Mane “Jessica” Davila stares out of her tent on a rainy day on 10th Street in Sacramento on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. SB 802 would centralize homelessness funding in a state-mandated joint powers authority, risking local control, fiscal clarity and accountability in Sacramento.
RENÉE C. BYER
rbyer@sacbee.com
It is undeniable that Sacramento has a homelessness crisis. But state legislation mandating a harmful change in how the county manages homelessness will not fix this crisis.
Senate Bill 802, authored by Sacramento Sen. Angelique Ashby, requires Sacramento County and its cities to form a new joint powers authority — a separate government entity — and transfer significant homelessness funding, including federal, state and local dollars, into that entity for administration.
SB 802 is not a new idea, and the claim that critics such as the county offer no alternative is simply false. Sacramento County has been leading a regional governance reform effort for more than a year.
The county and every city within the region agree that continued collaboration is critical.
It is inaccurate to claim that Sacramento has failed to act for more than 20 years. Over the past five years alone, Sacramento County has expanded shelter capacity, increased permanent supportive housing placements and invested hundreds of millions of dollars in housing, behavioral health services, outreach and encampment resolution. Nearly 8,000 individuals have been impacted, and more than 2,200 have been housed — despite a historic housing shortage.
The county and its cities continue to improve systemwide responses daily.
SB 802 creates a state-mandated joint powers authority that transfers significant funding streams — including federal entitlement dollars, state resources and local housing trust funds — into a new entity.
Under California Government Code Section 6500, joint powers authorities are voluntary agreements between public agencies. Mandating participation raises serious legal concerns and sets a troubling precedent for stripping local control from communities across California.
The bill offers no new housing authority, provides no new funding and creates no new operational tools. It simply moves power.
Supporters suggest this is merely coordination, but it is not. The structure consolidates funding control, alters competitive positioning for state housing dollars and expands authority to entities that have faced governance and oversight concerns.
The Grand Jury reports in 2019 and 2023 raised concerns about fragmentation and accountability. Since late 2022, the county has been leading system changes that prioritize collaboration. It is disingenuous to suggest there have been no collaborative efforts.
A telling example is how the county is leading in an effort to improve the oversight of a key homeless management entity, Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency by placing a majority of elected officials, including supervisors, directly in charge.
Tens of millions of federal funds for homelessness and housing are managed by an appointed body called the Continuum of Care that is not directly accountable to the voters. It helps to oversee activities of Sacramento Steps Forward, a nonprofit that maintains the database of homeless residents and counts biannually the number that live on the streets and in shelters.
Sacramento County has proposed a new governance structure that formalizes Continuum of Care membership separate from the Continuum of Care Board and reconstitutes that board to include elected officials from every jurisdiction in the County, as well as individuals with lived experience and representatives from community-based organizations.
The board would be a Brown Act body — open and accessible to the public, with a governance charter and dedicated staff support to keep it action-oriented and connected to work underway in each jurisdiction. This provides the centralized, accountable public body many have called for.
Serving as the working arm of the county’s proposed reconstituted Continuum of Care Board, a leadership group made up of department heads, or higher-level staff, from each jurisdiction, along with the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency and Sacramento Steps Forward, would support implementation and coordination.
This is how we can build on our successes. Sacramento County has already signed and implemented a formal Partnership Agreement with the City of Sacramento in 2022 that has been 100% completed, and we are looking to what is next. Regional leaders are meeting regularly through the Continuum of Care structure. Progress is already happening.
If SB 802 were truly about outcomes rather than optics, it would begin with defined performance standards, enforceable accountability mechanisms, full fiscal transparency and absolute legal clarity about decision-making authority. Anything less risks prioritizing political positioning over real life-saving results.
SB 802 is a rewriting of the record to justify a state-directed power shift in just our county that introduces legal risk, funding instability, and less local accountability. Sacramento deserves reform rooted in facts, not a restructuring rooted in politics.
Sacramento County Supervisor Rosario Rodriguez represents District 4.
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