Sacramento City, County, and State officials recently celebrated the opening of Central Sacramento Studios (1114 H St.), a former motel that has been converted into permanent supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness.
The developer, Danco Communities, hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony on May 16 to mark the project’s success.
The downtown Sacramento development is a California Homekey project that converted the former Best Western Plus Sutter House into 93 units dedicated to housing unsheltered residents.
The City and the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency provided $7.4 million in funding for the project. The State of California provided $23.9 million through its Homekey program. Danco Communities handled renovation and project management.
“We are making unprecedented efforts here in Sacramento to get people off the streets, and we are succeeding,” said Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg at the ceremony. “We must do everything in our power to replicate Project Homekey because this initiative is brilliant in its simplicity — not building from the ground up, but taking an existing underutilized building, in this case a motel, and converting it into housing so people have a beautiful place to live.”
“We were proud to champion this project from the beginning,” said Councilmember Katie Valenzuela, who represents the district. “It has become a thriving community, reenergizing what had become a less activated part of our downtown area. I’m thrilled to see the residents make this former hotel their new home and can’t wait to see Danco continue to add more units at this site.”
Residents can enjoy amenities such as onsite vehicle and bicycle parking, communal areas, a fitness center, a laundry facility, a vegetable garden, a swimming pool, and a dog park.
Each unit has a kitchenette and bathroom. Twelve rooms are ADA accessible, including four with rolling-friendly showers, and 15 of the units are reserved for use under the Mental Health Services Act. Sacramento County provides mental health treatment to those residents directly. Residents in the remainder of the units receive supportive services from LifeSTEPS, which serves more than 40,000 residents in 416 communities statewide.
It’s the third hotel – and the first in the central city – converted by the City to permanent supportive housing using state Homekey funds. The others are in south Sacramento and North Natomas.
Read more about how this community has provided people with a place to call home.
To meet Sacramento’s housing needs, the City aims to build over 45,000 units between 2021-2029, including 17,000 affordable units. Visit the City’s Housing webpage to learn more.
