Lory Yvonnegrubb, homeless for five years, sits near the street on Howe Avenue. State Senator Angelique Ashby, D-Sacramento, is pushing legislation that would compel local governments to work together to get homeless people off county streets.
HECTOR AMEZCUA
hamezcua@sacbee.com
Sacramento has an obvious problem.
It is a well-established fact that we are not making enough progress on homelessness. The question is, why and what can we do about it?
For more than 20 years, Sacramento failed to act on an important recommendation that has been made repeatedly. We need a formal governance structure that creates a singular point of contact for the community and an opportunity to coordinate and collaborate service provision across jurisdictional lines.
To see progress on our region’s toughest issue, there must be a bold move to bring the county and cities together in a structure that provides accountability and resources.
Without it, our regional leaders will continue to work in silos, and our outcomes will remain unchanged, as they have for more than 20 years.
‘Endless loop of failure’
Sacramento is in “an endless loop of failure” as it relates to homelessness, said the Sacramento County Grand Jury in its 2023 report.
In fact, multiple grand juries have come to the same conclusion that our county’s approach to homelessness is not working. In 2019 and 2023, the grand jury called for the creation of a collaborative body known as a joint powers authority to address homelessness.’
SB 802 is legislation that calls on regional cities and the county in Sacramento to create a formal governance structure where they work together to solve homelessness, the biggest and most persistent problem we face.
This bill is about accountability. It’s about being responsive to the public outcry for results.
This is not a terribly complicated or new concept. We already use the same model to provide oversight for libraries, transportation, flood control and more in this region.
Why not homelessness?
Sacramento County has the majority of the resources, and no requirement or incentive to collaborate. At the county’s request, I paused SB 802 last fall and early winter to allow regional leaders to meet and develop a comprehensive strategy. They did meet, hired a consultant and did not agree or vote on any plan to collaborate or even to meet again.
Left to their own devices, local leaders do little
There are no facts in evidence to substantiate a claim that, left to their own devices, regional leaders will produce outcomes any different from the past 20-plus years of inaction.
I was on the Sacramento City Council dais when then Mayor Darrell Steinberg tried his hand at requesting the county partner with him. We all know how that went. They stopped talking to him, fought him for eight years, and failed to provide services in city-sponsored shelters. The district attorney sued him, and the city ran a ballot initiative forcing a partnership agreement on homelessness that passed overwhelmingly but has never been meaningfully implemented by the county, the entity with all the resources.
Earlier this month, the city of Sacramento voted to support my push to form a joint powers authority on homelessness. Three of the smaller cities took official votes to be neutral on the bill after several amendments were made at their request.
SB802 has support from a broad range of individuals and organizations including elected officials, service providers, neighborhood groups, and business associations like WellSpace, the largest mental health service provider in the region, and the Western Center on Law and Poverty, Regional Business Leaders Council, Downtown Partnership, Midtown Association, California Black Chamber of Commerce, Steinberg Institute, California YIMBY and the Meadowview Neighborhood Association among others.
Critics have no ideas
The critics of SB802 proffer no alternative. SB802 is an important step, but in itself does not constitute a finish line. Once formed, the joint powers authority will govern itself. The local elected officials on the board will retain all local authority. The community will have a centralized board responsible for addressing homelessness.
Right now, we have a case of too many cooks in the kitchen: there are at least seven boards in the region working on the issue of homelessness, each in a vacuum.
Collectively, there are 89 members of those boards. How can we navigate homelessness with 89 people in charge? Sacramento County has the moral and statutory responsibility of providing supportive mental health and substance abuse services to the people languishing on our streets.
The state of California has delivered more than $400 million to the Sacramento area in the last five years to address homelessness. That money has largely been used to increase bed capacity, but if the services to homeless people don’t follow, we will never achieve successful outcomes.
We need to create a collaborative effort where the community and city officials elected to serve in this region can hold the county accountable and make them show up and provide intensive wraparound services to those who need it the most. That is not happening nearly enough, which is why people do not see progress. It’s why $400 million of investment is invisible in our community.
Beds alone are not the answer
Beds alone will never solve the issues of people on our streets. Sure, I could submit to the critics, withdraw SB802, and hope that somehow the problem solves itself.
But after 20-plus years and a clear unwillingness from the county to collaborate, something fundamental needs to change for the people of Sacramento to finally see collaborative efforts that lead to outcomes. Without the pressure of SB 802, it is far more likely that history will repeat itself.
In a year or two, another grand jury will weigh in, maybe another ballot initiative will move through, or a persistent mayor will beseech the county to be a better partner.
Or, we can keep working on SB802 and the local elected officials in Sacramento can come together, lead the region and the state by working collaboratively and achieving tangible results for the communities we all serve.
Angelique Ashby represents Sacramento voters in the 8th state Senate district and is majority leader of the California State Senate.
This story was originally published February 25, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
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