The Board of Supervisors Wednesday approved in a 4-0 vote the construction of sleeping cabins in the Spring Valley community, and to develop a recreational vehicle site in an unincorporated area near Lakeside, as ways to help those living on the streets.
Plans call to set up 150 sleeping cabins at 8534 Jamacha Road, near state Route 125, on land the county will lease from the state Department of Transportation.
The Willow RV Senior and Family Parking will sit on county-owned land at the intersection of Willow Road and Ashwood Street. A concept design shows office and storage space as well as restrooms on the site. Construction is scheduled to begin next year.
Supervisors approved spending $4.9 million for the RV site and $18.5 million for the sleeping cabins. American Rescue Plan Act money will pay for construction costs for both projects, officials said.
Supervisors also voted to accept $10 million in state funding to help pay for the sleeping cabins.
According to board Vice Chair Terra Lawson-Remer's office, along with other recently created shelter sites, the two new locations "collectively establish 150 emergency housing units, 44 safe parking spaces and 17 recreational vehicle parking spaces, further expanding the region's emergency housing resources."
The new locations will also provide more centralized services for those near both unincorporated communities and serve up to 211 people per night, Lawson-Remer said in a statement.
"For years, the county had not invested in creating new shelter space, but we're changing that by aggressively working to address the homelessness crisis," Lawson-Remer said.
She added that, in her time in office, the county has created more than 900 new shelter beds and safe parking spaces countywide.
The Lakeside and Spring Valley projects are part of the Compassionate Emergency Solutions and Pathways to Housing plan, which supervisors approved in February 2022. Since that time, the county opened a safe-parking site and has a second one set to open this spring.
A 2023 point-in-time count found that 10,264 people were living on the streets or in shelters in the county on one night, with an estimated 200 people experiencing homelessness in the county's unincorporated areas.
Supervisor Joel Anderson was absent Wednesday.
