Full article by Casey Rafter available at Sacramento News & Review
Staybridge Suites in Natomas was once a landing spot for business travelers freshly arriving from Sacramento International Airport. Now with $29 million in funding from Homekey, a statewide program aimed at helping to develop more housing for California’s unhoused people, the hotel has a new name and purpose.
Instead of serving busy professionals, the newly dubbed Vista Nueva is being redeveloped into 110 converted suites and essential services for about 300 tenants, all as a means to transition out of homelessness. According to Angela Jones, public information officer for the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, construction is in the early stages.
Homekey, a $1.45 billion program, provides grant funding to cities, counties, housing authorities, tribes and other public entities to convert motels, hotels and other structures into permanent supportive housing to help address California’s homelessness crisis. An estimated 161,548 in the state are without secure housing, according to a 2020 report from the United States Interagency on Homelessness.