Sacramento’s latest homeless plan: Help people directly at encampments

The Sacramento region’s strategy on homelessness has taken many turns.

There was the “10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness” — this was more than 16 years ago — when, at the same time, an unofficial “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” approach pushed unhoused residents out of downtown and into overwhelmed neighborhoods such as North Sacramento and the River District. It prompted The Oprah Winfrey Show to do a segment on the city.

Then came the call for indoor homeless shelters, followed by a “housing first” focus. But new housing options didn’t arrive.

Most recently, the city launched an expensive, ambitious effort to build outdoor spaces, in all Council districts, where homeless residents could legally camp and park. A lack of funds, bureaucratic red tape and community opposition stalled or slowed all of those initiatives. 

Now, as the region’s homeless population continues to soar, the strategy has shifted once again. 

The latest plan calls for bringing treatment, shelter and other services directly to Sacramento’s largest homeless encampments. 

Early this month, Sacramento city and county leaders unveiled a joint Homeless Services Partnership Agreement. It unites two local governments that have been criticized for not working close enough to solve the region’s unhoused crisis. 

But that’s not the only novel part. 

The five-year, legally binding deal calls for the agencies to bring services directly to unhoused residents living in camps within city limits. Volunteer and nonprofit groups have long taken this approach, though direct outreach by government agencies has been limited — and in many cases in the past these encampments have been “cleared” or moved. 

“This will do so much to triage the immediate needs of people who are living on the street today,” Sacramento Councilmember Katie Valenzuela said of the new strategy earlier this month.

For the city and county, it is a departure from a failed status quo. The current approach relies on unhoused residents to navigate a complex service system on their own while trying to meet their basic survival needs. 

“In the past, we had hoped folks would come to us when they needed us,” explained Chevon Khotari, Sacramento County’s social services executive. “I think that we have learned a lot from that strategy just falling flat.” 

Under the joint agreement, Sacramento County has committed to establishing up to 600 new homeless shelter beds, an effort to bolster capacity in a region where shelters are typically full on any given night.

It also calls for creating 10 homeless outreach teams composed of staff from both local governments. The teams, for the first time, would include county mental health professionals who are able to assess unhoused residents on-the-spot and enroll them in therapy or addiction treatment programs as needed.

Khotari said the new plan counters the region’s “historically fractured, fragmented homeless service system,” one that has allowed unhoused residents for decades “to fall through the cracks.” 

But the effort won’t immediately move people out of the camps — it could still be years before there are enough shelters and affordable housing to do so. Instead, it calls for stabilizing and cleaning up the camps, building trust with residents and connecting them with services that, over time, will lead them to more permanent housing. 

‘A good thing if they follow through with it’ 

Kristine Price, who lives in a homeless encampment in North Sacramento, has witnessed this new approach first-hand. She said a county behavioral health staffer has visited her twice over the past two weeks and is working to reconnect her with treatment for her PTSD. 

Kristine Price holds her dog, Bebe, in her camper in Sacramento, on Monday, Dec. 12, 2022.Andrew Nixon / CapRadio

While she’s hopeful about getting back to treatment, Price says the county has made promises before and not fulfilled them.

“I think it’s a good thing if they follow through with it,” Price said of the new strategy, holding her Chihuahua Bebe on her lap. “The county started showing up. For a long time they were showing up everywhere else and they didn’t come here. We didn’t see anybody for a couple years. Then they trickled through and they talked to us and we wouldn’t see them again.” 

Advocates for the region’s unhoused community say the fact that the city and county are working together on this new effort is a positive step.

But they say change won’t be easy. 

They say the wait times for the county’s mental health and addiction treatment services are long. And the county is short on staffing.

“The challenge is: What resources are we bringing to bear to provide to folks? And then what kind of housing are we going to provide for them?” said Chris Martin, policy director for the nonprofit Housing California. 

In August, Sacramento County behavioral health director Ryan Quist said his department had a deficit of more than 100 clinical workers. 

“We already have a workforce crisis where we don’t have enough clinicians to be delivering the mental health, substance use disorder services that are needed out in our community,” Quist said at the time. 

As of early December, that deficit had dropped to 86 positions, said Samantha Mott, a county spokesperson. 

“We have a number of clinicians currently going through the hiring process,” Mott added, noting the county has recently negotiated a salary increase for clinical staff that is “already starting to help with our hiring.”  

‘It’s going to take some time’

Backers of Measure O, the voter approved law that could make it easier for Sacramento to clear homeless encampments, also support the region’s new direct services approach. 

But given the massive scale of the problem, they say no one should expect the camps to disappear anytime soon. 

“It will be a methodical process of mitigating camps one by one-by-one, and it’s going to take some time,” said Amanda Blackwood, who heads the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce, which supported Measure O. 

Blackwood estimated it could take “two years to practically get through all of these large scale encampments and triage those folks into services. We’re just going to need to set our expectations on that.” 

Walter Gildersleeve lives unhoused in Sacramento, Monday, Dec. 12, 2022.Andrew Nixon / CapRadio

A report published this summer showed a dramatic rise in Sacramento County’s homeless population and added pressure to get the city-county partnership deal done. 

That agreement also paves the way for the city to implement Measure O, though it doesn’t automatically trigger it. The measure was widely opposed by homeless advocates because they say it would criminalize living on the street by banning encampments under certain conditions.

The 2022 Homeless Point-In-Time Count recorded a surge in both the region’s overall homeless population, and more specifically in people living in encampments. 

It found there are now nearly 9,300 people experiencing homelessness countywide. That’s up 67% since 2019. 

It also counted 1,600 tents and 1,100 vehicles being used for shelter. Those totals were nearly five times larger than in 2019.

‘We can’t take our eye off the ball’

While praising the new direct services strategy, city and county leaders have said it doesn’t represent their only effort to solve the homelessness crisis. 

At the press conference announcing the deal, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg cited the City Council’s recent approval of $32 million for seven affordable housing projects, which are expected to create 800 units across the city. He added that the region must seek greater help from the federal government on tenant assistance and other programs to keep more people from falling into homelessness. 

“We can’t take our eye off the ball on what’s incredibly important and that’s affordable housing,” added Supervisor Patrick Kennedy.

Advocates for unhoused residents say affordable housing must remain the region’s priority to truly solve the homelessness crisis. 

Though the partnership calls for the county to establish hundreds of new shelter beds, it does not create any new housing.

Homelessness resources

• The city of Sacramento emergency services website has information about a range of homeless services, including crisis mental health centers, seasonal respite centers and homeless shelters for adults, families, youth, pregnant people and survivors of domestic violence. 
• The city of Sacramento also has a frequently asked questions website addressing concerns about homeless encampments. 
• Sacramento County maintains a ‘What You Can Do’ website on how to volunteer at homeless shelters and for reporting concerns about encampments. It also has a Homeless Initiatives website detailing its efforts to address the ongoing crisis. 

Contact CapRadio news reporter Chris Nichols at [email protected]