By Sara Beth Williams–
Community members and leaders from across the Sacramento region gathered together Monday morning to break ground on a long-awaited affordable housing project on Sayonara Drive in Citrus Heights that will provide qualified home buyers with housing ownership opportunities.
Citrus Heights Mayor Jayna Karpinski-Costa called the groundbreaking “phenomenal” and credited the work of the city’s staff and the collaboration with major partner Habitat for Humanity Greater Sacramento.
“The number of available starter homes in the US is lower right now than it was in the 1960s,” Habitat for Humanity Greater Sacramento CEO Leah Miller said during the ceremony. “Homes like the ones we’re building right here on Sayonara Drive are what we need in order to provide opportunities for folks to get into the opportunity to build intergenerational wealth, break cycles of poverty, and be able to continue to build that financial stability for generations to come.”
The groundbreaking was attended by multiple local and regional leaders and partners, including several Citrus Heights City Council members and city staff, U.S. Representative Ami Bera, former and current Habitat for Humanity volunteers, members of the Citrus Heights Police Department, and more.
Bera spoke on the importance of housing projects like the current Sayonara Drive housing project and the need to have a balanced market with both affordable homeownership opportunities and affordable rental opportunities.
Citrus Heights City Manager Ash Feeney praised the dedication and hard work done by Community Development Director Casey Kempenaar and Senior Planner Alison Bermudez with the Citrus Heights Planning Division.
Miller called the Sayonara housing project its largest development to date.
Once described as the most dangerous street in the city, Sayonara Drive has two rows of vacant lots after the city purchased blighted buildings from absentee landlords and leveled them in 2008.
Kempenarr said the city approached Habitat for Humanity directly in 2018 and began working on preliminary plans for housing. After several years, a proposal to build 26 affordable homes for purchase was brought before the Citrus Heights Planning Commission in March of 2022.
Related: City eyes partnership with nonprofit to build housing on Sayonara Drive—Citrus Heights Sentinel
The project will fill the 12 vacant city-owned lots with 26 new single-family homes, which are to be owned, not rented. The project fulfills an obligation for housing that the city was initially required to meet within five years.
The new community will include 26 all-electric homes ranging from two to five bedrooms, all equipped with energy-efficient heating systems, low-flow plumbing fixtures, alarm systems, solar battery storage, rooftop solar, and drought-tolerant landscaping. The homes will also be EV-ready.
Homes will be purchased by qualified buyers who land in specified low-income brackets, and buyers will be required to contribute 500 hours of “sweat equity” during the course of construction.
Construction on the first eight homes in the Habitat for Humanity Sayonara project will begin this year, with estimated completion in 2026, the city said, adding that construction on eight additional homes will begin in the fall of 2026, and construction on the remaining 10 homes should start in 2027.
During the application period for the first phase of homes, which just closed on May 23, over 300 applications were received, competing for eight available homes, Miller said, calling the need for affordable housing “tremendous.” Miller confirmed that during each phase, a mixture of home sizes will be constructed, ranging from two-to-five-bedroom floor plans.
Prior to the second and third phases of home construction, applications will open each time a new set of homes is planned. Applications typically open months prior to construction and will be shared on the city’s website and Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento’s website.
