Elk Grove will open a winter homeless shelter starting this week. Here’s a look inside

The City of Elk Grove and homeless services nonprofit The Gathering Inn hosted a community meeting and open house Thursday for a temporary winter shelter at the site of a former Rite Aid building, the sanctuary’s temporary location that will open for five months starting this week.

City officials last month approved the shelter at 9260 Elk Grove Blvd., which they are calling an “enhanced winter sanctuary,” to be open from Nov. 1 through March 31.

Community members took a look inside the facility, which stored large, maze-like room dividers that included a total of 30 cots, mesh laundry bags and plastic storage trunks for the unhoused individuals who will occupy the space beginning Wednesday.

Darlene Cullivan, The Gathering Inn’s chief philanthropy officer, described it as a “safe place” and said she is excited for November.

“We want to make sure people who are experiencing homelessness are able to come and enjoy our services, which include case management, which will help our guests identify the barriers (of) homelessness so that they can achieve sustainable housing,” Cullivan said.

According to Cullivan, The Gathering Inn operating at the Elk Grove location will offer basic needs such as showers, food and laundry services. In addition, she said, it provides physical and mental health services.

“(We have) an incredible team that is compassionate and really wants to help,” said Cullivan.

There are also designated areas for entertainment and dining.

Elk Grove and The Gathering Inn are depending on other community partners to step up to help take care of those housed at the enhanced sanctuary.

“We have an adopt-a-meal program,” Cullivan said. “That involves preparing dinner for 30 guests and serving them this food, which really not only provides them a sense of belonging, but also the assurance that they are really valued and that the community does truly care about them.”

One of the people who help provide that service is Elk Grove resident Catherine Davis, who is a member of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Sacramento.

Davis and other members of her church give back through their “community concerns board.” She said they have done backpack drives, clothes drives and volunteered at Elk Grove Food Bank Services in the past.

For the sanctuary, Davis said they’ve volunteered to bring dinner meals once a week.

“We try to do as much as we can to support the community,” Davis said. “You got to do that because it’s what God wants us to do, to provide and help for all people, no matter what race or socioeconomic group they are. We all enjoy it and we all love it.”

Based in Placer County, The Gathering Inn has served unhoused people in the region since 2004, currently running emergency shelters in Roseville and Auburn that together serve about 250 people daily, according to the organization’s website.

The Elk Grove shelter is not permanent. The building, owned by the city, will be the future new home of the Elk Grove Library. Construction is expected to begin in mid-2024, with the opening slated for late 2025.

Elk Grove housing and public services manager Sarah Bontrager is hoping the shelter helps get as many into housing as possible as the city continues to find solutions to a widespread homelessness crisis in California.

“If they can’t get into permanent housing, transitional housing or other shelter resources might be available,” Bontrager said. “What we learn from this experience will help to shape how we address homelessness going forward.”

Bontrager said there could be a potential permanent location or a rotation of multiple locations, but could not provide further specifics on location details.

The Gathering Inn’s program director, Clyde Turner, recognizes that homelessness is a “nationwide problem.” He wants to help as many people as he can.

The program The Gathering Inn is offering, he said, is “really important,” especially because of the change to colder winter weather. Winter storms and freezing temperatures in recent years have had dangerous, and sometimes deadly, effects on the Sacramento region’s homeless population.

“It seems like no one can figure (homelessness) out,” Turner said. “But my goal…if I can get one person housed, I feel that’s a success. Overall we want to try to get as many people housed as we possibly can.”