FOLSOM, Calif. — After two and a half hours of public comment at a Folsom City Council meeting Tuesday, council members did not move forward with site analysis for a potential homeless services facility on a property north of Bidwell Street.
While not all 32 speakers said the same thing, the general consensus was clear — residents do not want a homeless services trailer at the “Wye” property, a 3.1-acre site between Oakdale and Forrest streets. The site sits roughly half of a mile south of the Historic District light rail station.
City staff assessed the property at the order of Mayor Mike Kozlowski, ABC10 previously reported.
“I’m willing to take the heat if I have a bad idea,” Kozlowski said on the dais three hours into Tuesday’s meeting. “I think there is some shred of a good idea buried in there. It probably is a mobile unit somewhere and not at that particular location. That’s all come through loud and clear.”
Multiple residents said they are concerned a stationary facility anywhere would draw members of the unhoused community and possible encampments to that area. However, some residents said they could be convinced to support a mobile site.
“If the proposal were viable, affordable, well-managed (and) located in a non-residential, non-historic area, I could be convinced that it’s a good idea, that it could work, that services could be brought,” said Amber Felts, a longtime resident and business owner in Folsom, during public comment.
Initial costs to place a trailer at the Wye property were estimated around $225,000, and the trailer’s monthly lease cost was estimated at $2,200 per month, the report said. Any tenant would have borne the operational costs.
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Current programs to aid homeless in Folsom include nonprofits Jake’s Journey Home, a community-based volunteer organization assisting unhoused veterans, and the Homeless Assistance Resource Team (HART) of Folsom, which aims to help those experiencing homelessness in Folsom move toward self-sufficiency and greater independence.
