![\"State](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SAC_4002_HA_250716_AngeliqueAshby.JPG\" "\\"State")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
State Sen. Angelique Ashby, D-Sacramento, speaks at a news conference at the state Capitol on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, about putting her bill, SB 802, to create a countywide homeless agency on hold after a conversation with city and county leaders the previous night. The county now contends the legislation is illegal. <\/p>\n
HECTOR AMEZCUA<\/p>\n
hamezcua@sacbee.com<\/p>\n
The last thing the Sacramento region needs is prolonged litigation over how to manage homelessness, yet this looms as an all-too-real possibility.<\/p>\n
State Sen. Angelique Ashby of Sacramento has been trying for months to gain support for a bill she authored that would create a joint powers authority to essentially compel local governments to coordinate their efforts on homelessness. Attorneys for Sacramento County oppose<\/a> Ashby\u2019s SB 802 by suggesting it could be illegal.<\/p>\n \u201cSB 802 contains many fatal legal flaws and, if challenged, will not survive judicial scrutiny,\u201d wrote Lisa Travis, Sacramento County counsel, in a memo to the Board of Supervisors on March 9.<\/p>\n Despite the county\u2019s opposition to this approach, the Sacramento City Council will discuss varying duties for a homeless JPA on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n Ashby\u2019s bill is a lightning rod that has evenly divided the Sacramento City Council and created unanimous opposition from the county. It\u2019s inevitably a second-rate solution, because she is basically asking the Legislature to resolve Sacramento\u2019s lousy way of managing homelessness.<\/p>\n SB 802\u2019s very existence is an embarrassment to this region because it exposes how our leaders haven\u2019t routinely met in public for years to address this humanitarian crisis. And what is particularly striking is with this legislative cloud looming over the region\u2019s head, SB 802 hasn\u2019t yet been the impetus to figure out a way to collaborate.<\/p>\n The City Council appears just as insistent about managing the homeless through a joint powers authority as the county is opposed. Nobody is budging.<\/p>\n This is silly. Any way to better collaborate is better than the status quo. Those living on the streets, who could use the best possible response from local governments, are the ones suffering here.<\/p>\n Regardless, Ashby<\/a> says she has the votes to move her bill through the Legislature and has vowed to send it to the governor\u2019s desk with or without local support.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I were the county, I\u2019d be worried about two courts,\u201d Ashby said in a recent interview. \u201cThere\u2019s the court of law and there\u2019s the court of public opinion. I don\u2019t think the argument that we don\u2019t want to work together is going to be well received by the people in this region.\u201d<\/p>\n A screwy way to not manage homelessness<\/p>\n Managing homelessness requires collaboration and cooperation of the highest order. The problem is so complex, with government responses ranging from law enforcement to social services to the basic cleanup. In a recent week in the city of Sacramento alone, crews had to pick up 62,240 pounds of trash<\/a>.<\/p>\n The overwhelming majority of the unhoused are now increasingly concentrated in the city of Sacramento. It falls to the county to provide them with mental health and addiction treatment services. If the leaders of these two institutions don\u2019t communicate in a formalized way, how is homelessness ever going to be solved?<\/p>\n SB 802<\/a> seeks to elevate the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency from a city-county authority to one that includes neighboring cities such as Folsom, Rancho Cordova, Citrus Heights and Elk Grove. The bill would direct this expanded agency \u201cto coordinate its operations with the housing and homelessness departments of each participating jurisdiction, as specified, to ensure alignment of local priorities and effective delivery of services.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Profile](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SAC_xm_230523tomPhilp012505.jpeg\")