Sacramento city leaders are weighing how to reshape the region’s response to homelessness: create a single governing body or maintain a decentralized system.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento city leaders are weighing how to reshape the region’s response to homelessness, debating whether to create a single governing body or maintain a more decentralized system.
At a Tuesday meeting, Sacramento City Councilmembers considered three approaches to coordinating efforts across the city, county and surrounding communities — all with the goal of addressing a crisis that officials say has long lacked unified leadership.
As of the time this article was published, councilmembers were still discussing the matter.
For years, homelessness services in Sacramento County have been managed by a mix of local governments, nonprofits and agencies that don’t always operate in sync. While officials broadly agree the system needs improvement, they differ on how much change is necessary.
“Right now, too many people are suffering on our streets while trying to navigate a system that doesn’t work as one. We have compassionate, dedicated people doing important work, but it’s spread across various entities, departments and organizations that don’t always connect,” said Sacramento City Councilmember Caity Maple. “That’s why I support a Joint Powers Authority, creating one place for coordination, accountability, and a clear path for people to get the help they need faster.”
A Joint Powers Authority (JPA) is a structure that allows multiple local governments to voluntarily share leadership and set common policy on a given topic – in this case, homelessness.
“We’d like to have a JPA. We know that we’re one party of this. We can’t force others to say yes,” McCarty said at a January city council meeting.
Councilmembers directed staff earlier this year to develop proposals, and on Tuesday, they reviewed three options that vary in scope.
The least sweeping option would create a JPA focused only on coordinating policy, leaving existing funding systems untouched. Federal and state homelessness dollars would continue to be managed through the Sacramento Continuum of Care (CoC), operated by the nonprofit Sacramento Steps Forward, while cities would retain control over their own local funds.
A second option would merge the JPA with the existing CoC, aligning both funding and policy decisions while still allowing cities to control their own money.
The most expansive proposal would consolidate the cities, Sacramento County, Sacramento Steps Forward and the region’s affordable housing agency into a single new entity, pooling all funding under one system.
Sacramento County Supervisor Rosario Rodriguez said she supports collaboration but raised concerns about adding complexity.
“Too many layers — and the more layers you have, the less accountability you have,” Rodriguez said.
She also warned that expanding the system could increase risks tied to public funding.
“When you add more bureaucracy to an already overwhelmed system, what you have are potential risks and risks when it comes to actual funding and fraud and abuse of funds,” Rodriguez said.
She said she is concerned that pooling funds could shift resources away from unincorporated areas and into cities.
Any decision by the city council would be an early step. Other cities in Sacramento County and the county’s Board of Supervisors would also need to agree to participate. Joining a JPA is voluntary, so there’s not even a guarantee that all of those local governments would be on board.
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