Sacramento Spending Another $2.5 Million on New Glamping Tent City for Homeless

Published June 24, 2026 7:00am.

UPDATED: June 25, 2026: Sacramento’s fancy new $2.5 million homeless tent city, a “safe camping site,” is located in the River District. The City will be committing $1.2 million annually to contractors to run the shelter.

“We think having some services, some structure, will serve the residents better,” said Mayor Kevin McCarty. How accommodating of the Mayor.

A safer camping site would be the one that is never created because Sacramento officials actually admit that the residents homeless are not on the streets because of a housing shortage, but because they are drug addicts, mentally ill, and Sacramento feeds their addictions through lax policies and co-dependency… and a new Glamping tent city.

The City of Sacramento has a $66.2 million budget deficit.

City officials said the River District location north of downtown was selected because it is already an area where homeless already congregate, bordered by the Sacramento and American Rivers to the west and north, a rail line to the east, and North B Street and another rail corridor to the south.

The site is intended “to serve people who may not be ready to move into traditional indoor shelter settings.”

How considerate of the City.

This new homeless tent city sounds more like Glamping. None of the city services provided to taxpayers are ever sold this way.

According to the Sacramento Bee:

The city of Sacramento opened a new “safe camping” site, located in the River District just north of downtown, with space for 96 tents on raised wood platforms under shade canopies. It’s missing some of the amenities offered at most of the other Sacramento shelters, such as air conditioning, heat or meals.

However, the site does offer security, shade, showers, porta-potties and case managers. “It’s not perfect,” Mayor Kevin McCarty said Tuesday during a news conference. “But I’d like to go down the street and ask if it is better than being outside. We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”

The city paid $2.5 million to construct the shelter, which is on a property the city already owned, said City Manager Maraskeshia Smith. That cost included a contract with Livermore-based G&G Builders. The city is also paying $1.2 million annually to contractors to run the shelter, including Santa Monica-based nonprofit Step Up on Second Street.

The city of Sacramento opened a new “safe camping” site, located in the River District just north of downtown, with space for 96 tents on raised wood platforms under shade canopies. It’s missing some of the amenities offered at most of the other Sacramento shelters, such as air… pic.twitter.com/lE9C4bI0q6

— The Sacramento Bee (@sacbee_news) June 23, 2026

Making Homelessness Sexy

There are 100 pallets for tents, amounting to $25,000 per “tent.” Roughly 125 people can stay there. The city is providing “services, food and showers and security.” And homeless “residents” can bring their pet.

This sounds like an overpriced Glamping resort.

The city is also creating more tiny home villages and “safe parking” locations for homeless.

“We look forward to getting more people off of the street and to a better tomorrow,” the Mayor said.

However, there was no discussion of mandatory drug treatment, which is the underlying reason the safe camping “residents” are homeless.

In May, Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty‘s “Unsheltered Homelessness Six Point Plan Launch” to “address” homelessness, included the creation of three “micro-communities,” each composed of 40 tiny homes.

This is in addition to the $12.35 million “Encampment Resolution Funds grant” in 2025 from the California Department of Housing and Community Development “to purchase and construct additional tiny homes for homeless vagrants.

Mayor McCarty proposed this plan to “address” homelessness in 2026, again, knowing the size of the growing city budget deficit.

Are Sacramento’s homeless paid cash, cigarettes, and marijuana in exchange for signatures on California ballot petitions, as they are in Los Angeles? Maybe Sacramento is as creative, and needs a large homeless population to accomplish this gross voter fraud.

Now, the Mayor and City Council, all Democrats and a communist, propose to make cuts to the city budget, but not to McCarty’s “Unsheltered Homelessness Six Point Plan.”

Sacramento isn’t solving homelessness – they are just playing a mole game, moving the homeless to a new location, in a new crack den, and spending more taxpayer money without any recovery plan.

Expect to see this camping village turn into a crime hotspot, and likely end up burned down, along with millions of dollars. This is what voters and taxpayer get when we vote for people with no real-world, business experience.