Rancho Cordova and Sacramento County Mull Over Mather Homeless Shelter
Rancho Cordova City Council members showed disapproval on Monday for Sacramento County’s plan to create a winter homeless shelter in Mather. The plan would include renovating bungalows on McCuen Boulevard for up to 105 homeless people to inhabit during the winter.
The Mather Community Campus is already established in Mather and the program focuses on transitioning homeless families back into housing and employment. The proposed winter shelter program would sit adjacent to the Mather Community Campus and would not offer transitional services.
Carrie Simpson, the code enforcement supervisor for the Rancho Cordova Police Department, said the bungalows being considered for the program are not currently habitable. Simpson said she and Officer Ryan Taylor inspected the bungalows and found wood rot, ant infestation, broken or missing air conditioning units, broken windows, plumbing issues, deteriorated cabinets, and electrical hazards. “If we had these types of issues in apartment building,” she said, “we’d certainly make our apartment owners repair them.”
Bruce Wagstaff, the director of human assistance for Sacramento County, said the county plans of repairing the bungalows. “We fully intend to meet all health and safety standards before anyone is placed in those bungalows,” Wagstaff said.
Vice Mayor Ken Cooley said the program proposal has not been thought through well. “I think to conceive of a plan in such a half-baked manner, in an area that it already providing housing to hundreds… and then to have Cal Expo to drop off the radar entirely, is perplexing,” he said.
Cooley also said he feels the program would not do enough for the homeless who will be staying there. “We are the one entity that is saying how we actually make sure this program works for the people,” Cooley said. “I think there needs to be a fundamental inquiry into how this program is planned to work, how it’s going to deliver protection to people so they’re not just sent off among the rocks so they’ll be out of our hair.”
Mayor Dan Skoglund said he does not support the proposal as it is, and Wagstaff has agreed to present the matter to the Council again in a month after considering the concerns the Council voiced on Monday.
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Rancho Cordova has long been a dumping ground for needy folks. This was noted way back in 1985 in the RC Grapevine, when we first moved here from another state. Dumping has continued all these decades/years. It’s too bad for the needy because it seems that no one actually does something useful for these folks. It’s a merry go-round for them and for permanent Rancho Cordova residents too. It may be that other area cities just want their problem to go somewhere else. So here come the needy again. Why not actually do something that can be verified. If permanent improvements could be measured and reported on, ressidents would at least have some satisfaction that RC made a quality contribution. But what’s different this time?
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