Sacramento leaders want a new wellness campus being built in the city to be a model for the rest of California in tackling homelessness. CapRadio's Kate Wolffe reports the campus will host 175 tiny homes funded by the state. Along Stockton Blvd, a major artery in South Sacramento, is a 13 acre lot with a two-story rust colored building — once slated to be a shopping center. Now, WellSpace Health - a local nonprofit with clinics throughout Sacramento is developing the space. The CEO, Jonathan Porteous, says the lot is similar to the patients the health system serves. Porteous: "Many of the people we serve have been abandoned. Many of them have huge potential, have good bones, but they've not been given the opportunity." In the next few years, WellSpace plans to build a campus - with dental services, rehab facilities, prison reentry housing, and a 9-8-8 crisis call center. The state wants to open the tiny homes on the lot early next year. Vice Mayor Eric Guerra says tiny homes aren't a long term solution - they last 5 to 10 years. But they'll be helpful for now. Guerra: "This is a mixture of what can we do immediately, but also what can we build permanently. That's why the back end will start to get built while we already have the immediate tiny home models." He says he thinks residents of Sacramento and California more broadly will start seeing this approach more often. In Sacramento, I'm Kate Wolffe.
Sacramento Leaders want Campus Model for Homelessness to Catch on in the Rest of California
