New tiny home project could reshape homeless housing in Sacramento

Theresa Clift, The Sacramento Bee on Apr 28, 2025

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento could be getting its first tiny home village of permanent housing for the homeless.

The community would be located at a long-vacant site at the corner of Rio Linda Boulevard and Las Palmas Avenue in North Sacramento. It would include 100 tiny homes for seniors who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

The project became public when it was included a Sacramento City Council agenda the city posted Thursday. The agenda said the council would consider Tuesday applying for a state grant for the project. However the vote could be delayed due to concerns from the neighborhood, said Councilmember Roger Dickinson Friday.

“There have been questions raised which I think can be responded to completely with a bit more time,” Dickinson said Friday. “Who’s gonna run it? What are the services? Who’s gonna occupy it? What’s it gonna look like? How’s it gonna fit in the broader efforts to revitalize North Sacramento?”

Dickinson, who was sworn in in December, has not yet decided how he is going to vote, he said.

Earlier this month, Mayor Kevin McCarty warned that under the current costly system, it could take 300 years to build housing for all the capital city’s homeless.

McCarty’s comments came after the council approved a Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency project to build a new downtown apartment complex for the homeless that McCarty said would cost nearly $600,000 per door to build.

The new North Sacramento tiny home project, if approved, would cost about $200,000 per door to build, according to a city staff report.

That’s because instead of a new apartment complex built from the ground up, the tenants of the new housing would live in tiny homes.

The tiny homes, produced by Los-Angeles based Boss Homes, would be about 240 square feet each, including kitchenettes and bathrooms, said John Vignocchi, managing partner of Urban Capital LLC, the developer. There would be shared storage and laundry facilities also on site, as well as case managers and property managers.

“It’s durable and dignified housing,” Vignocchi said. “The units cost less, but that doesn’t mean they’re lower quality. It’s a more efficient use of capital.”

It’s the same brand of tiny homes used at the county’s homeless shelter along Stockton Boulevard, which opened in December. Tiny homes are also open at several other city and county homeless shelters, but this would likely be the first time they are used for a new affordable permanent housing community in Sacramento, Vignocchi said.

If the project gets all the necessary approvals from the city and state, it would likely open in early 2027, he said. There will also be neighborhood community meetings to gather feedback.

The project would cost about $30 million in total, all funded by the state, the staff report said. Urban Capital would purchase the property, which is currently vacant.

The property owner is Homestead Funds LLC, based in West Sacramento, according to the county assessor’s office. Before that, it was owned by Calvary Christian Church Center.

The site is about a mile and a half from the city shut down Camp Resolution, a homeless camp of mostly senior women were living in trailers while they awaited permanent housing. Many of those seniors who were living there are still awaiting permanent housing.

The city has fallen behind its housing goals as the homelessness crisis continues. To keep up with its goal of building 45,580 new housing units by 2029, the city would have had to issue 5,698 new housing permits last year, according to recent city report. It issued 2,387. Of those, 407 were units for extremely low or very low-income tenants, the report stated, less than goal of 1,308.

Previous Homekey grants in Sacramento have mostly gone toward projects to turn motels into housing — a strategy some business and tourism leaders have raised concerns with as it removes motel rooms. This would be the first to go to tiny homes in Sacramento.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office started the program after the COVID-19 pandemic.

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