The Sacramento City Council on Oct. 25 approved more than $35 million in funding for 820 new affordable housing units in six new developments throughout the city.

Four of the projects include units specifically set aside for people experiencing homelessness, and one will provide transitional housing beds for homeless individuals through a contract with the Salvation Army.

"This is a strategic and deliberate recommendation in our ongoing effort to reduce unsheltered homelessness," said Mayor Darrell Steinberg. "Building more permanent housing is crucial to keeping and getting people housed."

Nearly all the new units will be able to accommodate the more than 1,000 housing choice vouchers that residents, including hundreds of homeless households, have in hand, in search for housing, officials said.

The funds also will go toward Habitat for Humanity's home repair program for low-income homeowners within the Oak Park area.

The $35 million includes a $15 million loan from the City to low-income housing developers to be paid back within 10 years as well as $18.9 million that was previously set aside for the Comprehensive Siting Plan to address homelessness.

Another source of funding for the housing package is $1.7 million in redevelopment funds for the Oak Park area that will go towards the projects in Oak Park and off Stockton Boulevard.

"These projects are going to have a significant impact on addressing the City's housing needs," said the City's Housing Policy Manager Danielle Foster who was recently named Affordable Housing Champion of the Year by Sacramento Housing Alliance. "Thank you to our partners and elected officials for rolling up their sleeves to put these projects together and for being innovative in looking at housing development in a new way."

The new housing projects include:

1. 7141 Woodbine Ave. - 216 low-income units, with 10 homeless units for City referral.
2. 440 Arden Way - 124 units; includes extremely-low to low-income units, with 21 homeless units.
3. 805 R St. - 242 units; includes extremely-low to low-income units, with 15 homeless units.
4. 4501 9th Ave. - 67 units; includes extremely-low to low-income senior units, with 35 homeless units.
5. 3400 Stockton Blvd. - 230 mixed-income units.
6. Various Vacant Oak Park Lots -10 very low and low-income units.

The City will be partnering with affordable housing developers CADA, Mutual Housing, BRIDGE housing and Eden Housing, private developers Fulcrum Properties, Urban Elements, and College Town International and local partners Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, Paratransit, and Habitat for Humanity to complete the projects.

These projects will also have a team of service provider partners, including Lutheran Social Services, Waking the Village, the Sacramento LGBT Center, Resources for Independent Living, City Year, and others.

The new units are expected to open in late 2023 through the end of 2024.

Approximately 2,000 affordable units of very low and low-income housing are currently planned or under construction in Sacramento. With this approval, the total is just under 3,000 units.

The City of Sacramento in February became the first jurisdiction in California to earn the state Prohousing Designation - a distinction that will give it added points when competing for affordable housing, transportation and infrastructure dollars.

City leaders called the shift of funding to affordable housing the logical progression of the Comprehensive Siting Plan, which largely focused on temporary shelter.

While some projects from the Comprehensive Siting Plan has been completed or remain in progress - such as the expansion of the North 5th Street Shelter, the homeless hospice site Joshua's House and the 100-unit Meadowview Village - others sites were determined to be infeasible, unavailable or cost prohibitive.

"This is an evolution of the siting plan," said Councilmember Katie Valenzuela. "Shelter is not the solution. Housing is the solution. In the end, giving people permanent places to be is the solution."

The City has increased its supply of emergency shelter beds from less than 100 five years ago to more than 1,100 beds and safe spaces. The new affordable housing will help provide more people places to go when they are ready to exit emergency services. officials said.

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