SACRAMENTO, California. – The city of Sacramento opened on March 27 the first ‘ Safe place‘, where homeless people can put up a camp house or their car without prohibition from the police or local ordinances.
–
The site is located under Highway 50, near 6th and W streets, on a lot where there will be no construction on the highway, which has forced the eviction of homeless people who settled under the highway in the section that passes through the city center.
–
The site includes portable toilets and health and washing stations, and in the coming days small houses could be installed for residents, who would have access to housing and social services to get out of their situation.
–
The small houses are about the size of a room and include basic electricity and shared water services. In recent years, these houses have been installed in California cities like Yuba City to provide a safer space to live in and where people can be connected to social services.
–
On the site there is space for about 150 people and on the first day of service about a dozen people arrived. The city’s plan is to install a counseling office on the site and train people who were previously on the streets to manage the site.
–
The site was quickly activated to accommodate people displaced by the 50 freeway redevelopment. This elevated thoroughfare runs through downtown Sacramento, and below it many homeless people have settled in the lots and spaces between 6th and 26th streets. .
–
With the start of construction, Caltrans closed access to these lots and began serving eviction orders to people living near the construction site.
–
