Sacramento set for new regional homelessness agency as Newsom signs bill

• Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill that requires Sacramento, Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova, Citrus Heights, Folsom and Sacramento County to establish a new regional homelessness agency.
• Introduced by state Senate Majority Leader Angelique Ashby, who represents much of Sacramento County, the bill aimed to address disconnect between local governments’ homelessness efforts.
• The new agency would oversee the implementation of the region’s homelessness action plan.

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A new agency tasked with coordinating Sacramento-area cities’ plans for addressing homelessness will be established, after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill requiring one into law Sunday.

The bill by state Senate Majority Leader Angelique Ashby, D-Sacramento, requires the cities of Sacramento, Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova, Citrus Heights and Folsom as well as Sacramento County to start the new umbrella agency, which would be “designed to make a meaningful difference for people experiencing housing insecurity and homelessness across the County of Sacramento,” the bill says.

Nearly 7,500 people in Sacramento County are unhoused, according to an official annual count. About 4,200 of those are unsheltered.

Ashby’s bill aims to resolve over a decade of plans and promises by the city and county of Sacramento to start an umbrella agency, known as a joint powers authority, to improve the region’s approach to tackling homelessness, the bill says.

The bill also followed Sacramento County Civil Grand Jury findings in recent years highlighting local governments’ siloed homelessness strategies and recommending a regional agency, the bill says.

In signing the legislation Sunday, Newsom referenced those roadblocks. “Homelessness does not stop at jurisdictional boundaries, and no city or county can solve this crisis alone,” he wrote in a message about the signing.

Ashby anticipated greater regional cooperation as a result of her bill in an Instagram post Sunday. “For two decades, Sacramento has tried and failed to establish a Joint Powers Authority to collaboratively tackle homelessness. SB802 makes that happen — finally.”

Much of the Sacramento area’s homelessness response is currently streamlined through what’s known as a continuum of care, an organization that coordinates homelessness funding, programs and strategies.

Continuums of care often include local nonprofits, governments, affordable housing developers, businesses, advocates, unhoused people and more, with the intention of including entire communities in tackling homelessness. The nonprofit Sacramento Steps Forward currently leads Sacramento’s continuum.

Forming a new agency

With the signing of Ashby’s bill, the Continuum of Care will be placed under the authority of the new regional agency, the bill says.

It would also take over some of the continuum’s responsibilities, including the yearly point-in-time count of unhoused residents and the region’s system for tracking data about the services provided to them, the bill says.

The new agency will be also responsible for setting goals, overseeing the enactment of the region’s homelessness action plan and coordinating the delivery of programs for unhoused people, among other responsibilities, the bill states.

But beyond these general outlines, the details of how the Sacramento region’s diverse array of existing homelessness efforts will be subsumed under a new agency remain to be seen, Sacramento Steps Forward CEO Trenton Simmons said Monday.

“As far as how this is all going to work, I mean honestly, that’s the big question at this point,” he said.

Years of planning

Local governments and organizations have been working to increase coordination among themselves on homelessness for years, Simmons said. An ad hoc Planning Task Force also aiming to streamline regional efforts could finish some of their efforts by 2027, he said.

“How will all of these competing efforts reconcile themselves?” Simmons asked.

While the new regional agency is being created, the most important consideration is ensuring services to unhoused people are not negatively affected, he said.

“As much as we do want to find ways to collaborate better … we want to ensure that the actual work … stays at the forefront of our minds,” Simmons said.

Ashby was not available to answer questions about the bill Monday, as the senator is traveling abroad, her spokesperson said.

Not without opposition

Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty opposed an earlier version of the bill, but supports the amended legislation. Some officials representing areas the new agency will cover opposed the bill.

Sacramento County, as well as Supervisors Rich Desmond, Patrick Kennedy and Rosario Rodriquez and Sheriff Jim Cooper, were against it as of August, according to an official analysis.

On the other hand, Sacramento City Council members Caity Maple, Karina Talamantes, Lisa Kaplan, Mai Vang and Rick Jennings supported the bill, according to the analysis.

“Years of work have gone into getting us to this moment,” Maple said on Facebook Sunday after Newsom signed the legislation.

“Now, we keep working toward a regional structure that helps more people get off the streets and into housing.”