If you wonder why Sacramento does such a lousy job with homelessness, consider those 102 acres on Meadowview Road.
The land behind the Job Corps Center encapsulates how City Hall deceives residents, squanders millions of dollars and lets a local social problem spiral into a national disgrace.
Those 102 acres are a snapshot of missed opportunities and political failures.
To find the story’s thread, I dug back to 1952. That’s when California decided to build a Highway Patrol training academy in South Sac.
The CHP was two decades old at midcentury, but training was minimal and inconsistent. Academy sessions bounced around town based on class size and available space.
Some classes were held at the State Fairgrounds on Stockton Boulevard. Others took place at McClellan Air Force Base. The 1951 academy met at Town and Country Village shopping center on Marconi Avenue.
Vagabond CHP academies ceased after 1952, when the state Legislature approved $625,000 for 240 acres of dairy land on a rural lane called Meadowview Farm Road. The budget included a new CHP headquarters on 24th Street near Broadway.
The Meadowview training grounds were inspirational, a big step toward professionalizing traffic cops and setting standards for other police agencies.
By 1974, the CHP decided the Meadowview site was too small for California’s population. Gold spraypainted shovel in hand, Gov. Ronald Reagan broke ground on a new $16 million academy in Bryte.
The Meadowview site languished until 1977 when the U.S. Department of Labor bought the 240 acres for a Job Corps campus. Price was $1.2 million.
Not everyone in South Sac welcomed Job Corps. Meadowview had become a working-class community. At City Council and Board of Supervisors meetings, residents complained about “juvenile delinquents” moving into vacant CHP dorms.
“These kids have problems and that neighborhood has problems,” Supervisor Pat Melarkey said. Supervisor Ted Sheedy noted, “There is no good neighborhood to put it in.” City Council Member Bob Matsui admitted some concerns but supported Job Corps.
Fast-forward to 2022. The surplus 102 acres behind Job Corps are untouched from their CHP days. The old driving track and gun range survive beneath weeds.
The Department of Labor wants to unload the excess property. City Council, scrambling to respond to thousands of destitute people camped on sidewalks and in vehicles, votes to buy the vacant Meadowview acreage for a homeless shelter, affordable housing or “safe lot” for individuals who live in cars and RVs. Price is $12.3 million.
Here’s where deception, missed opportunities and leadership failures kick in.
The Job Corps purchase was promoted by then-Mayor Darrell Steinberg and current City Council Member Mai Vang as a homeless solution—a one-stop services center.
City Council knows the benefits of a comprehensive site for homeless services. Local officials visited Haven For Hope in San Antonio. They saw how the Texas city shifts unhoused people from downtown to Haven’s campus.
Behind the scenes, Steinberg and Vang had other ideas.
Vang heard complaints from a few Meadowview constituents—complaints reminiscent of the 1977 “juvenile delinquent” prejudice deflected by Matsui, Sheedy and Melarkey.
Vang retreated. For her, there would be none of the courageous leadership shown 52 years ago.
And Steinberg wilted. Worried about overburdening individual council districts with homeless services, he proposed spreading facilities across eight districts. His plan died at birth.
Six months after buying the Meadowview acres for homeless services, Steinberg announced the site would become a soccer complex. He said there’s “just one lighted field in Meadowview.”
Today there are no soccer fields or homeless services at the old CHP training grounds.
Mayor Kevin McCarty wants to review the 2022 bait and switch and guide the discussion back to homeless services. Vang sputters, protests and demands more staff reports and community surveys.
Residents in Land Park, East Sac and Pocket see homeless campsites spreading on their streets. They wonder who runs the city.
R.E. Graswich can be reached at regraswich@icloud.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
