California’s Capital City Converts Century-Old Hotel Into Homeless Shelter

The historic Capitol Park Hotel recently reopened as a homeless shelter, is seen in downtown Sacramento in October 2022. Google Maps/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

A historic Sacramento building that has been around for more than 100 years reopened last week as a supportive housing shelter for the homeless.

The two buildings that used to be known as Sacramento’s Capitol Park Hotel—located on 9th and L streets in Downtown Sacramento—were built in 1911 and 1912, according to a Jan. 8 press release from Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s office.

The city had previously used the property as an emergency shelter for its homeless population from 2019 until 2021.

The supportive housing shelter cost the city $20.3 million, with an additional $23.9 million from the state’s Homekey program and $7.4 million from the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.

Residents are placed in the project through referral by Sacramento Steps Forward, a private nonprofit that serves the city’s homeless population.

“It is gratifying to see these dollars going to work helping some of the most vulnerable people suffering on our streets,” Mr. Steinberg said in the press release. “More permanent housing, more shelter, and assertive enforcement of our city ordinances are combining to help more people and reduce the impacts of unsheltered homelessness on our community.”

The buildings, now called The St. Clare at Capitol Park, consist of two towers and 134 studio apartments.

The buildings also have meeting spaces, community gathering rooms, and offices for caseworkers.

It opened Jan. 17, and about 80 residents moved in, with 54 more residents to come once the building receives its full occupancy permit, according to the mayor’s office.

The full permit was delayed due to supply chain problems in obtaining electrical switching components, officials said.

The project was developed by Mercy Housing California, a nonprofit affordable housing developer.

Rich Carulo, Mercy Housing California’s development director, said he was hopeful the new shelter would help some start a new chapter.

“St. Clare at Capitol Park will be a new community where the formerly unhoused will find not just shelter, but the beginnings of a hopeful tomorrow,” Mr. Carulo said in the press release. “To have accomplished this while also restoring and preserving a beautiful historic building in the heart of our downtown is an achievement that can fill every Sacramentan with pride.”

St. Clare is the second permanent supportive housing complex to open downtown in the past two months—with the Sacramento Central Studios opening at 11th and H streets in December with 92 studio apartments.