ELK GROVE, CA (MPG) - Elk Grove City Council unanimously approved a contract to create a year-round homeless shelter in the city. With the decision at the Sept. 25 regular meeting, the shelter is planned to open at Calvary Christian Center on Nov. 1. Also at the meeting, City Council advanced a proposal to increase councilmembers’ salaries.

City staff proposed locating the shelter at Calvary Christian Center at 9499 E. Stockton Blvd. The city has leased part of the facility through October 2028, although it would not be the shelter’s long-term home.

In a partnership with shelter services nonprofit The Gathering Inn (TGI), the shelter would serve up to 35 adults per night, with 30 regular beds and five for use in emergencies. It would open Nov. 1 for 24-hour operations. Housing and Public Services manager Sarah Bontrager said the all-day operations would allow clients to come and go as needed and prevent lines outside the shelter.

The year-round shelter is a permanent version of the Enhanced Winter Sanctuary that the city held last winter.

The Gathering Inn operated the winter sanctuary from November 2023 to this past April  at the former Rite Aid building in Old Town Elk Grove. It served 62 people over that season.

To operate the year-round shelter, the city staff proposed a contract lasting up to three years, with a cost of up to $4.58 million. The agreement begins as a one-year contract for a payment of $1.53 million, with the option of two one-year extensions.

Additionally, the Calvary Christian lease will cost $89,000 in the first year and the city plans to spend $200,000 to $300,000 on building improvements.

Homelessness in Elk Grove

According to the snapshot of homelessness produced earlier this year by Sacramento Steps Forward, 83 homeless people were without access to shelter in Elk Grove. City staff noted that the winter sanctuary sheltered about 25 people around the time of the count, giving a total of just more than 100 for the city’s homeless population.

Two surveys conducted by the city indicated that 58% of Elk Grove residents consider homelessness a major or moderate problem in the city. When asked what measures they support to address homelessness, the majority supported social services and temporary shelters, as well as affordable housing initiatives and permanent supportive housing.

Despite their support for having the measures somewhere in the city, most respondents were less open to having them in their neighborhood; only 37% of respondents supported having temporary shelter in their neighborhood compared to 62% in the city generally.

The city will soon have stricter limits on homeless encampments; effective Oct. 11, a recently-passed ordinance bans sleeping in most public places and camping on public property. The ordinance follows a recent U.S. Supreme Court case, Grants Pass v. Johnson, that allows such rules, along with an executive order from Gov. Gavin Newsom encouraging removal of encampments.

Bontrager detailed the proposed shelter’s operations and admission rules, noting that it  would allow pets and provide bins to store possessions.

Access would be only through a referral from a city homeless services navigator or from the Elk Grove Police Department.

“Everyone is vetted. It’s very important to us. We are paying for this. We want our residents to benefit from this. Our navigators are great at vetting that,” Bontrager said.

The shelter would not serve registered sex offenders or those with “serious behavioral health challenges,” according to Bontrager’s presentation. It would also prohibit drug and alcohol use on-site.

Security measures would include a system of cameras, a Police Department security plan, minimum staffing levels and a nightly curfew.

The city held open houses on Sept. 12 and Sept. 16 to inform residents on the project and gather feedback.

Commenters Favor Shelter

Public comment was largely in favor of the sanctuary. One commenter criticized the councilmembers for not participating in public engagement.

Leigh Cobb, program manager for Elk Grove Food Bank Services, supported the proposal. The food bank provided meals at the winter sanctuary and would continue the service with the new facility.

“We had, honestly, no issues at the food bank with any of the guests that we helped with food, clothing (and) CalFresh services. It was a great experience for us,” Cobb said. 

Cobb spoke about the emotional benefits of providing kindness and support.

Debbie Schoeneschoefer, a board member of Elk Grove Homeless Assistance Resource Team (HART), said the winter sanctuary helped 21 people find permanent housing. Other HART board members shared positive experiences at the shelter.

Elk Grove mayoral candidate Lynn Wheat anticipated that the shelter would be a good addition to the community and contribute to economic diversity.

The Gathering Inn CEO Keith Diederich commended the proposal, saying that Elk Grove’s response to the Supreme Court ruling is unusual.

“Not very many municipalities in this country, given that Grants Pass decision, are opening a new shelter for people to go to,” Diederich said. 

Diederich promised that his organization would “repeat and do better than we did the first time.”

Christina Aubrey, who lives near Calvary Christian, said the councilmembers have not shown a “commitment” to getting public input, noting that she did not see any of them at the community open houses. Aubrey also said the city made the plans “in secrecy” and without full details.

Shelter Gets Unanimous Vote

Councilmember Sergio Robles said the shelter would be a move in the right direction.

“I want to make sure folks understand we’re taking a step forward as Elk Grove in this region when others will throw a large amount of money and not see any change in their streets,” Robles said.

While the city cannot solve homelessness, it can manage homelessness, Councilmember Kevin Spease said. He said Calvary Christian was chosen so the shelter could open this winter and is not an ideal long-term location for the shelter. So, Spease continued, the city should begin looking for another location as soon as possible. Speace said that the shelter is consistent with his Catholic faith and he voiced confidence in the program’s success.

Vice-Mayor Rod Brewer looked forward to working with the various organizations involved in the shelter, calling the program an “opportunity to lift each other up.”

Councilmember Darren Suen “wholeheartedly” supported the shelter and commended The Gathering Inn for its work on the winter sanctuary.

Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen said that the outreach process for the year-round shelter has been comparable to that for the winter sanctuary. She gave assurances that the search for a permanent location would involve an “exhaustive community outreach process.” Singh-Allen said that Elk Grove residents would see the benefits of the shelter, inviting those with concerns to volunteer at the facility.

“This is the compassionate and right thing to do. It is to step up and help,” Singh-Allen said. “It is the job of us as the city to step up and help, and our partners and our residents.”

The five City Councilmembers unanimously approved the contract.

Council Advances Salary Raise

City Council took the second step toward a salary increase for councilmembers, setting the potential raise to $2,550 per month, or $30,600 per year, the maximum a new law allows. The current payment, last raised in 2012, is $800 per month, or $9,600 annually.

Councilmembers also receive benefits augmenting their base salaries. Singh-Allen receives a total of about $42,800 per year in salary and benefits. The other councilmembers receive between about $22,100 and $24,200.

California Senate Bill 329 raised the salary cap for City Councils, based on those cities’ populations. In Elk Grove’s bracket of 150,000 to 250,000 people, the maximum is $2,550. The current $800 pay is lower than the new maximum for cities of fewer than 35,000 people.

During public comment, Wheat again requested that a commission determine councilmember salaries.

Brewer and Robles said the increase is a measure for future councilmembers.

“As people go into the role, folks will want to see that they’re stepping into a duty of public service but something that will allow them to help make ends meet,” Brewer said. The vice-mayor added that a councilmember has the option to donate the money.

Spease expressed concern that the city was not following the same metric that it uses for employee salaries, which it aims to place in the 80th percentile, or higher than 80%, of comparable agencies. He opposed the full allowed raise but supported instituting a smaller raise to match inflation since 2012 or creating a salary commission.

The high inflation of the past few years was Suen’s major reason to back an increase.

Singh-Allen said that prior City Councils delayed discussions of salaries. Responding to the idea of a commission to decide pay, she said, “Elections are evaluations of our performance and I’m comfortable with that being the process.”

Suen, Brewer and Robles supported a raise to $2,550, forming a consensus. It will receive a second reading for final approval at the Oct. 9 meeting.