SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Dozens of city-funded tents will soon be returning to Sacramento's controversial Miller Park "safe ground" site, Mayor Darrell Steinberg said Friday.
Sacramento will be installing 60 tents for the unhoused at the park, months after the city removed the original tents that were installed there due to damaging winter storms.
Since January, 17 trailers have given shelter to those at Miller Park. In a statement, Mayor Darrell Steinberg said he and Councilmember Katie Valenzuela requested that the tents be re-installed.
“Opening additional safe ground at Miller Park is an important step in creating appropriate places in the city for people to camp,” the statement said. “Temporary facilities like Miller Park will make it easier for the city and county to deliver services and help people find temporary and permanent housing. We will aggressively pursue more safe ground in the weeks ahead. By clearly identifying where people can camp, we can more effectively clean those city corridors where it is both unsafe and unhealthy for people to live.”
The city first opened the "safe ground" site in Feb. 2022. The temporary plan to shelter the homeless at the park drew criticism from community members including those involved in the city's lowrider scene.
Homeless advocates have also criticized "safe ground" sites like Miller Park over a lack of safety and adequacy.
The Miller Park site, staffed 24 hours a day, offers resources as well as necessities such as bathrooms, showers and electricity.
According to the city, since launching the Safe Ground Program in April 2021, 374 people have used the program to move to "exit destinations" including permanent housing. Of those people, 142 sheltered at Miller Park.
Watch more from ABC10: Sacramento homelessness: Tour the newly reopened Miller Park homeless site | To The Point
