Sacramento ties homelessness ballot measure to greater action by the county
Sacramento (Aug. 10, 2022) The Sacramento City Council Tuesday voted to suspend the effective date of a ballot measure requiring it to build more homeless shelters until such time as Sacramento County agrees to partner with the city to provide necessary services to transition people out of homelessness.
The City measure will still be on the ballot but will not take effect until the city and county agree on a binding partnership agreement.
City Manager Howard Chan and Councilmembers pointed out that the city is not a health and human services agency. Sacramento County receives state and federal funds to provide health care to the poor and mental health and substance abuse treatment to those suffering on the street.
“If we’re going to move forward and not have a partnership with the county to provide services, we are doomed to fail,” Chan told the City Council.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg said the idea that the city could effectively reduce unsheltered homelessness and the impact of camps on neighborhoods without accompanying services is a “false promise.”
“Absent a clear mental health and substance abuse, shelter and housing commitment, the people who are most difficult and disruptive in our business corridors and neighborhoods will not just magically go away,” he said. “We must approach each other as partners in a genuine, open-minded way around what really can and does work.”
Interior of Meadowview Navigation Center
In April, the Sacramento City Council voted to place the measure on the November ballot. It would require the city to produce enough emergency shelter space to house the majority of those experiencing homelessness.
At that time, a business coalition backing the ballot measure pledged to get the county to adopt similar requirements. But they failed to do so. Instead, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors is poised to vote on Wednesday, Aug. 10 on enforcement-only measures outlawing camping on the American River Parkway and around certain public facilities.
City Manager Chan Tuesday presented the Council with the option of withdrawing its ballot measure or requiring a partnership agreement with the county before it takes effect. The Council opted for the latter course of action, with several members and Chan saying they were encouraged by recent interactions with county leadership and thought it would be possible to secure such an agreement before Election Day in November.
If passed by voters, Sacramento would be the first city in the state, and likely the first in the country, to voluntarily hold itself to a legal shelter production standard. Similar requirements in Southern California have been the result of citizen lawsuits, not voluntary legislative action.
The city currently has about 1,100 shelter beds and spaces on any given night - a 10-fold increase over the past five years. The measure would require it to supply enough beds and spaces to accommodate up to 60 percent of 5,038 people counted as unsheltered in the city in the 2022 Point-in-Time count.
Once shelter was available, camping would be illegal and campers could be moved if they refused housing or shelter offered by the city. Neighbors affected by encampments also could file complaints.
Tuesday’s action amends the ordinance so it will take effect when the City Council and county Board of Supervisors both approve a legally binding partnership agreement, that, at a minimum, lays out the respective roles of the city and county to improve the homelessness crisis and the county’s responsibilities for providing services to the homeless people in the city who need them, including:
Mental health services
Substance-abuse services
Clinical outreach and case management to refer individuals to appropriate county services such as housing, medical care, employment, social services, and drug rehabilitation services; and
Child welfare and domestic violence services
