos, together, anything is possible.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Finally, we like to bring up our amazing consul, the Mexican consulate here in Sacramento, Christian Ton at you, El Dios Tesor.

Gracias.

My dear friend, Mayor, McCarthy, my dear friends, Council members, amigas, amigos.

It's for me a pleasure, an honor being here today to celebrate the Hispanic Heritage Month, a time in which we come together to recognize the richness of our shared culture, history, and achievements of Latinos, in our case, Mexicans in California and across the United States.

We are not just part of California's history, we are its heart.

With more than 15 million Latinos in this state, our presence is woven into every aspect of its identity.

And it's especially meaningful for us because nearly 12 million of these Latinos are Mexicans and making Mexican community the largest Latino group in California and vital force in its development.

In its workforce, traditions, classrooms, in its art, music, and its future.

Every day, Mexicans build California with their hands and talents in the fields that feed the nation, in the construction sites that shape our cities, in the hospitals and clinics where we care for others, and in the classrooms and research centers where knowledge grows.

We are essential workers, professionals, leaders, creators to social economic and vultural vitality of this state.

This month is especially meaningful because it coincides with the independence anniversary of several Latin American nations as Eric Guerra has mentioned, beginning with Mexican one who called for the freedom of September 16, 1810.

So we're celebrating today 216, 15 years of independence of Mexico.

That struggle was about dignity, sovereignty, and justice, values that we carry with us as Mexicans wherever we live.

As we celebrate our shared heritage, it is also important to acknowledge the challenges our communities faces.

Issues like immigration, access to opportunities and social equity remain pressing concerns.

Yet, this challenge reminds us to the importance of cooperation, dialogue, and mutual respect between Mexico and the United States.

Our shared goal is to create pathways for prosperity, security, and understanding for all our communities.

Being here matters because we share this history, this challenge and these aspirations.

We stand together as a community that honors its part while building a more inclusive and prosperous future for everyone.

So today we celebrate ourselves, our resilience, our creativity, and our unity.

And we reaffirm refirm that the Mexican history is and always will be a sensational part of California and if it's nation.

Yo quiero tomar esta opportunidad for exhortation, a those leaders, at the community.

Viva Mexico.

Thank you.

Please come up with a picture.

Thank you.

One quick announcement as they're all coming up.

We will be lighting City Hall up and our uh some of our buildings in green, white, and red.

Uh and we want to thank again for uh that effort to recognize uh Hispanic Heritage Bud.

So uh but thanks everyone again.

Well, right.

Can you guys back up?

Or back up a little bit?

Yeah.

Okay.

Amazing job.

Thank you.

Okay, okay guys, squeeze in.

You're growing taller.

I'm growing taller.

You know when you get a mayor.

With a few more folks coming.

Yeah, a few more folks left.

Okay.

Yes.

Awesome.

We were rosa.

My face hurts.

Suck it in.

Okay, so one last one right here, please.

Ready?

One, two, three.

I don't know.

Is it a call?

I don't know.

The curtains do they have to be drawn?

We don't have to, but you'll have one.

And then we can close with it and happens.

I know, right?

Okay, thank you.

Next item, please.

So may we move to the consent calendar.

We have one item on the consent calendar.

I do have one speaker on that item.

It is establishing a sister city relationship with the city of Morelia, Muchupancon, Mexico.

And Ernest Delgado would like to speak on this item.

Yes, please come up.

This one?

Hello, Mayor.

Council and Sacramentans.

My name is Ernesto Delgado, community business leader and owner of several local restaurants.

I am proudly from the state of Michoacan, Mexico, and excited about a sister city with Morelia.

The state capital of Michoacan.

Sacramento has a strong connection to Michoacan because we have a large community of Michoacanos living here in Sacramento.

The sister city would create the opportunity to reconnect with our families and heritage and share our culture.

A direct flight from flight between Sacramento and Morelia Airports opened up this summer, which has already increased travel between both cities.

A sister city will help us bring even more tourism to Sacramento.

The action by City Council today is a resolution of intent, which means we can advance our plans for the sister city and return council to make a final decision.

As you can see by the supporters behind me, this is a community-driven relationship for all of Sacramento to benefit.

We are going to do our part to make sure this relationship is successful and last generations to come.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

It's always you know, leave it up to uh to uh uh a Spanish uh committee, Spanish name to make it longer.

Muchas gracias uh Hermandad de la ciudad de Sacramento y la ciudad de Morelia.

It's an orgullo aquí de tener el primer paso para tener una relación con la ciudad de Morelia y para los uh los Michoacanos que viven in Morelia tenemos una esperanza de star juntos.

Uh, I want to also thank a number of folks uh that were here today.

Um, you know, I see Maggie uh Aguilera who uh is a uh student who helped start putting this together.

Uh also uh Ernest exactly Ernesto Delgado, another Michoacano.

We have many of our staff members uh like Heisman Jaslin from the city of Sacramento.

Uh also I want to recognize my I can't do this out with recognizing my mom over here, uh another Michoacana.

With the Guadalupe, Guadalupe.

So they're all from all different districts.

From let me tell you all that this whole group is from every district.

And uh so but there are a lot of Michoacanos, and I I just want to say that we appreciate this effort uh because uh we used to have a direct flight, uh, but then it went away almost 30 years ago, and so uh the economic uh opportunity and also the separation of families that occurred, I think uh happened when we lost that connection.

So this is an opportunity for us to not only grow our education, uh, but what uh how uh how appropriate that that this is the first step uh today on the beginning of National Hispanic Heritage Month.

And with that, uh Mr.

Mayor, I will uh ask for a uh uh I'll move the item, uh ask for an I vote, and uh and look forward to uh this uh relationship here.

Thank you.

I'll second it.

Okay.

With that, we have uh a motion and second.

I'll just note that I'm I'm in full support of this.

Uh you know, if you go outside right now, you'll see all the um all the signs for the roughly 20 sister cities we have throughout throughout across the globe.

And as we noted on the prior uh item, you know, there's there's no bigger community here in Sacramento of immigrants than our Mexican community, and and um this is a special place for my own family as well.

And we already have a sister city, of course, but uh you can have more than one sister, apparently.

With a sister city, yeah.

Yes, we can.

So, so this is a a tremendous opportunity.

We have uh so many people who are from, of course, the state of Michoacan.

Uh one of the top um uh uh states that represent here in Sacramento County and throughout California.

And I can't hope that help to note that um you know it's it's difficult times we note earlier in our state and our community with these issues and fear and uh you know putting up walls and divisions, and this literally is bringing family and building bridges for our community.

So uh I look forward to our first uh delegation, and I know our our uh our mayor pro tem and our vice mayor, even though she's from Zacateca, she'll go across the border to uh Michoacan.

Um I look forward to bringing a robust delegation from Sacramento and wells receiving uh consul your your colleagues from the great state of Michoacan here to uh to Sacramento at as well.

So with that, um, I know the people of uh Morelia, the city council is watching.

Uh a small, a small uh uh token uh uh message to them.

See uh gente de Morelia Stamos contentos que uh somos to Ermano y Emmanuel uh visitar nosotros, nosso ciudad y también uhamos cuando tu visa to uh visitas the West of Ciudad Muy buena oportunidad para celebrar a Nuestra Comunidad.

Felicidades Morelia, bravo.

Okay, with that we have a motion and a second.

Uh all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any nose or abstentions hearing none?

Uh measure passes.

Next item, please.

The mayor, we move to item number two, which is a homelessness workshop follow-up update on strategies addressing homelessness in the city of Sacramento.

So Mr.

Pedro, we'll wait like 30 seconds for the crowd to clear.

Thank you.

Peter.

I have a good job.

Oh no, I'm gonna have her students.

Who's taking pictures?

Do we have a mutual stake a photo over here?

Yeah, you can come up closer.

Come up closer.

So get us possible.

Thanks, Brian.

You have the name Garrett too, the nameplate.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

Yeah, we have Michael.

Yeah, thank you very much.

Thank you everybody for supporting my son.

And thank you, everybody.

Okay.

I think where you get your balls speaking from.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Petro.

Please proceed.

Thank you.

Uh good evening.

Uh mayor, council, interim, city manager.

Um Brian Pedro, Director, department of community Response.

Uh we are here tonight with our homeless workshop.

Um, and uh I first wanted to start uh tonight by uh thanking my staff.

Uh these workshops are a tremendous lift.

Uh DCR is a tremendous lift every day.

And there's no shortage of work for us.

We put in many, many hours to make this happen every day.

So thank you to staff.

We have Tim Rolf has Jason.

We have Rochelle, Hong, Maddie, Michael, Michelle.

I mean, I'm not going to answer everybody's names out, but for the small group that we have in our department, we are doing some heavy, heavy lifting, and as you'll see tonight, a lot of the work that we've done.

So thank you to my team.

Alright, so our presentation tonight, we're uh start with a brief recap of our April 29th homeless workshop.

Uh, we're gonna look at DCR's role of uh in our homeless response system.

Uh we'll talk about how we've uh progressed on safe camping, safe parking, our home key plus, and our microcommunities.

Uh we'll also be uh talking about these site locations tonight.

Um we're looking at a voucher-based model for our city program.

Uh we will be talking about an ADU tiny home ADU grant program that we have, and then uh some operational updates from our April meeting on prevention critical infrastructure and 311 upgrades.

So on the 29th, uh council reviewed commented and provided direction on new strategies presented by DCR for increasing our capacity for city shelters.

Uh new strategies included safe parking, safe camping programs, and the ultra-affordable interim supportive housing in our micro communities.

What tonight's workshop is there's two motions tonight that you will vote on, and they are to one develop a monthly program fee for microcommunities for participants of no more than 30% of their monthly growth income to help sustain and expand the program, and then two is to develop a voucher-based model for the city motel program to better support client choice, create additional cost savings, uh, assist in maintaining the program, and also to help uh expand our ability to help more people.

One of the things I did want to uh mention too is that uh I wanted to remind our viewers and our community that tonight's vote is not on the locations of the micro communities.

Uh there was some uh news that was put out that it was to decide on locations of microcommunities.

Uh as we know the vote uh was uh passed to allow the city manager to select sites, and so our site selection is not up on council's vote for tonight.

It is again fees and the voucher program.

Alright, so let's look at uh where we are in our homeless system for DCR, our lead focus in this area.

If we look at this, we see the numbers that are next to uh each uh point in this system.

These are the eight focus areas that the regionally coordinated homeless action plan has.

Uh DCR specifically focused on outreach and engagement, and then shelter and interim housing.

Now, of course, citywide, we're also involved in prevention diversion, rehousing, and permanent housing, and then all of us are tied into integrating our services and capacity building.

This also is another illustration that uh to help you uh see our continuum, our housing continuum, and uh where DCR specifically focuses to the uh left of the line that we put up there, looking at uh homelessness uh out in our streets with our outreach and engagement, uh our emergency shelters that we have, and our motel program, our respite center, uh, and then our inter supportive housing, which is what we currently have, our street to housing program, and now our micro communities will be bringing up.

And we did dip into the other lane and worked with our Office of Innovation Economic Development, our city housing department to help uh put two applications in for our home key plus projects that we have applications we have in right now.

Alright, so I wanted to uh first uh orient everybody to what the colorful map is that we have up here.

Uh these are our council districts, uh starting in the north from District 1 to the south.

We have district eight, and the uh various colors that we have on this map is to illustrate what shelters we have currently and other specialty programs and some permanent supportive housing that we have amongst our city, and uh as you can see that we are dispersed, uh, and we haven't put these in place haphazardly.

We have been strategic on trying to disperse our sites and our programs amongst our city.

If we add in our uh programs that we are in development right now, we have our safe parking, our safe camping and microcommunities, and again our permanent supportive home key.

You can see those additions to our map.

Uh will also fold in uh nicely to our disbursement.

And then pulling all of our other programs off and looking just at our city programs that we'll be discussing tonight.

Uh, gives you a better uh idea of our red dots, which are microcommunities.

In the north we have in district one, uh in the south we have one in district five, one in district eight, and then uh district seven.

We're currently reviewing locations.

Our home keys are two home key projects.

We have one in district two up north and one in the uh south in district five, right on the border of five and eight, and then um safe camping in district four by the river district and safe parking, which is uh the RT lot that we'll explain to you a little bit later and what we're doing for safe parking.

All right, so one of our first programs that uh I'll talk about is uh safe camping.

Uh so this is the site that we're looking at in the River District.

Uh offers essentially a designated uh temporary area where people can uh that are experiencing homelessness legally camp.

They uh this uh safe camping will be covered, they'll have tents, restrooms, we'll have scheduled shower trailer, trash collection will be available on site.

We will have it powered to provide phone charging station.

Uh outreach staff will be in and out of the area frequently, and uh hoping to get a more stable environment, get some people off the streets, get them in and be able to spend some more time with them.

Uh, this location will be monitored and it'll have a monitor-controlled entry control point.

We'll have lighting so we can light it up at night.

It'll have 24-7 security and personnel and cameras.

The location is on Sequoia Pacific Boulevard, uh, as you can see in the yellow outline there.

Uh, again, it will have approximately 100 sleeping spaces.

And here's some of the rules that we will have.

Uh so tents will be provided by us, limited to two large bins of belongings that can be brought into the site.

We'll allow one pet per person.

Uh, our dogs must be on a leash, uh, max of 40 dogs.

We'll have a good neighbor policy.

There will be a curfew on this site from 10 p.m.

to 6 a.m.

Uh, and that uh curfew meaning if you leave after 10 p.m.

then you will not be back in until 6 a.m.

when we open back up.

Uh criminal activity will be grounds for exit from the program, and uh this will be a structured intake.

It won't be just a come as you go.

It's a low barrier program, but not a no-barrier program.

Uh DCR will prioritize the area that we are strategically placing this for, and this will be uh the uh encampments that are around uh Sequoia Pacific and Richards Boulevard and all the local areas in the river district.

The design on this, we are going to use the shipping containers with a cover over them.

The covers engineered to withstand winds up to 80 miles an hour, sustained, and then the containers will be anchored to the ground.

And then within those structures, we will have tents on platforms.

Each container will hold 16 or 12.

The obviously the larger will hold 16 up to 16 tenths, the smaller will hold up to 12 tents.

In the far back corner, there is a small area that we have for a dog run, and then also for kennels.

The kennels will be provided for individuals that need to go to an appointment or somewhere where they can't take their pet with them.

They will be able to leave them at the kennel while they attend their business.

And then in the center of this is a communal area, south end will have the porta potties, and there will also be water available on the site.

So we uh I would like to pause here and uh ask council of any questions on the safe camping before we move on to the next.

I think it'll make it yeah, and maybe I'll just I'll just tell the council so we will have public comment.

We have um uh 34 and growing uh members of the public, so that's over an hour.

And this is a the big issue.

So we're we can we'll be here for plenty of time, so we're not rushing this, and we can have comments at the end.

But as we go through each item, if there's some clarifying questions that we want to ask of Mr.

Peter at this point, we'll we'll stop at each at each element.

So questions on this piece, none?

Please proceed.

Mr.

Jennings, on the camping piece, yeah, on the camping piece.

Just want to make sure that no matter where we conduct the camp safe camping sites, that the rules and regulations will be the same for all camping sites.

Uh the well, right now, this is the only one that we will have up going.

Um, as you know, we had a safe camping site that was uh self-governed that uh wasn't successful, and this is why we're going to try safe camping again with us governing it and uh having uh security and control over the site.

So if we were to bring up another safe camping, then we would model it after this one.

And all the rules would be the same at all of them, no matter where they would be.

Uh, I would say yes, okay.

Thank you.

Okay, please proceed.

All right.

Uh so what we're uh also uh looking at next is um our safe parking.

So the safe parking is to uh utilize our underutilized parking lots uh to create a safe managed environment where people can stay in their vehicles and transition to a more stable location.

So these are people that are living in their vehicles, living in RVs amongst our city.

Um this site will again be a secured site, it'll be fenced.

Uh we will have restrooms available, trash collection, phone charging stations, outreach staff will be here as well.

Uh we'll be 24-7 monitored, and security will be on site.

Uh this is to help get our people off of the streets that are living in their RVs and their vehicles, and uh have a registered vehicle.

Uh what we have noticed in our trends of uh starting the incident management team a couple of years ago from today.

Uh code enforcement was out, and we would see about 40% of our vehicles were registered, with the others being unregistered or inoperable.

What we're seeing now trending is about 70% of our vehicles are registered and operable.

And so it's been a significant change for us.

So with our safe parking, the vehicles will be operable and registered to adults who uh complete the intake process and agree to the program rules and requirements.

No vehicles will be towed, no vehicles be repaired on site.

Again, there will also be a curfew on this site from 10 p.m.

to 6 a.m.

There will be uh agreements that if somebody has a nighttime job that they need to get to, then the agreement will be that you can go to your job and return if they fall within that curfew time.

Uh there'll be no open flames on site, you can't run your propane, uh no idling vehicles.

Um this is a dry camping situation as you had uh uh before you came to the site essentially you're dry camping on our streets, you can dry camp and comfortably sleep in a uh safe secured area.

Um there will be no outdoor storage outside of your vehicle or your RV, and then this will also have a structured intake, uh so our teams will uh intake uh people or vehicles uh in the nearby neighborhood and then work our way out from the nearby neighborhood.

Uh so that is our safe parking.

Questions on safe parking?

Councilmember Talamantes.

Yeah, and so during my briefing uh I asked you, you know, how it's different from camp resolution, and you mentioned the rotating vehicles around the parking lot and a few other restrictions that you're putting in place.

Can you highlight those a little bit more?

Sure.

Um, and and we have a little bit of work to do on this yet because this is an RT parking lot, um, so we'll talk about that a little bit as well.

So uh there's the space that we're looking at is for uh approximately 120 vehicles, um, but we're looking at uh entry of 80, and we want to use that extra space so that we don't have vehicles long-term parked in one location.

We want you to be able to start your vehicle up and move it.

So we'll be rotating, we'll be cleaning the area so there will always be an open area that we can rotate to so we can keep the facility clean.

Um, and uh the other uh point that we want to make here on this, so this is um I went and did an initial presentation to the RT board.

Uh they were in agreement to allow us to bring it back.

We are working on a lease agreement with them right now, and all the details of that.

Once that's complete, we'll bring the entire program back to the RT board.

Uh at that point, they will make a decision on whether they want to move this forward.

If that's agreed upon, then it will go to the uh federal transit, and we'll be then agreed upon by the feds once we get through that process.

If we're successful, uh then we can start moving forward with this.

Welcome.

Okay, council member they put it.

Council Member Kaplan, safe parking.

Yes.

Um, Brian, and I and I heard that council member Jennings had asked, you know, the same rules would apply to all, so I'm assuming like the good neighbor policy would apply.

Uh yes, ma'am.

And then so then what does the eviction process look like if somebody violates or how basically they violate the good neighbor policy?

Is it a warning?

Then an eviction, or what what is the process?

And so when you say violation of the good neighbor and somebody outside of the parking area violating our good neighbor, or somebody or they violate the rules.

If they came in and signed the rules and they violated the rules, then they would be asked to exit.

So they disable their vehicle and they don't leave.

What's our next process?

Then we would uh call SAC PD and go through the process or code enforcement to tow the vehicle.

So curious, have have we talked with legal uh does this create kind of a landlord tenant um uh situation?

Uh well they're that's a vehicle, so it's a vehicle code.

There's no they're not a house, so they don't fall under tenancy because it's a vehicle code.

I would look to city attorneys, but code uh I mean this is an RV.

We're in the process of drafting a memo on all these issues, and this discussion tonight's helping guide that those issues.

So we are aware of the issues and are looking at them.

Okay.

So um I look forward to that.

I want it clearly defined of what happens when if somebody comes in, because if somebody comes in and they actually sign the rules, but they're living in a vehicle, even though it's safe parking, but they might get evicted for violating the rules.

Sounds awful light like landlord tenant uh would just want clarity um of the dotting and the i's and crossing the t's before uh the city moves forward.

Like I'm I'm all for moving forward, but I think um it comes in if if we get all the approvals, what is the implementation look like?

Sure.

And and I feel like we're a little light on the implementation.

And you are correct, because we have not we needed the lease to have an agreement before we could even get through the whole program.

So this is still in progress.

There's still uh some work to do to come up with all of our program rules and as you said, uh such exits.

Yeah, and I want to kind of say I guess that's my caveat to like the safe camping um as well.

Sorry, mayor, it took me a little off the still gathering my thoughts on all of that.

Um, you know, the devils in in the details and how is this different than camp resolution?

Um how what are the clearly defined parameters if the city is running it and governing it?

What does that mean versus self-governance?

Um, what is the eviction process look like?

Um, and what are the legal parameters because um do we are we as a city running anything else or are we hiring uh organizations to run things for us?

Uh a combination of both.

So uh likely security would be contracted out, um, and then we would have either our contracted uh outreach case workers or uh DCR.

Okay, and that would be for the uh the safe camping correct.

And then as well for the safe parking as well.

Safe parking as well, okay.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Back to you, Mabel.

Yeah, Council Mary Vayne.

Um, thanks, Mayor.

Um, I know I'll reserve my comments for after the public comments, but just wanted to um, because this is about just asking question, just because I know there are a lot of residents in district eight that um uh want to make sure that I ask this question, but when is that final SAC RT meeting?

When is the next uh RT?

Or the RT meeting where you're pro where you're gonna send the final proposal.

We are waiting to get the lease agreement back from them.

Uh city attorneys will look at it, we come to an agreement on that, and then we can get the package together possibly October if we can get that moving.

Great.

I'm only saying that, and so thank you so much for just clarity on that because I know that I'm uh, you know, DCR in my office is hosting a community meeting this Thursday with the Darefield Mesa Grande, um, and as you're developing the rules and requirements, it's gonna be incredibly important to me to make sure we center a community um and that they are part of shaping uh the rules and right requirements.

Um they may have concerns about not just eviction, but what is our uh our protocol in terms of like maybe a notification if they didn't know, right?

Um, so want to make sure that we have all of that in place, and that's actually informed by the community that's living in the surrounding area.

So I just wanted to just put that on record, and it's good to to know that we have until October uh to still uh do outreach to the community to make sure that they can actually shape uh this process.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Please proceed.

All right.

Up next is our micro-communities.

So what is a micro-community seems to be the uh big question and concern for everybody.

Uh so what we have created here is uh interim supportive uh housing in the space that we don't have right now.

So this is to provide a cost-effective uh community for stable unhoused people that are 55 years and older who are on a fixed income, who are uh can't find affordable housing on their fixed income.

Uh most are in our shelters, and their choice is to be in our shelters, be on our streets, or find some option.

Um, and the options are thin.

We're trying to create another option and another space for them.

So we will uh build each site, they'll have no more than 40 homes.

Um we will limit so some sites will have uh only singles.

We will have some sites that will be available for couples.

We don't have that many couples, but I wanted at least the option to have couples.

The homes are large enough to uh have a couple live in the in the home, and um I wanted to control our occupancy so we didn't end up with uh two in every cabin and 80 people at a location, and we've seen our history of uh of couples living in a tiny home, uh, not as successful as we'd hoped, and so to limit that problem, we will have one per cabin.

Uh a little the thing that I wanted to talk here is the comparison and not in a negative way, but more of an education on what we're looking at of this uh microcommunity compared to emergency shelter.

So our emergency shelters uh they're up to six months, but most of our shelter stayers are there six to nine months or more.

With our microcommunity, we would have no time limit.

If you were able to find uh permanent supportive housing or permanent housing or affordable housing of some type, then you can leave the microcommunity and and move on.

If you can't find it, then there's no time limit on your stay.

Our population serve, so in our emergency shelters, they run through our coordinated access system, coordinated access criteria, takes our most vulnerable populations and puts them in our emergency shelter with our micro-communities.

We will be looking at our most stable individuals that are over 55, and uh we have already done some homework in who's staying in our sites, uh, what their income is at these age ranges, and uh it is a significant number.

Um services provided.

So we have uh connections to resources focused on connections to permanent housing, the same services that we will provide in our microcommunities, and then tenancy and program fees.

Uh this is what we're talking about tonight.

So for emergency shelter, obviously, it's emergency shelter, there is no fees, it's a low barrier, and uh with our microcommunities.

We're asking that we look at program fees after an initial period of 90 days.

We wanted that initial 90-day period to uh make sure that we have uh successful client that can uh move into this new community and be successful, and after that 90 days, then we would uh start with the program fees.

Uh here is a few pictures of what uh the top middle picture is a micro community-ish type system that uh they have in Santa Barbara.

It is simply from the outside a white wall with the small wooden door.

This is in downtown Santa Barbara, and then behind the wall and the door, there is a community, as you see here.

Um the picture on the bottom is what our laundry and our bathrooms would look like, and then on the upper left is the model that uh the 120 square foot model that we are looking at.

So our locations on our microcommunities.

3511 arena, which we all know by now that Arena and El Centro.

Again, 40 units, seniors, and we had some renderings drawn up of this site already, and this is what our renderings look like.

From the outside, you will have uh eight foot fence on the between the sidewalk and the community.

Uh there's an entry gate off of the drive-in there, and then on our other sites on site, there'll be the communal spaces, there will be the uh homes, and then interspersed because each home is just the home itself, it doesn't have the on see en suite with the bathrooms on it.

Inner space throughout the site will be restrooms, laundry, and showers, and then there are also two cooking areas, uh outdoor cooking areas, and then the homes themselves inside will have they'll be fully powered and enough power to run a microwave and a small refrigerator and freezer.

Um we are looking at uh in district five, the site is 636360 25th Street, um again, 40 units, so at the end of 47th and 25th, and then our district 8 site is 2461 Gardendale Road, uh to the left of the site is the fire station across the street is the church, and uh this is our district eight site, and again in district seven, we're currently reviewing locations.

So we'll run through this uh features.

Once again, 55 and older.

Uh the we'll have approximately 40.

If we can't get 40 units on a site as we lay them out, then it won't be 40, but it will be a max of 40 per site, 120 square feet, again, electricity, heating AC, Wi-Fi, refrigerator, freezer, bathroom showers, and laundry located in various areas.

Community will have gathering spaces, garden, dog runs.

Again, we can be interim or long-term stay.

The benefit on this is they're uh relatively quick to build.

Uh, there they can be permanent, they can be interim.

Uh, and they're affordable and scalable.

Uh, this only this not only helps us expand our capacity for our 55 and older to live, but it also opens up more space in our emergency shelters so that we can bring in more people.

Um, and again, this is a truly affordable option.

Um, provides an opportunity for people to be part of the community, and because we'll be paying in full for these, if funding runs out, these locations don't.

I'll say that again.

If funding runs out, if our HAP funding runs out or continues to decrease, these locations are paid for, and the operations on them.

If we are able to pass the $300 a month, we'll offset.

If we don't pass a 300, we will still pay, but it will just help to create more uh our money to go farther.

It will we the more we can save, the more we can help others.

And so the rules that we're looking at in the microcommunities is that participants to pay 30% of their income after initial 90 days.

Um we're gonna allow a maximum of 40 animals.

Uh so the pets have to be registered, vaccinated, spayed, and neutered.

Uh, animal services will provide that, and then we are limited to two small dogs uh or one medium dog or cats and uh dogs must be on a leash at all times.

Uh, we'll have daytime visiting hours will be established.

No of our night guests will be allowed.

Bag checks will be required on entry and exit.

No open flame cooking.

We will have the entire facility on electricity and the outdoor kitchens will be all electric.

So it'll be excuse me.

Illegal activities will be grounds for eviction, and then a good neighbor policy will also be established for this.

Structured intakes will be from DCR.

We'll focus on our seniors in our current programs, and again, there'll be that initial grace period to help determine community fit.

Services available at each site, so all of our current services that we have available, and most of the clients in here will be either Cal AM or Medical.

If they're not, they will be signed up for Calam or Medical, which provides, these are only a few of the services that are provided.

It'll be housing navigation.

There's a day habilitation program, which helps with uh social and adaptive skills, use of public transport, transportation, cooking, cleaning, personal finance, and maintaining interpersonal relationships.

And then with that program, there's also medically supportive food, medically tailored meals, and then we are also looking outside of that of other senior meal programs that are available.

And then food for pets and veterinary care is also part of the program.

We have behavioral health and substance use prevention treatment program if needed, and then transportation.

We have looked at all of our sites.

The district one site is lacking in transportation.

We know that, and we are communicating with public transit, paratransit, and any other senior transportation to try and shore up that shortcome in this area.

This was uh not without uh a lot of planning and uh not only on our end, but to actually look at our shelters and see if anybody had interest in such a program.

So we held three listening sessions at our shelters.

Uh, our our community was primarily our 55 and older.

Uh we did a short presentation on what a microcommunity is.

Um we did a uh survey, and uh as you can see, 89% of the respondents said that they would sign up for a microcommunity if it existed.

And as you can see on question five that's up there, would you be willing to pay 30% of your income to live at a microcommunity?

Again, in the high 80 percentile of absolutely probably, and this one I particularly put up here because uh this client felt it necessary to add a little message saying that this is a godsend idea, allows us a more meaningful way of feeling a part of our community, uh and I think that uh really uh uh kind of uh puts puts a topping on who we're looking at here.

We're looking for people that just have no place that they can afford to live and they want to live in their own community, and this allows that to bring them together.

They're living in a community now, but they are stuck in an emergency shelter, and they're all their choices are so limited, and they would easily and happily get out and have their own community.

So, why a program fee?

First of all, it provides an affordable option, it is a voluntary program, but it is an option, an option that you don't have right now.

Uh, it encourages self-sufficiency.

We uh always talk about self-sufficiency, accountability, we want people to be engaged, we want people to be involved.

Uh this is it, it creates buy-in.

If you're willing to give your 30% of your income, like most of us do or more for rent or our mortgage, uh, it uh provides that.

Uh I can't even explain when we talked to our these clients.

They were literally in tears because they wanted to do their part.

They wanted to do their part and be a part of our society.

Um this stable environment and getting a community and feeling part of the community creates independence, it increases our sustainability, and it allows us to serve more people.

And that's there's you know, there's two sides of this.

There's the humanistic side of it, and then there's the fiscal side of it because none of this can be done without money, and we have to live in both of these worlds, unfortunately.

Uh so that is why I thought it important to put both sides of this on here.

We know that uh, you know, we have a standard of 30% that was uh created federally and uh way back and then updated again in 1981.

That 30% of your income uh was selected to go towards housing.

Um, so this is uh also uh in alignment with our permanent supportive housing, which is also at 30%.

Um again, it helps offset our operating costs, and this isn't uh to shore up the city's budget by any means, uh, but it is to help offset our operating costs so that we can help more people.

Uh it's it's it's simple.

If we can if we can get help with this, then we can help others.

Um we all know that HUD vouchers, HUD vouchers are getting scarce, and the federal government is not uh handing out uh more money so we can have uh many more HUD vouchers, so this is also going to be a challenge for us in the future.

Um, and then um this program is not tied to outside funding source.

This is general fund.

Uh, this is money that we saved by negotiating our programs by uh uh adding um reducing our duplication of uh services, and then also uh not reducing services but changing our model a little bit on how we provide services, um, and then again, lastly, we have that 90-day window before we uh have you start uh paying the program fee.

Um I wanted to do a little cost comparison to our permanent supportive housing.

Um, again, this is another lane, it's not instead of this is not to replace housing, this is to create another lane between emergency shelter and permanent or permanent supportive or affordable housing.

And um, by looking at these, we are uh estimated cost right now is 3.5 million per site for a microcommunity that is with the buildings and with the infrastructure turnkey.

Uh at this point, we're looking at 3.5 million is our bid on our first site.

So four sites, it gets us 13.5 million.

It's about 85,000 per door, and that gets us 160 units.

If we look at our average permanent supportive housing that we have right now, it's from 36 to 90 million, uh, and our average is is low because we have some projects that were uh came in on the lower end, so our average permanent supportive is 420,000 per door.

So if we looked at how many units of permanent supportive we could build with this uh 13.5 million, we would be able to build 32 units versus 160 units of microcommunity.

Um, and so again, this is just to show our comparison that we need all of these approaches for all of our different lanes that uh all of our community, our homeless uh community is not one size fits all, and we need all options available.

Uh, quick rundown on what permanent supportive housing is.

So it combines subsidized housing and on-site supportive services, so these projects are indeed restricted for typically for 55 years.

Um, and these programs are set up such that they're subsid subsidized by the voucher program.

Uh so for this to pencil out, you need the vouchers to offset some of your funding on this.

Um again, 30% charge on these supportive services are on site.

Let me let me stop right there.

I think you went to the next piece, and so I know we have a lot of council questions first.

I'm sorry.

You're correct, sir.

So before we get to the next one, yes, okay, thank you.

Council member Maple.

Thank you.

And thank you for the briefing too.

I know we went more in depth on this, but um I had a couple questions come up during your presentation that I didn't get the opportunity to ask because uh yesterday we spoke.

So um for as it relates to microcommunities, um, I understand that it's different than um traditional congregate shelter in that you know you have your own space, you have you know communal spaces as well, but you have you know a door that locks and storage and and those things like like one within a home, and similarly to SHRA, um that would that's where that 30% comes from.

Uh so the questions I have are actually related to the income piece.

So you must make an income in order to qualify to be in one of these units.

So you can't have your income as zero.

Is that correct?

Correct.

Okay.

And so then my next question is is there a minimum threshold?

So for example, if I make $100 in a month and I can pay you $30, would I qualify to be in these units, or is there a minimum amount that I would need to make in order to qualify?

So there's no threshold, but what we have looked at of who's in our communities right now.

Um we have uh their income, it's self-reported.

So we have some that are reporting no income.

Um, and then we have a complete breakdown of how many we have that have income.

But yes, you are correct, it's based on your income.

Likely everybody will qualify for either SSI SSDI.

That will be one of the things that we'll be working with every client to make sure they have an income.

So that's part of that 90-day grace period is hey, you know, you come in, let's say your your self-reported income is whatever a couple hundred bucks a month, and then you we would then work with them to say, okay, you know, you probably qualify for these four programs, and then help them get on those programs in order to be able to participate.

Is that correct?

Correct, correct.

And even the um providers, uh service providers in our shelters are working on that as well.

Okay, um, that kind of answers most of my other questions related to that piece.

Um, the uh the other question I have is around like what qualifies.

I heard you say self-reported, something that popped into my mind is like, okay, let's say I'm someone, you know, let's say I'm an artist, and you know, I make an art piece and I'm selling that for and someone hands me a hundred dollars in cash, and that's my income.

And I is that am I able to report that as my income, or is there some kind of like more specific way that that needs to be reported?

I'm not sure how that works for SHRA.

So primarily I would hope that we get that far down the road, but primarily we're going to be in our emergency shelters.

Um we have uh about a hundred and seventy-five in our shelters that we know have income, then in our HMIS system, we have about another four hundred and fifty ish.

Um, so we have about six hundred plus that we would first vet before we got past that.

I'm just thinking down the line, you know, let's assume that this this community is here for you know 10 years in the future, and we've um that I and maybe we haven't thought through all the details yet, but that's just one of the things that comes to mind is there's a lot of ways that somebody can make an income, and not all of it is you know on a W-2.

Uh, it doesn't necessarily mean it's legal, but there's you know, it's just there are different ways to get an income.

And so I'm just curious about how we qualify that.

Yes, sir.

So our initial would be shelter, known income, SSI SSDI.

Okay.

Um okay, thank you.

And then um you answered that on 90 day payments.

Um we talked a little bit about this yesterday, but uh more you know, and also Councilman Calvin brought it up, but the good neighbor policy.

We know this has been an issue with some of the other locations in the past, especially congregate shelter, you know, baked into this.

Is there a way for us to actually enforce the a good neighbor policy?

So, this is a uh good question that I would like to bring back to uh to you all.

We have a good neighbor policy.

Um with the caveat that it is not uh legally binding policy, and then we fall back on our critical infrastructure, which puts our vulnerable population in critical infrastructure.

Uh I believe there are two different things.

One is a shelter or vulnerable population.

Critical infrastructure is looking at homeland security determining what's a terrorist target, and uh, and that's where we're getting our critical infrastructure uh locations from.

So there are two way different things.

We've we've rolled some of our stuff into critical infrastructure, um, and this would be something that that we could look at.

Um we do with the incident management team, uh, are constantly around our shelters.

Um, as you know, uh we can move someone and uh they can move back while we're gone.

We don't have 24-7 ability, and uh so that is a challenge.

Okay, thank you.

Those are my questions for now.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, again, I will refrain my comments, but definitely have some questions.

So thank you, Brian, for your presentation on this section.

So, um, you had mentioned this is not an emergency shelter, but it's not permanent supportive housing.

That was gonna be the next slide.

So, how would you categorize this instead of just micro communities?

If you had to put it in shelter or permanent housing, which category would that fall?

It falls into interim supportive housing.

Interims, okay.

So, um, let me ask you this.

Um, and you already shared this.

You said the startup cost is $3.5 million per site.

Right.

What is the annual fee for maintenance to actually maintain the microcommunity?

So let's say we put the money up front, we have the micro communities.

What is the actual charge to to maintain the site?

It's a we're estimating it's about 500,000.

Um that will get us uh some landscaping uh security and um and cleaning.

So 500,000 per site to maintain that.

Okay, that's good to know.

Um, you also mentioned that the microcommunities are mainly for seniors, and I know that many of our seniors have disabilities, and so I want to know: will these structures be ADA approved?

Will these micro communities be ADA approved?

So there is a percentage of them, uh the in fact the uh bathrooms themselves, we have uh more ADA bathrooms, showers uh than we do our regular showers, so we have a combination of both, and then each building uh or each um structure, each home uh can be made uh ADA compliant.

The question, so my question is the way you have this uh schematic right now, will they be all ADA approved?

I only say that because I think that is of utmost importance and it puts the city out of liability.

So I just want to know can it be ADA approved?

Will it be AD approved, or is it just kind of we're just gonna create some that's ADA approved and then we're gonna tell seniors they can stay in that home?

I just know that if all of our buildings are ADA approved, it helps everyone, and so if we can get clarity on that, that would be great.

I would like to see a community that is actually fully ADA approved.

So we'll get back.

Um but that's good to know.

So you had a survey that said 89% of folks would uh move into these microcommunities and would be willing to pay the 30 percent.

Um, what percentage of the individuals living in the shelter at the time actually participated in the survey?

Percentage about 15%.

Okay, 15% of the total 50% of all the individuals living the shelters participate in the survey.

Right, but also because we were looking at 55 and older and uh targeting who would actually be able to independently live in in a microcommunity.

Great.

So then I have a follow-up question.

Of the individuals that were um living in the shelters that were 55 um or older, what percentage of those folks participated in the survey?

If this is targeted towards only 55 and older, do we have those numbers?

Yes, 100% were invited, but how many actually participated in the survey?

Can you go up and so we can all hear the answers?

Can you come up to the mic?

Thank you.

Estimates based on the population counts that we did, but it would be well over 50%, probably 60%, depending on the shelter.

Some were some of our shelters don't have many seniors, some have much higher percentage.

Overall, I'd say we captured about half of the overall 55 population.

So 50% of folks living in the shelter participated in the survey.

And if we were to look at all the individuals that were 55 and over that participate in the survey, you said about 50% of those seniors.

That's a rough estimate.

Okay, just good to know.

I just I think that's important to know, so I know uh the survey results and which pop like what I'm what I'm working with.

Um those are my only questions for now.

So I will leave my comments for later, but very, very helpful.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Talamantes.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, I have a question for the 30% of income.

Is that net or gross?

Gross.

Right.

Okay.

Uh and then like Council Member Maple, you know, areas of concern is just like the good neighbor policy and the enforcement with that.

And then for the dollar amounts that we're gonna allocate to this, is this happening or general fund funding?

This is general fund.

General funding.

Okay.

Uh so just for perspective, I grew up in a trailer uh with my mom, my dad, and my three siblings.

Two rooms, a living room, really, really, really, really tiny kitchen.

Um we had a key, and we lived out in the middle nowhere, so it was the country.

It was really dark, very scary.

I'm scared of the dark.

Um, but these small, they're small, they're really small trailer homes, they're really small units.

And um, I don't see anything wrong with this model.

I think it's a really smart move, and I'll reserve my comments for later on.

But living in a trailer park is we still had dignity and we felt really proud of our home, and I decorated and painted the walls, and it was a beautiful place to live.

So as we move forward, I want people to understand that trailer parks are not a bad thing.

It's a matter of how we do it and answering the questions of the neighbors and figuring out the details as we move forward.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council member Kaplan.

Hi, Brian.

Um, a lot of these questions were brought up last night, but I think those who haven't been able to uh attend any community meetings, I just want to repeat some of them so that there is a record here.

Uh some of my community members uh have asked why this specific location with concerns over the location.

Sure.

Um so all of these sites are city-owned lots.

Um we have looked all over our city and looked at all the lots that we have available.

Um most lots are not usable for one reason or another.

Um the lots that we selected were usable for um to build on, and uh looking at a footprint that is large enough to put um 40 micro-community uh homes on, um, but we didn't we don't need such a large area to put some expansive uh so we didn't want to we were diligent not wasting large lots for something that was gonna hold uh 40 units, and then specifically there's uh comment on on the gas line that is on the west side of the lot, um uh was that looked into?

Uh absolutely so all of these sites are going through uh facilities or going through our building department and uh all plans that were are being drawn out are going through the uh building process.

Um so one of the other concerns uh that was brought up is uh do you uh need council approval for any selection of any of these lots?

Uh no, so uh as I uh stated at the beginning of this, the city manager has the authority to uh select sites, and uh with uh our interim city manager's authority uh we selected the sites that we've chosen.

And that authority was given in 2023 by the then council under Mayor Steinberg.

Correct.

Um, you know, and as I stated to my community, um, you know, democracy in action, um I did vote no and giving that uh blanket authority to the city manager because I think the community voice in this process is is extremely important.

I'm not saying this can't be successful, I'm just saying you start off in a negative place when the community doesn't feel like they're heard or uh their questions um answered.

Um what kind of background screening uh are felons, sex predators, others on the sex registry list allowed to live there?

So um because it uh let's say yes as a straightforward answer.

Um they are uh because of uh practices we are we as anybody that would move into a house, we are not going to screen you to see if you have a balance so you can live in a in a house or get a loan.

Uh these are the the same rules apply to moving into these sites.

So um I know you mentioned that you want this uh for 55 and older.

Um how do we, as you've said this, and now this is under city manager authority, so the city manager at any point could change their mind and say we should let everybody in.

How do we keep the covenant if we've promised the community this is for 55 and older?

Because as council member Talamantes well knows, Vista Nueva was was done and promised for women and children, and now men are involved in that and live there.

I would look to council, mayor, city manager, or city attorney's office to determine what language we need in this to make it 55 and older.

So potentially a kind of like a restrictive covenant that goes with the land or goes with uh this model.

Um the concern um about public safety.

We are down um 100 officers.

Uh you had indicated, you know, we do have a good neighbor policy, but it doesn't have any teeth, just as much as you can promise 55 and older, but right now there's there's no teeth to to guarantee that.

How do we alleviate the fears that people have seen what happened with X Street and others where um you could move people and they can't camp outside or park their RV, but we're down a hundred officers, and um we don't have enough personnel to while we might have rules enforce the rules.

How do we answer those questions for our community?

Uh well, I think there's a a couple of um couple of things there.

So a emergency shelter, again, our most vulnerable clients that are staying at our emergency shelters is a very different program than what we are proposing here.

This is a for all intents and purposes, a community like any other community where people are living there.

40 people living in the community.

There is uh is there a chance that uh an encampment pops up there?

Sure.

Is it because of the community?

Maybe maybe not.

Uh we have encampments all over our city right now, and we run citywide 24, 24 day hours uh, but uh we run seven days a week for sure.

Um, trying to uh enforce and uh prevent any unlawful camping right now.

So I mean to to answer your question, there's no guarantee that we have enough resources to cover every part of the city right now for uh unlawful camping, and we would uh, you know, I would look to um putting something with more teeth in place for these communities, and we would make it a priority.

My colleague has a quick question on a letter.

Yeah, thank you, thank you, Councilmember.

Um Lisa asked a question uh before the public safety one about the age restrictions.

And during my briefing, I asked you, you know, how it's funded, and you said general fund, and you said that it allows for flexibility.

Can you expand on that answer?

Um so many of these 55.

Many of our state-funded programs have a lot of uh strings attached to them and uh guidelines that we need to abide by uh by having our own general fund uh money invested in this, then we can essentially make uh what would we want who we want to bring into the community, and if we want to make it a 55 and older, then we have that flexibility.

Um our other programs are most vulnerable off the top of the list, or uh fitting the behavioral health program or whatever specialty it is.

Thank you.

How did we come up with 55 as senior and not 60 or 62, which is generally accepted as senior stage?

Um there's a the fairly well-known many uh studies, if you will, that have looked at the population uh our homeless population, and a 55-year-old that has been in chronic homelessness on our streets is easily equivalent to a 65-year-old uh due to the lack of health care, um lack of nutrients, and uh just lack of uh general uh health care.

Uh my community uh is at least asking to try and understand that 60 is considered a senior, if not raising the age of what is considered a senior for these microcommunities, but you brought up uh nutrients.

Uh this is a little bit of a desert.

Yes, there is a grocery store across the street, but it is known as an expensive grocery store, and this is not surrounded by amenities.

What is the plan for food uh and all the other services that they are the other things they would need that go along with living day-to-day life?

Yeah, and so we looked at all these sites and looked at amenities around them, and I do uh understand and appreciate uh the uh uh grocery market that's close by that uh is uh rather expensive.

Um, and uh we have looked at various senior meal programs that we can incorporate into the program.

Um our initial um uh talking to uh just our clients because they wanted a uh there was a uh request for having a freezer because there is a lot of frozen microwave dinners, and so within our programs, there are some meal programs, and then we're also looking at uh any kind of meals on wheels or any type of programs for seniors that we can incorporate into it.

So well aware and um working on uh solving that other programs uh with the Medi-Cal Medicare, if they need to go to doctor's appointment and transportation is uh included in that, and then we're again looking at transportation so that we can get them to other sites if they want to go grocery shopping first in a location that's uh within budget, uh, that will also be available.

So we know that um everybody's tightening their belt.

We are tightening their belt.

Meals on wheels has lost a lot of federal funding, others have as well.

Um, you know, the closest uh public transportation, and as many of my community has have known that I've been arguing for increased public transit in North Natomas, because I feel like we are the lost left-out part um of the city for public transit.

The closest is Del Paso and about a mile and a half away is is truck soul.

What if I hear you saying you're trying?

What if there is no transit?

What if nobody can help?

Um I would say that there isn't nobody that's willing to help.

We have a lot of volunteer organizations that are willing to help.

We we that's where we have not really put a lot of energy to looking just at the meeting last night as many naysayers as we had.

We had people that were volunteering that they would offer services, and that's what I'm hoping that these communities are.

I'm hoping that we draw some of our community into these communities to bringing them into the fold to be their seniors, there you're helping your seniors.

Um I mean, I maybe it's a too altruistic, but I do see that there's there's an avenue there.

We have a lot of uh uh philanthropic agent uh opportunities in the in the privates, there is a there's a lot of help out there that we aren't utilizing right now.

Um and then one of the other things uh you mentioned, but I I just want you to repeat did I hear you correctly that at this time there's only going to be one person per unit?

Correct.

So some sites uh will be limited, so most sites will be limited to one person per unit, but I don't want to discount if we have a couple that are stable and in our in our uh shelters that they have to be separated, they have to make the choice to stay in the shelter as a couple or be able to get into a microcommunity.

So can we um can we make each community a different uh population?

Sure.

Um can we make one all women?

Sure.

Can we limit couples to uh one community?

Sure.

That's the that's the the flexibility that we have with this program.

Um my community has just requested if there's couples that they can each have their own unit where they sleep is up to them, but uh limiting uh potential domestic drama uh has has been requested, and then where did you come up with um especially like the limit of 40 animals?

I get that there's a limit, but we've seen the site and 40 animals, 40 dogs on that site.

Um help me understand how that's safe.

So 40 animals would be one per person?

Which which I understand, and that's logical, but then there's the reality.

40 dogs on that site.

Well, so uh I'm no animal services expert, but I think our regulation for the county is you can have up to three or four animals.

So three or four uh anyone can have three or four animals.

Um this would be one per.

We have that whole west side of that that is undeveloped.

This if you look at this site, we are only taking about half of that land, that whole west side would be uh an area that we could have in dog run.

Um the uh dogs can sleep in the houses with our clients, and there's plenty of room.

And I'll I'll add the caveat to that, just as an example.

Our permanent supportive housing that we've uh converted motels, uh, literally apartments uh have animals and that's a way bigger challenge because there is no communal space, there is no dog run, there is nowhere to take your pet.

This is a a large area to have animals, and uh, you know, most of them will be uh again small to medium-sized animals, and they're with their owners.

And then um this in effect creates a certain sense of like property management, and I've heard you say there'll be 24-7 security.

Um are we as a city set up to be a property manager to like collect the fees and handle the cash?

Um, and how have we talked with our city attorneys to handle the eviction process and do we think we have appropriately trained individuals and systems set up to do that?

So uh we have talked to the city attorney's office about the eviction process and the fees, um, and we are looking at our model from our home key, which has uh administrative fees in it to have a uh, if needed, have a third party collective fees.

I'm sure there are more, but this is what I have for you right now.

Thank you.

You're doing great, Brian.

Thank you.

Microcommunities, okay.

I thought we were like.

Sorry.

Okay.

I'll I'll stay out.

I'll give you a little prep so you can get ready for it.

Because I really want to talk about the fact about enforcement.

And I think you're coming to it.

Uh it looks like uh under operational updates number four.

You're coming to that, and just our ability to do it right now.

And now we're adding more to it, and so our ability with less enforcement, less officers, less security, whatever the case may be.

I really want to talk about the enforcement aspect of it because we wanted to talk about it before.

We haven't had chance to do that.

And we'll wait till we get to critical.

Next, we want to talk about uh supportive home key projects that we applied for and voted on a few months ago, but we think they're a big piece of this plan as well.

Mr.

Pedro.

Thank you, Mayor.

So yes, our permanent supportive housing.

Um we have two, as I said, two home key projects.

Uh we are hoping uh any day to hear back from uh HCD if we're successful.

And um these uh projects uh again are typically deed restricted for 55 years.

Um there is an offset for these uh projects.

Um we the two home keys that we submitted uh are probably some of the uh lowest cost per door home key projects.

Uh and uh we were right around 200,000 per door, um, and we were able to get to that number by using um pre-manufactured uh ADU uh units, 240 square feet, and um those locations of those projects were uh in district two on Rio Linda Boulevard for 100 units, and those units were um for seniors and veterans on that site, and then in district five, this was uh hundred and twenty units.

Um this one we were uh creative on in that we had adults in families, and then um we also looked at there is a number of um uh adults with um physical or mental disabilities that uh are lacking housing for the same reason of income.

Uh so we did tie some of that into our inventory on this site.

Um again uh we have talked about this before, we can talk about it more.

We know uh what our permanent supportive housing is, and we're waiting to hear on if we're successful in getting these units.

Um I think that um like I said in the beginning, all of this has been a lot of work and a lot of hours and a lot of dedication, and if we are successful in bringing all of this together, uh we're looking at a thousand, actually a thousand and one uh new beds or units in our system.

Uh this is a big number.

We've worked hard, and uh I'm confident we can uh succeed on this.

Okay, thank you.

And we're not done.

You have two more pieces to go over.

Uh quickly, we are talking about our voucher-based model.

This is our other vote for tonight.

So we have our city motel program.

Uh currently we pay the motel operators on a nightly uh fee.

Uh I would uh like to uh change this over to a voucher program where we issue a voucher to the family.

The family uh can take that voucher to participating motels.

The caveat on this is to get your next voucher, we will issue them monthly to get your next voucher.

You need to be engaged and actively engaged and participating in our service provision so that we can actually get you on your way and get you back into our society and our system.

One of the things that we looked at when we had the city auditor uh audit our program was to look at uh how we control control costs and what our program design is.

Uh what it is that we are really trying to do with our motel program.

This morphed from the COVID days where we were putting people in motels and we just continued to kind of morph that into uh a family homeless program.

And so we've uh looked at the numbers on this with this change, uh it would um free up about uh two million dollars.

Uh with that two million, we would be able to house um or provide at least another 90 units, and so that's what we're uh we're looking at, besides giving the client the ability to take that voucher to whatever motel that they want.

Um it also frees up some money so that we can help more people.

All right, two council members with questions.

Councilmember Dickinson.

Thanks, Mayor.

What's the what's the source of funding for the vouchers, Brian?

Uh so the source that we have right now for our motel program, and obviously we use our funding how we may.

So right now it's funded with HAP.

Um, and that funding is ends in February of what we have for the current model.

So the the participants in this program would not be paying any part of their personal uh in income or uh funding to to cover the rent.

Yeah, so what we're looking at is uh making a voucher at a value that you can get into looking at what our costs are for a monthly for an apartment or I'm sorry for a motel, uh looking at having that as the base, and then if you wanted to stay in somewhere that is more money, then you go ahead and provide then you would cover some of your personal funds.

Correct.

But if you if you use the voucher simply to cover the cost full cost of the the place you're staying, there would be no contribution from the beneficiary from the participant.

Correct.

There would be a baseline that we would cover.

Okay, thanks.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Maple.

Thank you.

Uh my question on this is back to the you know the question that we're there the problem we're trying to solve for um I you know, we read the auditors report, and one of the things that came out of that was that we have individuals who are who have been in the motel program for the entirety of the program.

So four years or more, um, which is a challenge, right?

Because when you're trying to create opportunities for more people to use those spaces, and you have you know one individual or ten or whatever.

Um, so it's so is that part of what you're trying to accomplish here is by creating a pathway, say, hey, this isn't a forever spot, but you know, you can use this for this amount of time, you can continue to re-up it for this many times, and in the meantime, we're gonna continue to engage you in some kind of programming until we can hopefully get you on to the next thing.

Right.

And so there's there's many aspects of this, and you are correct.

And like I said, this was from COVID days, people got into the program.

Um we morphed it into an emergency shelter program.

Uh again, emergency shelter up to six months is really what we're looking at for that window to try and get some engagement if you're don't it's voluntary if you don't volunteer for services and we continue to pay a hundred percent of your uh of your motel room, um the motivation to engage is just not there, and so we're just looking as as a motivator to get people engaged.

And um, and just on that note, you know, when we look at motel rooms, um I think it's important that these are not ideal spaces for people to be living in the long term, right?

Because one, they're exp it's expensive, but two, for for us, um, but two, it's also you don't have cooking equipment, you don't have laundry, you don't have some of those other things that we would see in the microcommunities that allow you to live day to day, which makes it really challenging to have people there for that long of a period of time.

So it's on sustainable.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Roger, you want to go back to you?

Okay.

Yes.

I don't know where that came from.

Next section.

All right.

We're we're getting there.

We're getting there.

Uh we knew this was gonna be a long day.

Alright, so uh the uh other project that we are uh just getting our feet under and uh under us on um and this is also it kind of crosses over into our uh planning department is that um we're looking at tiny homes and ADAs, and we started this work a while back looking at uh our options of providing homeowners with uh I'm sorry with ADUs, providing homeowners with ADUs, um and so we started going down that lane.

Uh planning is also looking at that.

They have many programs.

I think we talked about it today as well of how to make that process more streamlined, um, and there's uh much more to come on that, but in line with that, we were also looking at a similar model of um creating a donation fund and then using that donation to purchase a micro home and then providing that to anybody that would sign up for our uh grant program.

Uh this uh would be you get the tiny home, uh we would provide uh assistance, and uh you would with that grant you would house somebody for a period of time, and after that period of time, then you would uh be able to keep the tiny home.

So this is in its uh infancy.

We're doing a lot of work on this.

There is a lot of uh a lot of um a lot of webbed weaves that we have to work through to get this program working for us, but it is something else that uh another alternative that we're looking at, and then lastly is our operational updates.

So uh we wanted to talk about um Councilmember Dickinson had discussed uh prevention on our April meeting, and uh it came up again.

Um, so I wanted to quickly go over some of the prevention programs that we have in place right now.

So the Stockton Boulevard Prevention Program.

Um, it was the one-time assistance specific zip codes.

This was the Aggie Square displacement settlement.

Uh so this was through the Salvation Army, and then there was also through step up, it was two programs, and uh with that uh from February 2023 to July of 2025.

Uh we helped 745 households, and uh uh most of that was through uh assistance with utility bills and uh rental subsidies, and so that program is uh I believe coming to an end.

Um the county is rolling out a flexible housing pool program right now.

Um again, that is to help with uh rental subsidies.

Uh, really with the initial kickoff on that is Cal Aim is uh opening up a transitional rent funding source.

Um that's a six-month funding source.

They're looking at taking advantage of that CalAIM and actually uh helping with funding to um for rental subsidies, and then the COC has our problem-solving access point that is your two on one, you call in uh you uh need help.

It's a one-time uh five thousand dollars assistance for singles, ten thousand for couples.

There is a lot of paperwork that goes along with this to show proof that you do need the funding, um, and it is um again a um a reactive program where people are calling and saying, Hey, I need help right now.

Um so what we're doing right now is in HAP 5 cities put two million dollars towards prevention, and uh we are looking at to uh streamline and get a consistent countywide uh system is uh the COC city and county uh all getting together to determine a countywide standardized system that is in development.

We've been talking about this for a while, even before the two million came in.

We've been talking about this.

Um and um and uh Councilmember Dickinson, as you know, uh we've looked at the AI model that uh Los Angeles is doing.

Um it's not a shortage of of finding people that need help.

Uh but uh I will uh end our prevention there and open it uh back to you.

Okay, it's never basically.

And this is pretty this is just a quick question based on the what you just provided before I read in.

Um so I think this is important from the operational standpoint.

Um, if I'm someone from the community who's watching this presentation, I might see microcommunities and say parking and safe camping and all these things, and think to myself, oh my gosh, this is the new strategy, and of course it's a new part of our strategy, but I want to be really clear, we're still we're doing this and so we're still putting all of our efforts and time and energy into producing the affordable housing that's through the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, correct?

Absolutely.

Okay, and that money comes from the state and from the federal government.

So we're still doing all of those.

We still have the housing vouchers through that program through SHREA as well.

Absolutely, we're doing that and that and I just I think it's an important point of distinction because again, someone might look at this and say, you know, this is all we're doing.

Um, but no, this is the city adding on top of what is already happening on the SHRA front, what's already happening on the county front, and then us basically saying how can we do more?

Um, even more to get even more people off of uh the streets and into something.

So okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Uh so uh as I read this, and I appreciate it by the way, um the intention is or the plan is to pull various partners together by the end of this month to begin talking.

Is that to begin talking about designing uh the uh what you've described as the comprehensive prevention assistance program, and this in the next bullet is that?

Yeah, so we have this is part of the RCAP that we had uh when we rewrote it for um HAP.

Um so this is um the subcommittees that we have, and there's a prevention subcommittee that's uh working on this component of it.

Um, okay.

Is there any expectation about when there might actually be implementation?

Um, I could uh give you uh a drop dead or you give me a drop dead date, we can we can make it happen.

I think that with the qu the bigger question here, two years ago, but that might be.

I think our bigger question here is the with the funding we have available.

How far upstream in prevention do we uh how far is our funding gonna go and then how can we help the most people with that prevention?

That's the challenge with prevention.

There is no way to find out if you if you help somebody did that, were they going to be homeless if they didn't get that help?

Um maybe, maybe not.

There is no way to measure that metric.

So we can only try and come up with a criteria that uh looks at who this funding will actually help the most.

Um, and that's what we're really pulling together.

And um, I didn't read the the AI article.

I think the AI experiment or pilot might be really helpful in in that very regard.

Actually, actually.

Uh but um I was also curious, and maybe you're just not at this stage stage yet, and by the way, the deadline is sooner rather than later.

Um, but but um uh curious whether there would actually be an outreach effort.

In other words, people today can call 211 and say, can you help me?

I'm not gonna make my rent.

But that depends on them knowing about two one, two one one and taking that that initiative.

I'm curious, and I I hope there will be uh some kind of of for lack of a better term, marketing that we have a resource available for you.

Now, uh obviously the the challenge then then becomes what you've been talking about uh is parsing that uh as people respond.

But uh I I hope we won't develop something that depends on people finding out about it, right?

And and I agree, that's what we're talking about.

Like right now, we're reactionary.

People have to contact us, um, and that's what we're looking at.

How do we make that contact?

Do we do we talk to landlords and see who's on an eviction list?

Uh, you know, where uh if you look at the studies um uh the AI study, they looked at anybody who is active and been involved with law enforcement and jailing or somebody that's uh a frequent flyer in the emergency rooms uh who's using uh Cal services, that is uh the uh your percentage that's likely going to be falling to homelessness.

Yeah, they had a number of different crit criteria they were they were using to screen.

And I that's why I think that could be an instructive for these discussions.

So okay.

Thanks.

That that's all okay, thank you.

This concludes your presentation.

We still have 311 upgrades that uh council members brought up last time.

We are almost there.

We have coach, we're almost there.

Yes, yes, and then critical infrastructure.

All right.

So 301 upgrades, uh, everybody knows that we use our 311 system and it is for many things, and uh we use it as our response uh for homelessness.

Uh we have uh upgraded that system uh before you had four choices to select for what your homeless concern was.

Uh we have now automated that system where you answer a series of questions so that it will uh better classify what your need is.

Uh is it outreach?

Is it enforcement?

Is it uh trash pickup?

Um is it uh the critical infrastructure site?

And so that's what our new system has done, and we are uh just upgraded it again to be able to give you when your place when your case is closed to give you more information than we're providing you right now.

Uh this new system offers you two options.

You can opt in to get every action that is happening on your case, or you can option to just get the final uh closure on your case.

Um so many upgrades on that.

We're always upgrading.

Back to you, Mayor.

Okay, thank you.

Infrastructure?

Questions on 311?

No.

Critical infrastructure, critical infrastructure.

All right.

Uh so again, our new 311 system upgrades critical infrastructure.

Uh prioritized uh daily from 311 calls and all of our critical infrastructure agencies.

Uh they're prioritized by actual threat to critical infrastructure, number of encampments, and potential damage and imminent nature of the threat.

Uh a focus on critical uh infrastructure uh as if we switch to this as our highest priority, uh, we would spend uh almost all of our time responding to critical infrastructure.

Um our homeless response system generates about 400 calls per day for service.

About 30 of those calls are critical infrastructure.

Uh seems like a small number, but some are small encampments, some are large encampments, our large encampments can take several days to uh clear out of critical infrastructure, and so it is a significant impact on our system.

Back to you, Mayor.

Okay, council member Jennings.

Okay, this will this will be quick.

Um June 24th, I asked for a council discussion on enforcement related to homelessness.

Three of us on the dias uh express the desire to have this topic agendized for discussion in August.

We are now pushing close to September.

So I'm asking now, the end of September.

I'm asking now, can this item be agendized by the end of October?

So we can talk about not only the new locations that you talked to us about tonight and the hundred 1,000 one beds, but can we also talk about what the current situation is as far as enforcement and the things that we already have going on?

Because we don't know, and we don't know how you're going to be able to make sure that these new locations that we're gonna bring on site are gonna have the kind of enforcement they need in order to keep our people safe.

Um so uh I I will personally would be ready for it on the incident management team, but if we're talking law enforcement, then we're also have to uh talk to the chief to see if uh I want to that's why I want to have it agendized so that everybody can be here and we can all talk at the same time.

So I know you don't do the agenda, but I'm asking again that it be agendized by the end of October so we can have this discussion as it relates to what we talked about today.

Yes, sir.

I'm uh I'll be ready.

Yes, I'll second that.

Okay, yes, that's noted that we'll be um coming back by the timeline noted, Councilmember Jennings.

So thank you for the uh presentation.

I think we got through a lot of our questions.

I know the council members will deliberate and give our opinions at the end of the day.

Do what we're sent here to do is vote at the end of this.

Um, but now we're gonna go to a public comment.

So we have um roughly an hour of public comments.

We want to allow everyone to speak their minds.

Uh two minutes per person.

We have 30-ish people uh gonna speak.

So if you want to use your entire two minutes, you can.

If you want to be a bit more brief, that would be great as well.

Uh so with that, let's begin.

Thank you, Mary.

I'm gonna call a few names, please line up in the middle aisle.

Brother Kevin Carter, Rosalie Lair, James Allison, Richard, um Loki, Ken Hardy, Brother Kevin Carter.

Yes, hello, uh City Council and Mayor and City Council members.

Um, with the Sacramento Poor People's Campaign, and um I'm just gonna read a statement real quick uh from the poor people's campaign and also from a Sacramento Homeless Committee organizing committee firmly firmly uh we believe that every district and neighborhood should participate uh in providing um uh shelter space.

It is noticeable that uh there is a significant imbalance in the distribution of shelters across various districts and neighborhoods, many small, widespread and shelter options, uh necessary uh services without uh overburdening uh any uh single community.

Well, tonight I've seen where it's not just that uh there are other communities that are involved.

Um the other part is that we oppose the city's current proposal for uh charging fees uh for temporary uh emergency housing.

And the reason why I say that is because uh in the poor people's campaign, we don't just do work here, we go to Washington DC and we see how the federal system works.

And right now, our nation is at an uncertainty.

So everything that I've struggled to see here tonight, far as the numbers, those all hold uncertainties.

And when those uncertainties are close to us at this time, because we're looking at a federal government that's that's running in chaos.

So we can't you guys cannot promise those numbers to the to the people and the work that you're asking to do here.

So I just want to say if you guys can direct as far as working with organizations like ours and and others that are in tune to the federal government, it would serve you best.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Rosalie?

My name is Razi Lear.

This is the second night in a row that I've been involved with this.

If last night Mr.

Pedro had told us that the site had been decided upon, we wouldn't have had to stay for a whole meeting at all because it's already done.

It's all all the rest of the details.

But the thing is, this is not well thought out.

So many of the questions that were put to Mr.

Pedro last night, he uh, well, yeah, uh uh he didn't have solid answers for us.

And how do you go forward with a project of this size without all the answers?

Also, it has come to my attention that, well, I knew this, we were we are in a floodplain on the corner of Arena and El Centra.

There are certain rules for a floodplain, and I find this very interesting.

And this says, because Sacramento participates in the national flood insurance program, they must meet or exceed FEMA's minimum standards.

Did you do that?

Um, do you have compliance?

Do we know that we have compliance certification?

If you could direct your comments to the council.

Oh, I'm sorry, I'm asking him the question because you don't know the answer to this.

He does.

Also, this land has to be elevated two feet above the floor.

That there is a dip like this.

The last thing I want to say is I find, were you the one, Nilson, Milstein, that said that this is where we're supposed to, you're you're decided on it?

You made a big mistake.

Also, I would like to tell you all, you don't give your attention to the speaker.

You're busy chatting amongst yourselves, looking at your phone.

I find you very rude.

Next speaker is James Allison and Richard Locke.

Evening, Mayor, Council members and staff.

My name is James Allison with the Power and Alliance.

Sincerest apologies to those of you that are hearing that for the third time today.

First, I would like to give my great thanks to uh Mr.

Pedro and his team at DCR.

Uh, they do tireless work.

Somebody please get him a Gatorade.

Um I also would like to take an opportunity to thank each of you.

Um, you know, I know we get lost in in some of the ups and downs with all of this, but very few people would voluntarily walk hundreds of miles in the beating heat for the opportunity to be yelled at by each of us tonight.

So I do want to say that goes with a great appreciation.

Um, ultimately, in having a conversation that we're having today, um, really, I wanted to look at what are two things that we can look at.

And and one is the good and one is the bad.

In PowerIn, what we've been facing uh is having a shelter facility that was operated on the southern end of our district, uh, that was operated by a government with the name Sacramento in it that isn't the city, um, that had a good neighbor policy and had uh a requirement and a promise that it had made to its community.

When the folks in power in felt as though that promise wasn't being upheld, uh they became vitriolic and uh a bit opposed to the idea of homeless encampments and and really providing these shelter opportunities.

Over the last year, what we've really been pushing is that ultimately there needs to be a place for people to go.

They have to have someplace to go.

We can't enforce our way out of a problem.

I'll echo council member Jennings' uh call for a a discussion on enforcement.

We'd really be open to that.

But ultimately, I did want to highlight, you know, in the last six months, we had an amazing facility open up on the corner of Howe and PowerIn.

Um, the the Hope Cooperative facility over there at Powell's Landing is much like when many of what's been proposed today by by Mr.

Pedro, and even our strongest opponents to something along that line, have seen what's been able to be accomplished, how clean it is, how well maintained it is, uh, how every promise that has been made has been kept, and ultimately it's become a major success for our district, and we're working on building a project for it.

Thank you for your comments.

Your time is complete.

Richard, then Ken Hardy.

Uh thank you, council members and city staff, especially thank you, Mr.

Pedro, for Pedro.

Pedro, uh, for the work that you're doing, where it is often that the community is very unappreciative of the work that you're doing.

My name is Rick Locke or Richard Locke, or known by many as the amazing Rick.

I yeah.

Gotta wear it well.

Yeah.

You got one of them?

Yeah, knucklebump.

Um, I've been around the subject matter since 2014 when a family member cycled in and out of housing.

I participated in the point in time count, the last two cycles.

I'm a member of the West Shore Community Association, which is um uh borders, El Centro and Arena Boulevard.

And first, let me state that I am in favor of providing well-designed solutions that help the underserved.

I don't think we're there yet.

Yes, we're not.

Thank you.

This lady has passion.

Gotta love her.

Um, potato chips.

Salty ones, peppery ones, sea salt and vinegar.

When I when I asked and pointed out that we already have micro housing communities, I was told that wasn't the case.

What is Roosevelt Road, but another flavor of potato chips?

I want to know where the data is that we can analyze the data.

There seems to be a lack of transparency to the community members, and it seems like we're not following best practices that were used in other cities and learning from other people's lessons.

And my request, based on some of the comments from city council from some of the earlier presentations, is um pump the brakes, pause a little bit, and I also invite you to begin to notice every time you need to use the restroom.

Imagine walking out of your house, going around your thank you for your comments.

Your time is complete.

Our next speaker is Ken Hardy, then Ahmed Hamdy, then Patrick Stallmott.

Ken.

Thank you very much for letting me speak here tonight.

My name is Ken Hardy.

I'm here today to uh speak about the homeless community at 3511 Arena Burlevard.

I just asked if he could pull the overhead up.

I'm not sure if that'll happen.

We'll see.

Um it's um the city manager has chosen this site right next door to a very special peaceful elderly community of Stadium Club Estates, a senior mobile home park.

I believe that the city manager is acting on an old phrase, it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

Because over 200 seniors were totally surprised by this less than a week ago, and it seems like it's been ongoing for a while.

That should not happen.

I've heard there's gonna be security at this place.

Great.

Why do you need security?

Because you're expecting trouble.

If this project moves forward more than 200 seniors, we'll be very worried about their home values going down.

We all know they will go down.

They will not go up next to a homeless facility.

If this project goes forward more than 200 seniors, we'll go to bed, more fearful every night, because some of you will let this happen right next to all my neighbors.

The right choice for this project is to shut it down.

I'm asking you, city manager, please shut this site down.

Look at it carefully, come out and visit us, have that conversation with us.

Let I'd like you to see who we are.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Speakers, Ahmed Hamdi and Patrick Stallmack.

Uh, my colleague, uh, I'm the our president of the board of River District.

I had to leave early, but I will speak uh as a fellow board member.

Thank you, uh Mayor and Council members.

My name is Patrick Stalmach.

I'm a board member at large of the River District PBID.

Um, I'm also resident of District 5, and my day job as a land broker representing sellers of vacant land sites and developers looking to build more housing, especially affordable housing.

Uh, so I want to say we're in favor of the two proposals uh for uh they're voting on tonight.

Uh, and I was gonna speak in opposition of the site for Bannett Street, but since it seems like a done deal, uh, I'd like to implore that there'd be more enforcement and more resources uh to make sure that really is a good neighbor policy in place.

Uh, the fact that uh sidewalk camping ordinance and the daytime camping ordinance have not been enforced in the river district as much as it could be.

Uh, there were promises that with the new fire station that was built there that there would be no camping, but I go to pipe works every single day, and there is uh it's a very dire state, and um, you know, the city had a vision for the river district to be a mixed income, mixed-use, high-density uh neighborhood, and we have so much going in a positive direction, so much wind at our backs with the new Kaiser and the MLS and the rail yards and township nine.

Please don't let this project be contrary to that vision and take 10 steps backwards as to take one step forward.

Um, we need more resources.

We have half of the city's beds in the river district, but the same number of police officers, and it's just a huge um lack of resources to help make sure that the encampments doesn't spread outside of this project.

And we're not going to be able to get the unhouse the help they need if we don't have a holistic approach.

And we're talking about growing the pie.

We cannot poison the pie by enabling these wrongdoers, and we need to make sure there's more infill development and economic development.

Thank you for your comments.

Your time is complete.

Sheree Dimmerling, Devin Stricker, John Vignocci.

Hello, I'm Sheree Dimmerling, and I just want to say I'm thrilled.

I'm thrilled you're finally doing something.

Do not get bogged down by Binutia with the NIMBY's.

We have to do this.

For the people that are upset about not wanting their backyard, guess what?

These people are already there.

Now we're giving them a bed to lay in.

Now we're giving them a place to go.

If you don't want them, and I've said this so many times, if you don't want them in front of your business and you don't want them in your backyard, you gotta give them a place to go.

So no one's gonna be happy with any place we choose.

We've got to be adults, that's why you're there, make some of the hard choices, which may be unpopular to some of the people that you serve.

But we have to get this under control.

The only thing that I was thinking about, and I'm all for the fees, they work.

We've seen it work in other places that have done it around the country.

We need the money to be able to keep these programs going.

So I'm all for that.

The only thing that I was a little concerned about is you know we want to be proactive and set this up for success.

And what we haven't done yet is get hope, the homeless outreach and assistance program for homeless pets.

We have not got them involved in this planning, and I know that uh because I talked to them today.

Um, I understand that our furry friends may not maybe an afterthought, but here's why that's wrong.

People turn down housing if they can't take their pets.

That is the bottom line.

So we have to allow pets, but we need to have hope involved and not keep them out of the communication like we've been doing, which costs us way more money when they find out after the fact, like a sweep like something like this.

They need to be part of the decision making.

But other than that, I'm thrilled with this with the progress we're finally making.

Where do you live?

Thank you, Devin Strecker.

Thank you, mayor and city council.

I'm Devin Strecker, executive director, and a resident of the river district.

I am in support of the two items that you'll be voting on tonight, and I'm thankful to the city for taking some action, making decisions that are not going to be popular, not going to make everybody happy, and will be controversial.

However, I do want to voice our strong opposition to the campsite location in the river district, and along in this folder that I provided all of you, there's a stack of 10 letters from the surrounding business property and homeowners, and these are not NIMBYs.

These people are already coexisting with the highest concentration of shelter beds.

Uh, we have over 526 beds in the district, plus 664 to 667 affordable housing units uh in comparison to our 653 market rate units.

Back in 1989, the city council adopted a resolution to prohibit more beds or social services from locating in the district.

And although you rescinded that uh resolution six months ago, it still represents a broken promise that our longtime businesses feel right here.

Our concerns with this site include the fact that it says criminal activity will be grounds for exit.

Where will they go?

They'll just go back to the neighborhood.

Uh it's going to be for up to 120 people, but we have approximately 200 people or more living on our streets.

Where are those other people going to go?

Uh, also, how long will this be here?

Is this going to be a permanent um you know, location in our district?

Um, in the packet, along with the letters of opposition.

I did also put in our market report with some good news about all the projects that have come to fruition, and those are in the pipeline.

But what I'm worried about is those projects in the pipeline, they can go as away just as easily as they came.

And if you want to grow the pie, this is not the way to do it.

Thank you.

Next speaker is John Vignotchi, then Amy Gardner and Brian Powers.

Good evening, Vice Mayor Telemontas and members of the city council.

My name's John Vignoki, and I'm the CEO of Region Business.

We're a coalition of local business leaders dedicated to helping Sacramento realize its full potential.

I'm here in support of your capitally efficient and dignified shelter solutions that address our region's homelessness crisis.

Thank you for your leadership in implementing these.

Scalable microcommunities in particular.

Based on my math, I'm looking at a solution that if we scale this across uh the entirety of California and California's 180,000 unhoused uh residents, it would cost about six to seven billion dollars per year.

That's out of a budget, a general fund budget of the state of 230 billion dollars a year.

So this is absolutely a solvable problem and a scalable solution to ending unsheltered homelessness.

Sacramento's initiatives are a remarkable step forward uh toward dignified, cost effective solution to this vexing problem.

However, to ensure success, these communities must be clean, safe, and secure to be sustainable and effective.

I have full confidence in Brian Pedro and DCR, but they need your support and guidance and oversight.

This means enacting clear policies like drug-free zones, curfews, no loitering policies, and ensuring DCR staff 24 7 so they can address issues that occur after hours in our parks and other public spaces.

Equally critical is fostering a collaborative, strong partnership with law enforcement to address issues swiftly, creating inclusive, secure environments that prioritize collaboration and results over and neglect and well intentioned feelings gone wrong.

Additionally, residents of these shelters should contribute 30% of their income toward costs.

Paying for shelter fosters a sense of ownership and responsibility, reinforcing human dignity as contributing members of society.

People value what they invest in far more than what's given freely, ensuring these communities are respected and maintained.

Thank you for your dedication to building a safer, stronger Sacramento.

Amy Gardner, Brian Powers, I don't see Amy.

Brian Powers, then Chris Rogers.

Ms.

Gardner had to leave.

I'd like to take her two minutes as well, if I may.

You may not.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council.

My name is Brian Powers, and I live in District 7.

On the motion to develop a monthly program fee of not more than 30% for residents of microcommunities, I urge you to vote yes for the following reasons.

The fee will create a sense of dignity, self-respect, and self-reliance for the residents of those communities who have an income, which many unsheltered people do.

It's a reasonable amount, and it will save money that hopefully will be used to help more unsheltered people.

The second action on which you're being asked to vote is to develop a voucher-based model for the city motel program.

I urge you to vote yes on that action as well.

The new voucher model would require renewal of vouchers to be contingent on the residents actively engaging with their case managers, which hopefully means that they must participate in a variety of services and programs offered, which is a way to help the residents develop self-reliance and move to permanent homes.

Tonight's agenda also, and Mr.

Pedro's report also identifies sites for additional safe parking and housing, and he says that's approximately a thousand additional spaces.

I think finally that's a step in the right direction after a long time.

I understand the uh problems that some people in these neighborhoods have with this, but these unsheltered people are with us already.

They have to have a place to go.

We have to find a solution to the problem.

But there's another site that's not mentioned.

It's in District 8.

It's 102 acres, it's in Ms.

Vang's district, and I know she's opposed to this.

Um, but I think you should be looking at that site as well.

Um there are thousands of people living in inhumane conditions in the Sacramento area, and the problem has existed for more than a decade.

It's time to make this problem the number one priority for Sacramento and for the City Council.

And the last thing I would say is uh to address the problems that have been expressed by neighbors, it's going to be incumbent on Mr.

Pedro and on the city council to engage those people and tell them what's going on every thank you for your comments.

Next speaker is Chris Rogers and Matt King and John Morales.

Matt King has left already.

I appreciate Brian Pedro's presentation.

It has a lot of promise.

I know that we all want people and need to have the opportunity to achieve a more stable, healthier existence.

But here's some quick points.

Number one, if you do not have robust security outside the sites with an unlimited parameter, this will fail.

If you do not vet people on the site, and even one is a pedophile or sex offender, you will fail.

People on the side will be leaving their homes.

People on the site will be leaving their homes, visit our neighborhoods, our parks, our businesses, libraries, et cetera, like they should.

This will only work if 24-7 public safety is taken very seriously and any criminal behavior is dealt with and swiftly inside or outside these sites.

That will determine much of your success and how the surrounding communities will respond to the sites.

Thank you very much.

John Morales, then Sally Safiro.

I support tiny homes and safe camping away from residential neighborhoods.

Please take the Alhambra McKinley Park homeless to the tiny homes ASAP.

The city staff report on tiny homes makes no mention of safety for neighbors.

There's no role in safe cams for the police, the fire department, or the district attorney.

Your proposal has a weak good neighbor policy with no law enforcement partnerships.

Don't let the low barrier tiny homes become a criminal sanctuary.

That's right, a criminal sanctuary.

Any transient without with an outstanding warrant must be taken into custody immediately.

Anyone who misses a parole officer check-in is prohibited.

Don't spend taxpayer dollars on parolees with violent convictions and registered sex offenders.

Strict reporting, the site operation operators must be required to file online police reports and 311 reports for nuisance crimes like illegal dumping, drug use, vandalism theft, brandishing weapon, and public defection.

Let's talk about the homeless people the partnership has failed to control.

Like Ryan Doe, who burned down the red robin and has a rap sheet of vandalism and assault as long as a Sacramento River, or Thomas Doe, the infamous burglar at the Good Body Shop on J Street with felonies for burglary and assault, or Christian Doe arrested for exposing himself at the McKinley Park bus stop after being charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon.

The council needs to direct city staff to come back with a plan that includes a strong good neighbor policy that makes the safety of Sacramento residents your number one priority.

Thank you.

Not utilize parcels that are ones that become accessible to uh every participant uh in there in addition to the ADA accessibility questions that were brought up uh during the um uh micro community discussion as well.

Um I hope that this is all uh accessible to everybody, regardless of which of the communities that they're gonna be part of uh in in tonight's uh report.

Uh so those are my my comments uh this evening, and again, I'm a resident of district two.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Tamra, then Mark.

I'm sorry, I'm a little nervous.

So I want to thank Brian and Lisa both last night for your your meeting there at Stadium Club.

I am a resident of Stadium Club.

I initially found out about this a little over a week ago and had my panic attack and whatnot, did a lot of research, talked to a lot of people.

Um, my backyard is literally gonna be the backyard that matches up to the community that you guys are proposing to build.

Um I am supportive of it.

I am tired of people I know walking around saying, I wish somebody would help them.

I wish the the state or the county would do something to help these people, and then we just keep walking by.

It's not just up to you, it's up to us as well.

And I'd like to propose, like I mentioned to Brian last night, is that what can I do to support you in making this transition for these people that I don't like to call them homeless.

If they're gonna be living in homes, I'd like to call them a resident, not a homeless person living in a tiny house or a micro house.

They are human beings, they deserve a little more dignity.

I want to give that to them.

So, what can I do?

And I don't have fear that somebody's gonna come over to my house and hurt me or my senior mother that I also live with.

I had I've lived in Sacramento for a long time.

I had fear living on my own in an apartment in Midtown.

I feel completely secure and safe where I am.

I have a beautiful park I live in.

And I am not one of the 200 people that live in fear in the park.

My mother doesn't live in fear in the park, and I'm not going to be living in Fear in the Park because I know that the people are gonna be vetted.

Not every one of them is going to be a criminal and have records, and they're not moving those people in.

I don't like the term not in my backyard.

I welcome in my backyard.

What can I do to help you all make this a success?

That's that's my thing.

So that's all I have.

Thank you.

Good evening, uh, members of the city council.

My name's Mark Merrin.

I'm a civil rights lawyer.

I'm also on the board of Safeground Sacramento.

Uh, but first I want to applaud uh council member Giara and Ms.

Talamantes for bringing to our attention uh the relationship between Mexico and our state, uh emphasizing our Latino and her and Hispanic heritage, especially in these very dark times where ICE is uh in our city and probably returning.

But I also applaud your efforts to get more housing for the needy and shelter online uh in Sacramento.

I just have a few comments.

As someone who uh through Safeground has been supporting a homeless community uh at the corner of 12th and C for five years now, 15 uh tents uh with people getting out in the morning and policing the area and cleaning up, or showing their good neighbor uh intentions.

They're also moving out about a third of the people each year into better uh so uh circumstances, including housing, and in part because they're saving the money that they may get from income and using it for initial deposits, etc.

So therefore, I don't think you should be charging the people in the micro communities.

Also, I think you could do a lot better uh in terms of your you're spending 420,000 per door.

We just built 20, two uh single bedroom apartments at 13th and C.

You're welcome to take a look at them.

They're gonna be coming online very shortly this this month uh at 167,000 per door.

Uh uh Ron Verlakis was the architect.

I urge you to contact him and think about that.

Uh also you should have bathrooms.

People who are over 55 should be able to get out of bed and go to the bathroom.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Jaron West, then Cindy Guest, then Sharon Thurman.

Good evening.

Uh, my name is Jaron West.

I live in the uh West Shore neighborhood in Nothomas.

Um my comment is in opposition to the uh micro community proposed for the corner of El Centro and Arena.

I fully support creative solutions for homelessness.

We obviously need to solve the problem.

But this location is wrong for many reasons.

For one, it lacks nearby access to public transit.

We already kind of talked about that.

Brian even admitted that there was a significant uh lack of public transit in that area.

It also uh lacks nearby access to medical care mental health care addiction services that are vital to uh the success of these types of projects um this location is also right in the middle of multiple family neighborhoods filled with kids and parks it's nearby schools it's in a it's in a very condensed area of Nethomas and um I'm learning today that there there may be uh registered sex offenders and felons allowed which is um absolutely unacceptable in my opinion I want clarity on that um if you guys could request that these decisions should involve the affected communities and there should be clear valid reasons on uh why these locations are chosen as far as I can tell there are no valid reasons for this location other than the fact that it's owned by the city and so um I think again this is a well-intended project I work in street medicine uh I've I've been in homeless outreach for many years and I've seen these projects come and go and if you don't pick the right location they will fail and you also need to have community integration and uh engage the people that will be affected by this decision.

So thank you for your time and please consider uh a smarter alternative location thank you and next speaker is Cindy then Sharon then John Frias Morales.

Uh hi I'm uh thank you for letting me speak mayor with city council members uh my name's Cindy guest uh I'd like to commend the city staff uh and the council for setting up this program and working diligently to try and solve this really extremely difficult problem uh that's not just uh local to Sacramento there's no magic area for the homeless um or the unhoused there is no magic neighborhood with all the services uh and the homeless are the and the unhoused are with us now they are not unique in any way shape or form if there are criminals among them there are criminals probably in this room I've heard a rumor that a convicted felon and sex offender was elected to one of the highest offices in our country as an example I would say it's better to have the unhoused in an organized environment that is safe and comfortable and humane for them and provide some protection for the neighborhood.

There is no magic to uh a safe site or a campsite that makes it any safer or less safe than them just roaming aimlessly around and then being moved from neighborhood to neighborhood when there's a 311 call about it.

So I just like to say that um let's not say that we've tried nothing uh and we're all out of ideas so I support um the locations and I have to say the fee idea seems a little odd um I'm I'm not a big fan of that it's taking money very from from people who really don't have money that could probably be better used for them and it's kind of budget dust from the city perspective.

It's really not that much money uh thank you very much.

Next speaker is Sharon John Frias Morales Ben Brock.

Good evening everyone thank you for the service that you bring to us my name is Sharon Thurman.

I live in Nethomas and I'm happy to say that we believe our citizens, residents, as someone pointed out, deserve a place to be housed.

We're about to go into the rainy season.

It's going to be cold there, but for the grace of God, go you or I, not knowing their circumstances.

And so as Natomas has an opportunity to provide provide micro housing for our residents, I join with our other neighbors in saying, yes, we're happy to be a part of that.

I would just ask for a couple of uh other considerations.

Could you please make sure that the wraparound medical and social services, the security, case management services are thorough, they've been proven to be successful, and any fine-tuning that needs to happen with those will take place.

I love that my neighbor who's here mentioned that at one of the meetings, the senior or the suggestion was made that we adopt the senior community.

And I know our church communities, I attend real life church, would be more than willing to be a part of that.

The third suggestion would be please take a look at some of the other nearby transitional homes, the communities like Forth and Hope in Woodland that have a long track record have been successful and might be able to provide some suggestions on areas uh that you can't foresee now, but that they've run into.

Um, overall, I think that we deserve an opportunity to live up to the name of our city, a city of sacrament, where the spiritual component of our fellow human beings is recognized, is honored by providing housing for them.

Thank you.

Okay, Brooke and Jeffrey Tardi Gia.

Is Brooke still here?

I don't see anyone.

Um, Jeffrey, we'll get you the handheld mic.

Following Jeffrey, is Joseph Stein, Jim Randallett, then Mary Tappel.

Well, council members.

Um, I will offer say a bean support of what you are proposing.

It's about time.

What I will also offer is how many hotels is the voucher sales capable of using.

How many dealing with disability possibility of hurt 50% of your population?

How does that translate to be?

You need to have it fully accessible, you need to have known the public transportation routes and set up so that you make this successful right now.

I give you, as somebody already commented there, 50 50 shots at what you're proposing to do.

But you're doing something, finally.

That's where I'll leave it at right now for this is, but I am supportive of what you're attempting to do.

But as you know, Rick, the uh next RT meeting is not till October 28th.

So it's a long time for anything to go through.

Once again, all of these things are gonna be waiting on time, and it is coming up to the possibility of a rainy season.

All of these things, you know, here we are, literally at what the middle of September already.

Um I just bring you the time and everything else, and I appreciate the questions that you're asking.

And do note, please, for law enforcement.

You need to figure out a better because you don't want to have what happened at XY, where various encampments went around your location and your other aspects that have gone on in some of your other sites.

And with that, I will stop.

Thank you.

Joseph Stein, then Jim Randallett.

Hi, my name is Joseph Stein.

I work security on 10th and K.

I know most of you have dealt with most who when I was dealing with Mr.

Chen.

I was uh frequently speaking about him.

But anyway, my biggest concern about this whole thing is we let one individual, Miss Ms.

Billstein, over there, make the decision involving all of these districts and all of these people.

That vote in 2023, which was a five to four situation, needs to be revisited.

We need to look at that because all of your districts are involved in this, and yet we have one person making all of these decisions affecting all of these people, whether it's the children, whether it's the seniors, everything in between, even the illegal immigrants we all know that are also permeating our community.

So we need just that one of the whole city council involved, not just Miss Milstein.

And with that, I rest.

Is Jim Randlett here?

Thank you, Jim.

I have a handout that's being distributed to you now.

Mayor McCarty and members of the council.

I'm a proud uh constituent of Mr.

Jennings from the 7th District.

As such, I'm able to uh walk my dog every day in Williamland Park.

And over the last three years, I've seen a progression of homeless intruding into the park, particularly at the southeast corner, which is Sutterville and Freeport.

What's happened is that they've taken over in effect two city blocks coming up Freeport from Sutterville.

And so this has become a no-go zone for anybody that wants to use the park because the homeless are in there, and so what mother is going to take her kids out for a picnic or a couple to get together and spoon a little bit in William Land Park when there's this gaggle of the homeless around.

And so what's gonna and I've sent all of you an email about three a week, and maybe you've seen the pictures I've sent, and so it's well documented that this goes on.

I've sent all of these into the 311 system, but there has been no enforcement, and so they remain there.

The park is being lost for park users, and you can go there any day of the week, and you'll see it.

You don't have to believe this testimony today.

Drive by, they're there every day.

And so the enforcement is the key, and I applaud Mr.

Jennings for his efforts with this.

And the handout talks about an alternative camping proposal.

So when it comes to enforce in William Land Park or Ale Street or McKinley Park, you need a place to say that where these folks can go if they can't find a location on their own.

And so I would, it's better for the homeless person because they'll have a place where there'll be greater safety, there'll be uh toilets for them and water, and a place where the services can access them.

So please consider all the solutions, including the one on this page.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Mary Tappel, then Michael Milton, then Brain Powers.

Hello, first of all, uh I want to thank the city staff, particularly uh Brian Pedro, for taking all this uh stress on him.

Uh and uh I so understand all the people uh concerned about enforcement, but first I want to start by thanking thanking city staff overall and the council and the mayor for giving directions that supported their recommendation for the uh tiny homes, villages of limited numbers of people, limited numbers of pets, um, and also with uh uh up to 30 percent of the person's income, 30 percent of the person's income being required for them to stay.

I would have liked to see that start, of course, after only 30 days or something like that.

Um, but in any way, I am glad to see that it's there at all, that it's a strong element.

It's it's so needed to extend more services to more people, and we simply have to do that.

But all this said, enforcement is so critical, and I know about it.

I'm one of the people who has uh had too many, even a very uh well, recent in my mind, it was early August, uh death threat uh from someone along the uh camping along the uh um the uh north north sacramento bike trail, but more on that later.

Um I in in this meeting, and so thank you so much, and please everybody support also the voucher-based model for for the motels.

And I'm really pleased with these directions that you are coming up for your vote tonight.

Thank you very much, Michael Milton, and then Brian Powers and Romy Hadid.

Hello, hello everybody.

Uh Michael Melton.

Okay, I wanted to say that uh Brian Picho, I think that's a really good idea.

Um, I think that helping the the elderly is is very sufficient, it should have been happening.

Um, we should we should have a whole bunch of tiny homes for people who have social security checks, although it's a money grab at one time, but at the same time, we need to get those people off the streets.

Um, about myself and SHRA.

I still haven't got my place yet.

It's been seven months since they told me I've been selected, credit check pass, background check pass, and they still ain't gave me no apartment yet.

It's uh and they just say I'm waiting on my keys.

It's been seven months.

February 16th, 15th is when they said it.

So now you know it's been seven months.

Okay, uh so I don't know what's going on with that.

But uh tough sheds, though, I think those are worth like 12,000 apiece.

You know, you might be able to get a thousand of them ranch sales, you know what I'm saying?

Tough shits, and you'd be able to tiny homes, a bunch of them.

I'm saying it's instead of eighty-five thousand dollars.

You know what I mean?

I know it's you still talk about the concrete gotta get laid and the and the electricity and then the and the installation and all that has to happen too.

But it could it could be cheaper though if you guys do it and do it with dual with tough sheds.

Um, and uh I'll also wanted to say that uh, let me get back to excuse me, guys.

That uh to make money for Sacramento, I think that you guys need to tax uh uh the meters a little bit, get some of that money out the meters, get the money out the traffic tickets, and 10 cent.

I know people in jail ain't gonna like to hear this, but 10 cents to everybody that's getting commissary in jail.

I mean, when they buy something commissary, when they buy their commissary, 10 cents 10 cents is thousands of people in jail.

10 cents every week, 10 cents from 10,000 and thousands of people to give back to the homeless, make them give back to the community with that.

That's just a you know, I mean, just as a few ideas that I have, but for sure though, you know, let's get the people out the streets and help me.

Y'all need help.

Thank you for your comment.

Our next speaker is Brian Powers.

Brian Powers, Romy Haddad, Alicia Yaffe, Nikki, Angela Hassel.

And I have four more speakers.

Oh, three past time, hi.

Hi, Mayor and Council.

My name is Alicia Yaffee.

I live in District 4.

I'm here today uh to say I'm very grateful that you all are doing this work uh and trying to house our homeless community here.

Um, and but I have major concerns with this concept of a program fee for participants that are elderly that are already on limited incomes.

I understand that we can take 30% off of someone's SSDI, their Social Security, but we could also tax the large businesses that are corporately owned here in the city.

That would make a lot more money than 30% off of people who should really be saving that money for themselves so that they can buy the things that they need for their futures, right?

We can't just keep nickel and diming the people who have the least in our communities when there are people who have the most in our communities that were not taxing at the level that we should be taxing them.

Um, in addition, since the grants pass ruling, y'all have uh increased the arrests and citations of the homeless here in Sacramento by four to five times.

Um it costs a lot of money to sweep and arrest and cite people.

It costs money every time you sweep people from one district to another.

Why are we wasting this money?

It's a waste of money.

You're using it again and again and again when we could put this money towards housing people, right?

There are a lot of things that we could do.

Um, a couple other things.

Um, one, you know, there are other things like vacancy taxes we could do, not spending this money on this uh the sweeps.

I'm glad to see we have plans to build more affordable housing.

We know that the abundance theory of housing does not mean anything, right?

It does not work because corporate lenders require uh their leasees to reach a certain amount of threshold, and it's cheaper for them not to have to uh to not house someone and to get a forgiveness on that loan than it is to.

I can't finish my sentence.

Thank you.

Next speakers, Nikki, then Angela Hassel.

Angela will be our final speaker on this item.

Hi there.

I want to just congratulate uh City Manager Milstein for doing something Howard Chan was unable to do for many many years, which was site locations.

Uh, I know that's like very difficult, and I don't want to say there's like a need that all these need to go through and that they need to be exactly how they were laid out, but it just hasn't happened in all these years.

Uh, you know, we've been being promised a site in every district since Mayor Johnson.

Uh so that's it's a big deal to see something move forward.

I'm concerned about the funding for it.

13.5 million is actually quite a lot of money, and I don't see it in your general fund, and I don't know if it's already there.

I don't know, I don't know where that money is coming from.

So, right now it's still just a PR stunt for me uh to say we're gonna have these communities available until I where the funding is coming from.

This $500,000 that you may be able to squeeze out of the poorest residents of your city is not gonna fund your programs.

It is not a sustainable model for financial solvency to uh take away from federal um uh uh income that people have uh and use it for your own city programs.

You're taking people's uh SSI and SSDI, the poorest people in your community, and trying to fund your programs with it.

It's simply not gonna work.

It didn't work for the VOA uh family shelter that was taking um folks' income.

They they still not were able to uh maintain financial solvency.

And so I just want to encourage you to really think uh outside the box.

Think about who can we actually tax to fund housing for the poorest people in our community who actually should be on the line when we think about um uh high tides raising all boats, and recognize that it's not the poorest in our community who are still gonna be having to choose.

Uh, you know, I didn't hear that food is actually gonna be provided, so they're still gonna have to be funding their own food.

You don't really get food stamps when you're on SSI and SSDI.

So this is it really is a problem when we are thinking about taking 30% of very poor people's income away.

It's a really big issue I want you to really consider.

Thank you.

Angela Hassel.

Thank you all.

Um, I'm Angela Hassel.

I'm with Sacramento Loaves and Fishes, and um I know it's been a long night, so I'll try to be as brief in my two minutes as possible, but I just first want to say that the conversations we're all having tonight are immensely important and really really need to happen.

Um so I'll just kind of get into it.

The proposed program fee for folks to stay in the microcommunities is probably the most problematic piece of this.

We're talking about charging folks that are older adults on fixed incomes largely with disabilities for minimal accommodations to fund a city project.

Uh we've seen this funding structure used in other shelter programs in Sacramento in the past, and it hasn't been successful, and it hasn't made those programs financially stable.

Most of them don't exist anymore.

Program fees aren't the same as rent, and additionally, this model leaves out a substantial number of folks who have no income.

We can also look at the landscape and trajectory of homelessness in Sacramento and the issue of trust remains.

With city enforced sweeps of encampments, folks experiencing homelessness are weary and increasingly more distrustful of any type of authority.

They're often faced with the impossible choice of jail time or temporary temporary bed on the spot.

Filling beds under the threat of being arrested doesn't build trust.

Criminalizing poverty and homelessness is a harmful and inhumane practice that only pushes people further from the safety and stability they so desperately need to survive and be ready to continue on their healing journeys.

Sleeps are also massively expensive with city time, law enforcement time, and disposal of folks' belongings, people experiencing homelessness in Sacramento would be much better served if it stopped that practice, diverted that funding into housing programs that are more financially sustainable than another tax on the poor.

If gaining if your goal is to gain buy-in from the potential residents, I can tell you that true buy-in won't happen without trust.

Thank you.

Thank you for comments.

Mayor, I have no more speakers.

Okay, thank you.

Um, first of all, thank you to uh the public that came out, had a very uh, you know, informed and civil debate on on these issues, and uh you know we we appreciate you because this is an issue that's not easy, and I I think we are here um answering the call.

Uh I'm looking at you, Mr.

Barnbon, because because you asked us to come back on 9-16.

We we we are, and so at the appropriate time, we'll be making the motion in your name to support this uh this item tonight because I know you always come here and say that you represent the people of Sacramento, and uh this is certainly an issue that uh the people have spoken and want us to address.

So I I just don't want to lose sight on that this is not easy.

This is not easy.

You know, we were up here to make tough decisions, and you know, we're trying to expand access to people that don't have a place to go.

And yeah, I wish we had, uh, as Mr.

Um Vignotchi said, you know, a couple billion dollars to to fund what we'd like to do.

But if you look at the four or so thousand homeless in the city of Sacramento that are unsheltered, if we focus on the the traditional permanent supportive five hundred thousand on up, it would be a couple billion dollars.

It would be about a hundred plus years before we get there.

So we need to focus on how we can look at our existing systems and and potentially pivot and serve more people.

And I think this answers the call.

So I just want to first say thank you to our city staff for working on this for months.

This isn't just uh city manager's um idea, this is all over idea.

We've had multiple city council hearings.

We had a big workshop on the 29th of April.

We took all of your collective ideas as far as what could work, whether they're safe parking, which I know council members Vang and Maple have been trying to do for years, which is having a safe place to to camp, which we try to some um attempt over at camp resolution.

I know Mr.

Marin, you're leading by example on your own property.

You're saying, hey, we'll do it right here.

So we are going to stuff, but there's no perfect location.

I know the people in the in the uh river district are saying, why here?

Why not somewhere else?

But I guess that's the point is that we can't say go somewhere else.

We need to be everywhere in the city of Sacramento.

If you look at the map, we are literally in every district now.

I know when we we approved the the uh the site in your district, um Mr.

Dickinson, a few months ago, you said, you know, we're oversaturated.

What about district one and district seven?

And I know the city manager's office worked really hard to make sure that we have locations in every district, because you can't say take homeless away from my park, but send them to the 102 acres, send them to the corner of North Sacramento, send them to the edge of the city of Sacramento.

We all have to answer the call.

So yeah, I think that we have stepped up as a city and focused on enforcement of encampments.

Some people are really appreciate that, some people don't like that.

I get it.

But the the people that don't like the enforcement of the encampments, what they've said every time, every time, is where are you going to send people?

Where are they going to go?

And you know, I'm excited tonight that we've answered the call.

That if you look as Mr.

Garrett said, you know, eight years ago when you're a young council member, we had a couple hundred um places for homeless to go.

65.

65.

About a year ago, we had 1,300.

And with tonight's action, we have a legitimate path to go to roughly 2300 places, almost doubling the amount of places where people can go.

So we're telling we're telling people where you can't go.

We get that.

We need to answer the call where you where you can go.

So we're looking at a at a menu.

We're looking at places where people can camp, people can park using city land to focus on some of these micro sites.

And yes, sir, that talked about the uh the toughshot idea.

That's essentially what we're doing here.

These are better versions of touch sheds.

They're insulated with AC units and electricity, and you know, all in it's $85,000.

Most of that is for electricity and the walkway and concrete that the actual the actual uh modular home is roughly 15 or so thousand dollars.

So we're looking at cost-effective ways to serve more people, and that's what the community is asking us for is give people who are homeless more places to go.

So I'm I'm really proud that the I know it's not perfect.

I know some of the council members have a little bit of angst on some of these issues, and and so and so do I too.

But we have to focus on how we can serve more people in the city of Sacramento, and we're doing just that.

And I know the piece that people probably have the biggest hiccup on, besides, of course, the location, and I respect you all.

You live in a community, you've saved up your entire life, you're using your all your income to have a nice place to live.

And so we hear you, and I and I understand that.

And we're gonna work to become good neighbors, and I'm gonna make sure we we hold these standards accountable.

But the one issue that we've heard over and over as far as um the fees.

I to the life of me, I don't understand this because if you are a homeless individual living at a shelter right now, or living on the river, you're dying to get housing.

And you go to the government, you get your name on the list, and if they call your name, they literally say, yes, you get this housing, but you need to pay 30% of your income for the so-called housing.

So we are doing exactly what the federal programs like SHRA and all these other city programs that we participate with, do is have people pay a piece of their income, whether it's a hundred dollars a month, a thousand or three thousand, you know, less than what the federal government asked people to participate.

So I think it's a fair proposition.

Um most importantly, don't believe me.

Don't believe me.

Uh listen to the people that are homeless and have taken the time to fill out the um the surveys.

You know, we asked an individual who was sleeping outside of City Hall.

I know it was a controversial policy to focus on Noah Canting at City Hall, if she wanted to go to the shelter.

She says, No, I want to go to those tiny homes.

What has a lock?

A place to store my stuff, a place where I'm gonna be safe.

Because most of us are gonna go home tonight to a place where we have a door and a key, and some safety and dignity, and that's what we're trying to provide.

And I think it's a very fair proposition.

If people think it's too much, they don't have to participate.

This is a voluntary program.

We're gonna try it out.

We think it's gonna be overly uh subscribed.

Um, we're going to focus on people who are seniors who are who are torn on our hearts and we see them in the community, and just and and and rise up to serve serve more individuals.

And so I'm really proud that the city of Sacramento is answering the call, looking in an era literally when we're facing less money from the federal government, less money from the state government, and less money from the city coffers.

So you would think all those things combined, we would be cutting places for homeless to go.

No, it we're not we're not solving homelessness tonight, but we're on a good we're on a good trajectory.

The homeless count has gone down by 30% in the last pit to count.

We're not patting ourselves on the back and saying mission accomplished, far from it.

And in the this year, we're increasing 400 locations with the site on Roseville Road, Stockton Boulevard, the Street to Housing Program in District 2, and with this tonight, hundreds more places for people to go.

So I'm uh pleased by uh the city uh staff and our city council rising to the occasion to addressing the issue no matter where we go.

And somebody said earlier, I I I applaud you for knocking on doors to take this job for people to yell at you every Tuesday night.

And um, I'm not sure if he's still here, but that's okay.

We signed up for this, and we want to try to make a difference in our community.

That's what we're doing tonight.

But I will say this is the issue that people asked us to step up the most on.

Not a perfect plan, but it's rising to the challenge and serving more people in the city of Sacramento.

So I'm in full uh support of this and uh thank our colleagues for working out to make it a better plan.

And with that, I will move staff recommendation.

We have a motion to second, Councilmember Maple.

Okay, well, um thank you.

And I will say that um uh sorry if I sound loopy, this is uh now past hour twelve that I've been sitting up here, like many of my colleagues here.

Um but your timing couldn't have been more perfect because this is my favorite holiday of the year, it's 916 day, and it's about to turn 916.

Um so I see that as a very good sign.

I was I was watching you do your comments, like, I don't know if I'm gonna make it.

Um so you know, good sign, good sign for you, Mr.

Martinbaum.

We've just we've just turned the hour on 916.

Um, okay, so I will be uh fairly brief.

So the reality on the ground is clear to me.

We do not have enough spaces for human beings in our city who need them.

And until we change that, people are going to continue to live in unsafe and unsanitary conditions in our city.

That is just the reality of the situation.

And that leaves us with a fundamental choice.

Either we create more species spaces for people to go or we continue down the same path that we're on.

And so we have to ask ourselves with the limited and now dwindling uh resources that we have, including limited state resources that continue to go down every year, that we have no certainty will continue on.

In fact, you know, some of us hear rumors that they may not continue on.

Um we have to ask ourselves constantly: are we using every dollar in the best way possible?

Are we truly getting as many people indoors and connected to services as we can?

Um, and the answer is that there is no perfect solution.

But we if we're constantly evaluating whether the programs that we are doing and funding are making a difference, we are gonna get closer.

And I just really want to appreciate our mayor, I want to appreciate Mr.

Pedro and the entire team, Ya Yin, um, our county partners, I see Emily Halkin in the room, talking about steps forward, um, that there is this constant evaluation that is happening, and it can be really frustrating for for a member of the public to look and see outside it can be really frustrating if you're someone who's experiencing homelessness and you can't get connected to the right resource, but I can assure you that these conversations are happening every single day, all the time.

What can we do better?

How can we move this resource around?

What if we tried this thing?

Oh, that didn't work.

Let's try this other thing.

It's constantly happening.

Um, and it's what we have to do because we just don't have enough, we can't do it on our own.

Um, and so you know, I I'm I I'm gonna be supporting today.

I don't think these are perfect projects.

I have some concerns myself, but I'm like, hey, let's try it, let's see what works and throw it throw out the things that don't um and continue to focus on the things that do.

Um the last thing that I that I wanna bring up, and I know it's been brought up before, is there has to be a focus on equity.

Um, you know, there are parts of Sacramento where there are zero shelter beds right now and zero programs, while lower income districts like like district five that I represent have I would say more than their fair share.

Um to be clear, we wanna be a part of the solution, and that's why I've always supported every project that's come forth in my district um and continue to be a part of that solution, and I want to do that, but I think it's really incumbent that we also spread this around the city, that every district and every community um plays a part as well because we're all in this together.

Um, it's the only way that we're gonna do it.

And so I just I have to bring that up because I've I've heard this from my my constituents and residents, and um I I really want to applaud the people of district five who have been gracious and and welcoming and um rarely ever say no.

Uh but it is a feeling that exists out there, and so I think um I know this is something that our staff is working on, and I so I don't want to I don't want to say this in the way that it's not happening, it is happening and it is a focus, but I have to say this out loud.

Um, so with that, um there's one last thing that you know I thought of as I was sitting here, um, and I thought about all the money that's been spent to date over the years since we started getting ha funding and started increasing our um shelter program and beyond, and all the funds that we you know are going to be spending into the future, especially on programs like this.

And I I was asking myself the question if we took all that money um and we did rental assistance for people like help paid rent, would that be a more cost-effective solution than us building our own programs, funding congregate shelter and all the other things that we do?

Um, you know, uh especially when you look at some of it the the housing that's available in certain parts of the city.

I don't know the answer to that, and I don't know how much we've explored that.

I know there's rental assistance programs that happened during COVID.

I know that the county has some some rental assistance programs as well, but it's something that I think that we should explore, you know, as we continue down these paths, not to get stuck in one way or another, but to constantly assess is this the best bang for our buck?

Are we getting what we need?

And so that's just one thing I wanted to put on the table.

I know I've heard it from from folks in the room as well.

And so at that one, we're supporting this, knowing that uh it's not perfect, but it's progress, and that's what we're here to do.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Vayne.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, first, I just want to say thank you to Brian for your presentation.

Um, I know that it is no easy task to come up here and uh answer the questions and um um, you know, get the tough questions from the public and from mayor and council.

So thank you for all your hard work and your entire team, and also want to thank the mayor for keeping his promise and bring the strategy forward with uh city staff uh to bring forward the various strategies that we see in front of us.

And um, what I will share is you know, being uh on the council for four years, some of these ideas are not new.

Um, some of these ideas are adjusted, and we have one or two new ideas.

Um, I also appreciate the slide deck that called out the preventative approaches as well.

I think that's really important.

What um council member Roger Dickinson have asked for, and so uh that's really key.

And so I do uh really appreciate uh the comprehensive strategy and the workshop follow-up.

Um, so I want to thank staff for that.

And um, for me in particular, the reality is that you know, our homeless response, um, our homeless response system just lacks the resources to fully implement housing first for the vast majority of people who are experiencing homelessness.

And even though we have an upward trend in people accessing housing first programs with services, we know that the supply is really low.

Um, and so for me, I have always been a housing first advocate, but I know that housing first isn't failing, but it's our systems that are uh failing to deliver on housing first.

And so that said, though, I know we as mayor and council have to do what we can at the local level uh to increase bed uh beds and rest spaces, even with the limited resources we have.

And so the reality is for me, you know, the longer someone lives on the street, the shorter their lifespan.

That is the the data, that is the research on public health, and so we have to do everything we can to get folks inside and to make sure that they have a dignified life with resources.

So I have some comments where I stand on some of these strategies.

You know, I support the overall um strategies, but I do have just concern regarding the fee, and I'll go into uh go into it in a little bit.

Um, so first I want to speak on the equity piece, very similar to councilwoman maple.

I think ensuring that this is a collective responsibility is important.

I know that several months ago when we talked about the federal funding to have housing in district two and district um uh five and eight uh regarding the permanent support of housing, we asked uh we asked for a call of action from other other districts to step up, and so I'm hoping that in this moment every district will also set step step up.

And um, you know, we have a shelter in our community in the heart of MetaView, and I too hear hear from my residents that um, you know, they don't want an over concentration, but we also know that it is collective responsibility, and so district eight is always gonna do our part.

So, first I just want to talk a little bit about some of the strategies.

Uh, safe parking in particular.

Um, I want to start off with that.

Um, you know, you don't have to worry about getting up, Brian.

I just want to make sure I make some comments because I know my constituents are watching tonight, they have a lot of questions for the Thursday meeting, but I just want to let them know kind of where I'm at.

Um, you know, I've always been a supporter of safe parking uh programs in our district for years.

We get the calls of folks, you know, living um in their trailers and their cars in our neighborhoods, right?

And if constituents are asking me to uh remove these vehicles, we gotta have a place for them to be able to park safely.

And so I've always been a strong supporter of safe parking.

Now, what I will share with you is that we have tried numerous times, I think two attempts.

Uh Franklin Light Rail Station was originally actually in district seven before redistricting, and Councilmember Jennings was a big proponent of that as well.

Um, and then when redistricting happened, uh the Franklin Light Rail Station uh was in district eight, and so I too held a community meeting, answered with the community that I was in support.

We listened to the community, you know, really made sure that their voices were part of the process and the plan.

Took that to RT, but unfortunately, there was not political will to move forward then.

Um, and even the former city manager uh uh didn't support it because of the cost.

Now, if there is a third time, third time is a charm to do it again.

I fully support that.

Um, I think the only thing I ask is to make sure we continue to include the community as part of that process.

I'll definitely have some constituents that will be fully against it.

I will have constituents who are in support of it, but I think it's important to make sure we include all of their voices.

So I'm looking forward to that meeting on Thursday if my constituents are watching.

I do know that one of the big hurdles, however, is that we're gonna have to go through the federal government for approval.

So even if SAC SAC RT says yes, we're gonna have to sort through that.

So on the safe parking, I fully support.

On the micro housing piece in particular, um, I just want to say I I support the micro housing communities, um, but only but only if we ensure that the entire site is fully ADA compliant.

Um, the reason why I say that is because accessibility is not an option for me, it's essential.

Every resident, regardless of your ability, deserves to live in a community with dignity, safety, and independence, right?

So by making it ADA compliant, um, uh, we're not just building housing, but we're also building inclusive communities, and so uh I would like to see all of the micro housing community be ADA compliant if possible.

That would be a direction that I have for staff.

Um, in terms of location, staff has shared with me that MetaView could be a potential site for the microsite community.

I think it's important to be in uh to be very transparent about that, um, that uh a site in MetaView was considered.

Um I am opposed to having a site in the Medavie community, but I am open to having it in other parts of my district, okay, because we already have a shelter there, it's already over concentrated in that neighborhood, but we're looking for other location.

I just want to share that my team and I have been incredibly proactive talking to faith leaders as well, and so we actually have two churches in a district eight that um have expressed willingness to actually host micro communities, and so those are pending conversations, and I'm looking forward to that.

So, all that to say I do not oppose the micro site.

However, there is one caveat, and that is really about the cost and the fee.

Um I do not support charging 30% uh of an unhoused person's income.

And I'll list out several several reasons why.

One, uh, for me in particular, these structures are not permanent homes.

Yes, they are non-congregate rest spaces, a step towards stability, but I don't consider it an actual home, and I'll share with you why.

You can call it housing, but if it's temporary with no shower, bathroom inside the tiny home, that's to me is not truly housing, especially if we have seniors living there, right?

Having to figure out how to walk maybe across to the micro communities to find the bathroom, right?

For me, um, I don't think we should be asking our unhoused seniors to pay a fee when they have to um, you know, um go to the other side of the micro communities to to you know to to uh use the restroom or or even shower, right?

Um so for me, yes, it's a form of like interim housing, but it's still shelter for me.

Um the the other pieces on the fees, you know.

Our income, our uh unhoused communities are already incredibly vulnerable, they have limited income.

Um, and uh mayor, you said yourself that you have heard unhouse folks said to you, you know, I'm dying to get housing, right?

And for me, when I was listening to you speak, that statement in itself tells me the vulnerabilities of our unhoused community.

If they are dying to get into housing, right?

And so, yes, they would say yes, because in so many ways uh we as government get to create those conditions for that forced choice, even though we say this is a choice that they have in so many ways as a government entity, we are creating those conditions for that forced choice, and so I just want to share that.

Um, and so um, as you know, as policymakers as government entities, it's incredibly important uh to think about the unattended consequences of the type of policies that we put in place.

I don't support the fee because of this, and the other part is, you know, there are um impending federal cuts to health care, to Medicaid, to food assistance.

Um, we also know that there's reduction in the California state budget.

Um this is only gonna further drive up costs that's gonna make it harder for our seniors and um for our unhoused residents to really meet their basic needs.

Even if their income is a thousand dollars a month, they have to pay 300, right?

All the other costs goes up as well.

And so for me, um I support the microsite, but I do not support the fee.

Um, you know, the mayor did say to me, Well, if you don't support that, Ma, you have to offer a solution.

So I got a solution.

I will say this again that a budget is a reflection of our our priorities.

Earlier, I had asked Brian, what is the maintenance cost for each of this, each of the site?

He said $500,000.

If we are willing to spend $500,000 annually on the cost of the shot spotters, I rather we spend that money in microsites so that seniors don't have to pay for it.

For me, this is really about priorities in our budget.

Um, if we 500,000 may sound like a lot, but it's budget dust for the city of Sacramento.

If this is something that we want to center, and so for me, I support the site, but I don't think we should be charging the fee.

Um, and I would really ask my colleagues to reconsider that and to make some hard decisions that we're gonna have to weigh out that if this is a priority, then we need to look for funding in our in our general budget to support our seniors so that they don't have to pay that fee.

Um, so those are all my comments.

I know that tonight in particular we're not voting for our locations because the former mayor and council did give direction to our city manager to select the site, but tonight my understanding is that we are voting if we're going to charge a fee or not, and those are the reasons why I would not support a fee, but I do support the micro housing communities, and those are my comments.

Thank you, council member, council member plucky bomb.

And council member pluckybom, before you get started, would you like to make a motion for council to go past 9 30 p.m.?

You could say no, but I really would like to.

But yeah.

Um have a motion and then voluntarily, yeah.

And all the favorite please say aye.

Aye, no circensions here and thank you.

Um, thank you, Mindy.

Uh I'll be supporting the motion um uh with a couple comments, uh, some direction and a request.

Um, sending down the uh Dais uh proposal from the river district to um uh reinstate the uh uh a version of the ordinance that they that they had.

Uh we um earlier this year, about six months ago, uh rescinded the protections that have been in place there for decades.

Um uh in part because uh we had gotten a little bit out beyond our skis uh and needed to pull that uh protection back.

Um this is an opportunity for us to recognize that our industrial areas are uh uh uh being encroached upon and need to be uh defended and protected where possible.

Um they have traditionally been in every city a place where uh folks can get lost and uh the river district is no different in that regard.

Uh you know, we have um in some respects crowd people into those locations uh because they're uh far away from other sensitive uses or residents that would complain.

Um so uh it I think it's important for us to recognize uh you know uh places like Power Inn, Pell Avenue, the river district, uh, where you know we we have um real meaningful over concentration, not unlike uh the conversation we're having earlier today about cannabis.

I think uh having a metric, um, I don't think it's particularly meaningful to organize this by council district.

I think council districts are useful for electing council members and not much else.

Um this is uh probably a much more meaningful conversation to have uh in a in a neighborhood uh sort of a community rubric about um you know where are the the geographic areas that uh regular folks would recognize and and and would would find to be uh more meaningful, and I think that's probably a uh a more straightforward way to do it.

There is a um sort of a tension between what's best for systems and what's best for individuals.

Uh if each of us were uh making decisions just strictly on our own behalf, we would uh you know hoard resources and and defend against any uh imposition on that.

But when we're trying to act as a collective as a community, uh distributing those resources and and operating in each other's best interest all of a sudden makes makes sense.

Um the council has been uh and all the prior councils for decades have been uh plagued by these problems where uh you know it um serves us and our individual political interests to uh defend the property rights of of our uh you know most likely voters and uh maybe at the expense of what's best for the community.

Um tonight is an instance of uh uh a big push uh where the city is is trying to do a little catch up and um recognize that there are there are moments where uh all of us by uh sharing that sacrifice can uh make a big difference uh for the community at large and and uh you know some folks will feel um you know the expense of that sacrifice more than others.

Uh so uh it if um if I may at the next availability, if we could uh agendize a discussion on um you know an updated ordinance uh for the river district, and I think there are also some things that that we could do uh in terms of our ordinances that that might yield uh better outcomes.

I'd like to have a fuller discussion about um how we align our services with our uh shelter sites in a way that that um may uh curtail some of the impacts that that we all hear so much about um without a yield.

Okay, thank you, Councilmember Pleckybom.

So we do have a proposal here, and uh, we won't entertain it in tonight's uh hearing nor this motion, but we'll I'll I'll make the note that I will refer this to the our this is a city ordinance proposal to our law and legislation committee, which deliberates on such proposals.

So that'll go there.

Thank you.

Next, Councilmember Jennings.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I just have a few things I want to say.

Um, the first is to thank you, the public, for being here with us on 9 16 day at 9 35 p.m.

Um if we stay together any longer, who knows what's gonna happen.

But uh I just want to thank you for your input.

I want to thank you for being here with us and helping us to process what we've heard tonight, and so I thank you for being here and giving up your time.

Uh Brian, I want to thank you for um Brian Predrill for the presentation.

Uh excellent presentation, safe camping, safe parking, micro communities, voucher-based model for city motel program, tiny home and 80 U.

A thousand and one new bids, right?

That's huge.

So I'm really really proud about that, and I just want to thank you for the presentation.

We put you on the firing line, but you handled it well.

And so I want to thank you for that.

And the public thought so as well.

I heard them say so throughout the whole night.

So thank you.

You and your staff for all the work that you did in putting this together.

And then Mayor, I want to thank you for um your leadership and focus on innovative and targeted housing options, um, putting these kind of options in front of us all at one time.

We're not looking at one at a time, we're looking at them collectively.

And I think that's the way you got to do this when you're trying to impact something that affects all of us as much as it does.

So I appreciate the work that you've done in making this happen as well.

Um I made a big deal about enforcement tonight, and I'm hoping that we take that seriously because we can put all these programs out there, but without enforcement, none of them will maintain themselves and stay.

So I hope that we are staying true to the commitment to have a workshop on enforcement, not only for the programs that we put out today, but all the programs that we work on here in the city of Sacramento.

And then the last thing I'll weigh in on is just the uh fee.

Um, I run a nonprofit and have run it since 1997.

We always find that um it works a little bit better for the clients that we serve when they have a little skin in the game.

We find that it works.

We find that they come to the classes, they pay attention to what it is that we're trying to teach.

They take that information, they take it back to their families, back to their communities, and they do better when they've got a little skin in the game.

When everything is given to them free, it tends to end up on the floor in a mess.

So I know many of you have kids, and you know the same situation, so you've already been through this, so I don't need to tell you because you know it for yourself.

So I'm in I'm in favor of a some form of a fee as long as it doesn't hurt the people who are paying that fee.

But I'm in charge I'm I'm in favor of some form of a fee where they're helping to pay it forward, not only for themselves but for others who will come in through the program.

So with that, I concede my mic.

Thank you.

Councilmember Kaplan.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, thank you, Brian.

Uh we've spent the last 36 hours together quite a lot.

Uh thank you for the Zoom meeting with I think at least 80 people of my community last night, at least 125 and a good uh handful tonight, so welcome uh to District One.

Uh you've gotten a little taste, but what I say is we when we come up with these ideas and we're doing something that's been kind of done before, but a little new for us as a city.

I'm supportive of the ideas, but it's how we do them.

How are we setting them up for success?

Um, and I am a little anxious because the I's are not dotted and the T's are not crossed, and I will bring up what my fellow council member Jennings said, because we've learned from things that we've done that haven't succeeded.

There are communities across the United States who have done things that I think it's incumbent upon us of while I know you are moving fast, sometimes moving too fast without double checking what our best policies or practices that other areas have done means we're going to make the same mistakes they did.

So all I ask is I'd actually be really interested in who did we talk to, what other communities were talked to, what best practices did that they have that they know work, um, because yes, I voted no on giving the city manager this action in 2023, um, because I believe in the community voice of which you've heard, which I think had more details been known, my community might not have been as angry and anxious, and so I am hoping that as you get more information that I can rely on you because my community really wants to know the details as they go on.

I know you're not obligated to do that, or the city manager is, but think about it this way.

When a new housing development comes in, it goes through a review process, and it goes through, you know, uh the design committee, and then it comes to council.

So part of this, my community is a little like, ah, because there wasn't a public review process.

There wasn't a design committee, and they don't feel like they've had their voice heard or that they can have some impact.

And one of the things I learned last night, um, so that my community does know that it's like draft and it's being worked on, is your draft placement of where the tiny homes were gonna be, you're looking at shifting it.

And so I'm just hoping as we discuss like the the details, I think that's where I really want to set us up for success.

One one detail I think is important is there should be kind of a universal standard when we do these, such that all around everybody uh for every micro site should have an eight-foot fence.

I think it's unfair to use the cinder block wall that the community has that at some places are only five and a half feet, where that there should be um an eight and a half foot um fence all the way around.

Um couple items that I know we don't have answers.

I did briefly lean over to the attorney and say, okay, we need to figure these out.

These are city-owned sites, so therefore there's city liability.

Um I am supportive that council member Vang brought up ADA access.

Um what about a dog bite?

If we allow dogs on and there's a dog bite on a city owned property, the city's liable.

We are now bringing in seniors where some may have disabilities.

Uh every mom knows this.

You now, after you have kids, get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.

Seniors know this because you get up and you use the bathroom.

Bathrooms are not in their units.

Do we have some way that it is softly lit and it removes potential trip hazards because if seniors are doing this, or is it best practices that we should look at different tiny homes for seniors that have bathrooms inside?

But I think the ADA and thinking through that, because if we want to see success, we don't want to see success in the concept.

We want to see success in the implementation, and I think that's where there's there's some anxiety about it.

I think it is extremely disappointing and disheartening to hear from my colleagues that say that Natomas has not done their part.

I ask that my colleagues know their facts and know their information before they state that.

Before the lines were drawn, district one did have 117 shelter sites in district one.

By the way, when we talk about shelter beds and doing our part, North Natomas is the second highest community with affordable multifamily unit sites in the city.

We've been doing our part for 25 years of building affordable housing and affordable sites.

If you look at what area has built the most, it's been North Natomas.

So please take a back seat and make sure you have your facts straight before you say my area in Natomas doesn't do their part.

I'm disappointed in colleagues saying so.

I would like to see uh coming back that you've talked about it, Mr.

Pedro, is that we have uh we have a good neighbor policy, it doesn't have teeth.

I would like to see that when we talk about potentially enforcement, to have it come back of what does that look like for a good neighbor policy with teeth, and also um a rules, you know.

What are the rules of um the inhabitants, uh, the residents that that has teeth, especially the parameters of the micro-communities because we are getting a new city manager?

One day you won't be here, one day I won't be here.

Maybe one day the city won't be running the site, who says they can't change the rules.

So I I think it's incumbent upon us.

If we're setting up something, we set the rules and make them very clear that they have uh teeth on them, even if it's a restrictive covenant on the land and something that we can we can put into the zoning or the title, which by the way, you said it's zone for for housing, it's actually that area zone for ag.

Um, so um I would like to hear back on the good neighbor, the the um enforcement, because I think we do have to work with our um our officers and you know your department, which you have and are already spread very thin, and then uh I am also in alignment with council member Jennings.

I believe our community members do need to have skin in the game, and I do, and having run a business and have worked for nonprofits, even when it's a small fee, there's a sense of ownership.

And I would like it, it doesn't have to be 30% or maybe it's up to 30% of what that looks like, but I I am uh supportive of that.

Uh I think in when we look at safe camping, safe uh parking, and we've talked about the hotel moto and the voucher system, it's all in the implementation.

How do we keep consistency?

How do we keep that the rules we set up are enforced?

And how do we continue speaking with our community?

Because everybody wants us to do something, but nobody likes it when things are surprised upon them.

So, how do we continue to have honest conversation?

Because I think when we have honest conversation and we stick to our gun and our word means something, then we build community trust, and then we have success in something, that there is that ownership and there is that that buy-in.

So I want to set this up for success.

I'm just hoping that we can move fast but pause to make sure we do it right.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Council Member Dickinson.

Thanks, Mayor.

I want to um uh ask a question at the outset if I if I may just regarding is the motion on the table items one and one and two in the staff report uh recommendations of the motion.

Is that what's yes, correct?

All right.

So if I may I uh I would ask the maker in the secondary the motion to consider splitting the the motion into one and two.

I can do that.

Okay, thanks.

Um I appreciate that.

We can do that.

Um I'm gonna resist at this hour the temptation to talk about 30 years of addressing homelessness.

Thank you in Sacramento in Sacramento County.

Uh I do want to I do want to thank uh those who have come this evening and who have spoken.

Uh it it uh is always helpful to have uh public input uh on these issues, um regardless of opinion.

It uh it's thought-provoking and it's helpful.

Uh and I want to thank the uh staff for the all the work you've done.

Uh I think there um there's a great deal here to commend uh and I'm uh I'm pleased that we are I I think uh focusing uh in a way uh that has not been present before, at least in uh during uh my brief tenure on the on the council and to some extent what I've observed in the last few years for the for the city as a as a whole, and I I want to extend uh credit uh I think to the mayor who has put a uh spotlight on this on this uh issue um as well.

I I'm gonna make just a uh free uh a few um a few relatively uh in the scheme of things brief um comments or observations from my point of view uh in the context of thinking about and working on these issues for a long, long time.

Um and these are not necessarily an order of of importance, just as I jotted jotted them down.

Uh one of the issues I think that that it's critical to address with respect to any site or any program, is the extent to which uh those who are not part of the part of the site living there or part of the program are attracted to the to the site.

My observation is that that's much more challenging and much more problematic uh actually than the people who are engaged in living at the site or engaged in the in the program that's being administered at a site.

Uh and so uh um designing uh effective ways to to address that population uh hopefully in a productive and constructive way, but that population I think uh has to be on the menu of of items that that you look at uh as you go forward with uh with developing uh the approach that you've described for us uh tonight.

Um secondly, I I think about as we talk uh about these things, about the conversation we had the last time with the reduction of HAP money and where we're spending our hap money and our other resources, and and maybe we do this in the context of the of the budget, but uh somehow I feel as if um we're not quite matching up what the budget implications are of the policy practical choices we're we're making.

Uh and I and I think that that's really crucial.

So um uh to illustrate for my part, I mean I as you all know I've been a broken record on on prevention.

I think we ought to be putting more of our resources into prevention, but we you can't say that in the abstract.

You have to say it in the context of the resources we've got and what those choices are.

There are there are clearly uh those who would say no, let's let's we've got people on the street, we need to put more money there.

That's where our our uh focal point or budget emphasis uh uh ought to go.

This is just a uh kind of conversation I don't think we've quite come to terms with yet.

And so I uh we'll have to do it, obviously, eventually, um, but I hope we do it in uh some some sort of intentional way, not not simply as uh uh an an after in a sense an afterthought.

Um I I do believe strongly that uh everybody, as I again I've said said before, has to be part of the solution, no matter where you no matter where you are in the city, and I would extend that to the county.

Um everybody has to be part of the solution.

Uh we cannot expect uh certain parts of our city or only certain parts of our county to carry carry the the weight of being the source of our solutions.

Our solution lies in ourselves wherever we are, and we've got to all uh be committed um to that uh from my point of point of view.

I would say, in connection with the micro communities approach uh extends to safe camping or or safe parking, but particularly the micro communities, that I I would tend to think it wiser to view them as transitional.

You said interim, I think uh Brian, but as tran uh but you also said people could stay there forever.

Well, people might stay there for an extended period of time, but but I think that the their design, uh some of which has been referred to in terms of uh not having personal um uh uh showering and and uh um hygiene facilities within their units, uh congregate meals, um things of that kind.

Uh I I just don't conceive of those as being a form of permanent um housing.

So uh I think as we see the these different approaches in a continuum from emergency shelter to transitional or interim to permanent and permanent supportive housing.

Uh if we think about these as uh more in the transitional category with the recognition that some people will be there for for extended periods of time, meaning years, uh it I think it helps us uh recognize what we need to be doing on the ultimate end of the of the spectrum, which which is uh a greater supply of permanent and permanent supportive housing.

And I and I say that recognizing that's that's a huge that's uh that's our challenge.

It's been our challenge for years to have enough housing that people can exit transitional housing to get into permanent and permanent supportive housing.

So I don't mean by suggesting this that I downplay the challenge in that regard.

I I do want to say that I um I do have sympathy for those in the river district in particular who have expressed um their concern and even opposition to the the the camping site.

Again, um I've I've over the years spent a lot of time.

In fact, in 1994, my introduction beyond whether the sh winter shelter would stay open was to try to work out an arrangement between the city and the county in the river district.

Um so uh uh you know I think the river district does uh have uh a huge burden that it bears.

And um this may be a uh a practical solution to have a safe camping site.

Um if you can get people off the street in the river district and into the camping site, um uh you know that could that could be helpful.

Um but but uh I as I say I do want to express my my sympathy for their um for their angst to say the least on that.

Lastly, I want to address the issue of of the proposal to charge um 30 percent of of income uh as a fee for the housing for the mic micro sites, or I I guess that extends to the camping and the and the um uh and the parking sites uh uh as well.

Not the camping, just the microsite.

Just the microsites, okay.

Okay.

Okay.

I I have to say that I've thought a lot about this and since it's it was in uh first introduced, and we had a little bit of conversation about it.

Uh and uh I think there are some very compelling, even academic arguments to be made.

The argument that it will help by replenishing the money we have to expand a little bit.

That's that's got a compelling sense to it.

The argument that uh when you have a little to quote uh my colleagues and others, uh, some skin in the game, it means more to you.

You take it more seriously.

Um, you behave better uh in but you know I I I keep coming back to the ultimate fact that we're talking about people who might have an income of a thousand dollars a month.

How much skin do they have to give up?

How much skin do they have to give up?

Haven't they given enough skin by the experience they've had living on the street, being exposed day in and day out to uh assaults from every direction when we say with the voucher program that we're gonna use HAP money to cover the cost of housing for those in the motel program and then tell people who are going to the micro sites you get to pay 30% of your income.

I don't know how to reconcile that.

That doesn't seem consistent to me.

And so uh in the final analysis.

Well, I I understand the arguments.

Uh and as I said, even find find that they have merit in an academic sense for charging people, in a practical sense, it just doesn't ring true to me, and I can't support it.

So I appreciate the work that's being done here.

It's a departure of I think importance, but not but not to be overshadowed by what we're doing more or shouldn't overshadow what we're doing more generally, which I think is moving uh in the right direction, and I appreciate that.

Thanks, Mayor.

Thank you, Councilmember Talamantes.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay.

So I have two pieces of good news.

The good news is I'm the last speaker.

The second good news is that the mayor let me know that we are not doing the Sacramento Hamless and Housing System Partnership Structure update today.

So it's almost 10 o'clock at night, and so this will be moved to another council workshop.

So if you are watching excitedly at home or sitting here hungry, um stay tuned for for the next meeting.

Um you will get some rest back tonight.

Um there has been concern about the lack of community engagement in regards to these proposals.

Um, and I do want to say on the record that in 2023 the council voted five four to give the city manager the authority to pick the safe camping sites and spend up to five million dollars uh without coming back to city council for approval, and this is why we're here.

So um the reason why I voted no was because of the lack of community engagement and being able to get community voices into the conversation before selecting a site.

So on Monday, September 22nd, Councilmember McCaplan and I will be hosting a community conversation together um on the micro site in North Atomas, because this site is across the street from my district three, uh Whitter Ranch Elementary and the neighborhood there.

So I invite members of the public to please join us as we continue to dotterize and cross RTs, get more answers and fully bake this out thoroughly before it even begins.

And I know that there's a lot of questions too with our legal team to be able to address.

Uh kudos to staff, um, been here a very long time now working on this, to the mayor uh for discussing new and different ways of addressing this complex issue, and for stating that we can't do it all.

We really can't.

We don't have the budget for it, we don't have the services for it, we don't have the facilities for it.

We could continue building affordable housing, we can continue getting creative in this way, but we can't do it all, and we really have to pick our lane and stay in it.

And it is require all of us from the public sector to the private sector, the advocates, the stakeholders, the city, the county, to the state.

You know, we continue to have uh reductions in funding from the state, a lot of federal uncertainty, a lot of question marks and exclamation marks and question marks as we proceed, and we're just gonna have to figure it out on our own because this is kind of where we're at right now.

Um so I look forward to the meeting on October 28th, where we we will be having a joint Sacramento County meeting, City of Sacramento, and Region Mayor's meeting.

And I invite the public to come join us.

I think that this is gonna be the most important meeting um that we have regarding homelessness.

Homelessness is an issue for all of Sacramento, the entire Sacramento region, and the city of Sacramento too, but we need everyone to do the their part.

So, you know, as we move forward, um the city of Sacramento can't do it alone, and um I believe that every single neighboring city needs to step up and join us in this mission in addressing homelessness, and I look forward to that conversation.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you, uh Councilmember Vice Mayor for wrapping it up.

Um, no more uh questions, so we will take two motions, but I'll just try to uh wrap it up as well.

But before we do that, there's one piece of the report that we didn't really talk about that I'm really excited about, and we'll give you more news in the coming weeks.

But we're gonna create a program here, a tiny home grant program, a name, I know she's gonna be really embarrassed, uh, Mr.

Dickinson.

But it's gonna be the Robin Moore tiny home grant program.

If you don't know about her, she's a woman who lives in North Sacramento, who decided on her own.

I got a little plot of land next to me in my backyard.

I'm going to step it up and you know, bring some hustle and uh build tiny homes on our own.

So she built four or five tiny homes on our own that are serving um homeless families, and so we're going to create a a pot to purchase tiny homes and go after churches.

You said, Councilmember Vang, you have a few in your district.

I know a few churches already, congregations of local synagogue.

It says they'll buy two, they'll help step it up, asking the community to help because we can't do this on our own.

So we'll be unveiling details about that in the coming weeks.

But again, I'm I'm I'm proud of our city and our council and our staff for for rising to the challenge.

You know, everywhere we go in our communities and our neighborhood meetings.

They say, what are you doing?

Um, you know, they want us to make sure our sidewalks and parks are clean.

I know that's controversial.

Uh, but whether you're for or against that, they say what are you doing to give people a place to go?

And uh I know tonight we we answered the call, and um, you know, I'm I'm pleased about the direction we're headed to to really make a difference and uh making a dent.

Significant debt in this issue.

And again, if you look from a year ago to where we could go if we implement this, double the amount of places people can go.

And that's something I think we need to talk to our community members about.

How we are stepping up and heading in the right uh direction.

So with that, we have uh we have a motion, but I'm gonna cancel that and do two motions.

So the first motion is point one, develop a monthly um program fee for microcommunities participants have no more than 30% of their monthly gross income to help sustain expand the program.

So I'm making a motion on that, second by council member Guerra.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any no's or abstentions.

Hold on, this is regarding this.

I think you want to do a roll call.

Yeah, I'm sorry, it's 10 o'clock.

I want to make sure you're okay, you're not.

Okay.

This is regarding just the microsides, yeah.

Okay.

Can we do a roll call?

Roll call.

Yes.

I'm just still legislature.

Councilmember Kaplan.

Yes.

Councilmember Dickinson?

No.

Council Vice Mayor Talamantes?

Yes.

Councilmember Flucky Baum.

Councilmember Maple.

Yes, Mayor Pro Tem Gera.

Aye.

Councilmember Jennings?

Yes.

Councilmember Vang?

No.

And Mayor McCarty.

Hi.

Okay, the second motion is um the piece two in uh Mr.

Pedro's plan, developed a voucher-based model for the city motel program to better support client choice, create additional cost savings, and assist in maintaining the program.

I'll make the motion, a second by councilmember Gera.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any no's or abstentions?

Hearing none, that passes 9-0.

Okay, thank you.

That's can I uh add one thing uh to uh I was remiss in all of our hard work.

Um Yayin Isle, uh who has been part of the team.

Uh the housing manager, which ties in nicely to homelessness efforts.

Um, and she has done tremendous work for us, and I didn't want to miss her on uh thanking her for all of her efforts and see you again.

Yes, yes, thank all of our city staff for your work on this item.

Thank you.

Next item, Madam Clerk.

So as Vice Mayor uh announced, and I believe you concur, item number three, Sacramento Homeless and Housing System Partnership Structure will be continued.

Is that accurate, Mayor?

Correct.

Thank you.

We move to council comments ideas questions, AB123 reports.

Seeing none, I have one.

You have one.

Yes, I uh AB 123 report.

Like to report that council member Maple and I and visit Sacramento attended the um uh Danny Weimer Presents Festival in Louisville, Kentucky last week to see firsthand an amazing opportunity to bring 160,000 additional people to Sacramento.

You know, last year we had the the Golden Sky uh show that the city helped uh subsidize for a few years, unfortunately it pulled out this year.

So we're looking at options to bring a bigger type of event here to Sacramento because we're able to uh look at that, talk to uh mayor, the mayor there, lawmakers, and their visit Louisville departments to see how we can um bring that type of program to the city of Sacramento.

We have some ideas we'll be bringing forward in the coming weeks and months, but we wanted to report on that.

And I have three speakers for matters not on the agenda, Chris Rogers, Jeffrey Tardiya, then Mary Tappel.

Is Chris here?

I don't see Chris.

Um Jeffrey, it's too late.

Would you like the mic?

Nice.

Um let me find your microphone just a moment.

Let's see.

There we go.

Uh council members, thank you for paying attention all the way to the end.

I'm still gonna suggest you you need to change items not on the agenda to be the not the last item, but it also shouldn't be the first item.

But I will also want to encourage you to please look at your website, because trying to listen to the conversations, I find repeatedly that I have to go through different avenues to get the voice out of what's going on.

I can see a picture, but I do not have the voice coming on on whether it's my tablet or the other.

And again, it's hard to look at your screen to see when you pull the various meetings going through there.

It's just a defect of looking at your website of how you pull down from your law enforcement to your other meetings taking place.

But in this meeting, I've had a number of times where I'm trying to listen.

I can see what's going on, but I can't hear what's going on.

That's my comment, not on the agenda.

Thank you, Mary Tappel.

Hi.

Thank you.

Hi, Mayor and members of the council.

I I won't keep you very long.

I know it's late, but uh first I want to start with this positive thing about our upcoming second Sacramento Bike Fest in District 2.

It's October 4th, and there will be a bunch of free bikes.

Thank you, um, Roger for chipping in a bunch of funds for more bikes.

I I think we particularly want more bikes for kids.

Uh, my husband's fixing up some bikes to give away.

I've helped financially significantly with this event.

Uh and um also I I want to point out that we so need continue uh continuous uh security along the bike trail.

It was so good that after I got the death threat on August 11th, it has gone the incident management team and the city staff and uh our police wonderful police department all responded so fast and Roger did also, and we got that cleaned up right away, and it's still cleaned up there at Lampasas and traction though, some five weeks later, might make it all the way through to our August 4th bike uh bike fest, and that would be so nice.

And um, so please uh keep up the good work and and please uh um continue to tolerate your citizens who are just trying to help, but we can't do it all.

And I know you all work much harder, longer hours than I do, and I so appreciate that in the city's staff efforts.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Ms.

Tappel.

Um, Councilmember Plucky Baum, you had an adjourned memory.

I do, thank you, Mindy.

Uh, this week we lost Charles Thomas, better known as Ground Chuck.

He was a key part of Midtown's cultural heartbeat, spiked up leather jacket and all.

To know him was to know his kindness, his warmth, and inclusivity.

The outpouring of love from him from street punks to uh some of Sacramento's legendary bands to show just how much ground chuck meant to the city and how much he'll be missed.

His impact wasn't just in our music scene, but in all he encountered.

He inspired the creation of the chocolate up art festival, and I remember him drawing on our sidewalks with kids, always playful.

He was universally loved by Midtowners, young and old, janky or not, alike.

He'll be missed.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well said.

Thank you.

That we are adjourned.