{"id":291824,"date":"2026-04-29T19:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T19:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/291824\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T19:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T19:13:08","slug":"sacramento-approves-framework-for-regional-homelessness-jpa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/291824\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento approves framework for regional homelessness JPA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Residents could soon see Sacramento County\u2019s elected officials discuss the homeless crisis in one place after the Sacramento City Council voted Tuesday to create a new, unified government structure to oversee the issue.<\/p>\n

The Sacramento City Council approved a framework for a joint powers authority, or a JPA. The authority could include elected officials from the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors \u2014 the county\u2019s most powerful elected body \u2014 and the cities of Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom and Rancho Cordova.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to be new,\u201d said Ya-yin Isle, Sacramento\u2019s housing manager. \u201cThis is going to be different. This is unlike other parts of California. We really haven\u2019t seen a structure like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the real work has yet to begin.<\/p>\n

The City Council also approved allowing city staff to reach out to Sacramento County, Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom and Rancho Cordova to gauge their interest in joining the JPA. Those conversations will determine how that JPA works.<\/p>\n

Each cities\u2019 respective spokesperson either declined to comment or said they had no comment to The Sacramento Bee prior to Tuesday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n

Sacramento County Supervisor Rosario Rodriguez said she\u2019s not opposed to creating a JPA chaired by local officials. In a Saturday interview, she indicated a preference for the JPA\u2019s framework. Sacramento\u2019s City Council selected the same structure.<\/p>\n

But there are differing views are over an entity known as the Continuum of Care<\/a>. The City Council\u2019s decision also proposes to restructure the Continuum of Care, a federally designated body responsible for distributing millions of dollars to address homelessness.<\/p>\n

\"Mayor Mayor Kevin McCarty discusses the framework of a proposed city-county joint powers authority to address homelessness during the Sacramento City Council meeting on Tuesday. JOS\u00c9 LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

But the Sacramento County supervisors have also voted for their own modifications to the Continuum of Care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to hold back and wait,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n

The Continuum of Care\u2019s 30-member board \u2014 which includes local elected officials, homeless services providers and community members \u2014 determines which housing projects deserve money and collects data. A nonprofit called Sacramento Steps Forward is the organization through which the Continuum of Care operates.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez said the city of Sacramento faces an uphill battle to persuade other cities to join its efforts.<\/p>\n

The other cities have largely managed their homelessness response, while the city of Sacramento has not, she said, adding that the county\u2019s smaller cities do not trust Sacramento because of its budget deficit, projected to be $66.2 million this upcoming fiscal year.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Karina Talamantes acknowledged that Sacramento, the county\u2019s largest city, has the largest homeless population. But she said it was due in part to the location of the Sacramento County Main Jail in downtown, where unsheltered residents from all of the county\u2019s communities are released after an arrest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s one thing that\u2019s frustrating for me, because the dollars that we have is just not enough to keep up with the Sacramento region\u2019s entire problem,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd That\u2019s why we need a formal government structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea to create a singular place to discuss this region\u2019s homeless issue stems from two grand jury reports released in 2019 and 2023.<\/p>\n

The topic is expected to return to the council in August after conversations with the county and other cities help determine the next steps to implement a JPA.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 6:00 AM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Ishani Desai<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Ishani Desai is a government watchdog reporter for The Sacramento Bee. She previously covered crime and courts for The Bakersfield Californian.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents could soon see Sacramento County\u2019s elected officials discuss the homeless crisis in one place after the Sacramento…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-291824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}