Sacramento used to be a sleepy little secret outshone by our glamorous neighbors, San Francisco and Lake Tahoe. But now word is getting out. We've been showing up on national best cities lists: No. 8 on Kiplinger's "Best Cities To Live, Work and Play"; No. 7 on Sperling's "Healthiest Cities To Live In"; and even No. 10 on Men's Health's "Best Cities for Dogs" list.

One reason that Sacramento shines is our collective, ongoing commitment to the principle that Sacramento should be a viable and livable city for all members of the community. But challenges remain.

On any given night, about 2,700 men, women and children are homeless.

As a congregation in midtown, St. John's Lutheran Church faces the reality of homelessness every day. For years we have struggled to figure out the right thing to do as the homeless have sought refuge on our front steps. Our decisions in this regard are never easy ones.

We need to look at the prohibitive cost of finding a place to call home. In addition to providing "triage" homeless services, we need sound housing policies to ensure that the most vulnerable people in our city have a safe, decent and affordable place to live.

Right now, the city has an opportunity to achieve that goal – not by creating something new, but by making adjustments to a policy it already has: the mixed-income housing ordinance. The current inclusionary law requires that 15 percent of newly built homes and apartments be sold or rented at prices lower-income people can afford. However, this policy only applies to some areas of the city. It includes the railyard but not downtown. It includes Natomas but not east Sacramento.

Our city could make a difference by making two changes to this policy.

First, end the current patchwork approach and apply the policy citywide. All neighborhoods should contribute to the welfare of our city.

Second, ensure that the ordinance reaches our most vulnerable populations. We should reserve 5 percent of the housing for those most in need.

The bureaucratic term for these people is "extremely low-income households"; we call them our neighbors.

These neighbors include the 300 to 600 young people who are aging out of the foster care system each year in Sacramento. They are one of the fastest-growing homeless populations in California and the nation.

These neighbors include the 20 percent of Sacramento's senior citizens who live on fixed incomes that place them in the extremely low-income group.

These neighbors include single mothers, disabled people and working families.

These neighbors include the more than 2,000 children attending public schools in our city who were homeless during the past school year. In fact, around 18 percent of our neighbors here in Sacramento have extremely low incomes.

Some argue that, given our current economic downturn, now is not the time to push for these changes. But we suggest that now is precisely the time to help families and individuals who are taking the hardest hit. While housing prices have dipped, rental prices remain high. Many Sacramento residents are one crisis away from being out on the street.

If Sacramento takes the long view and improves the mixed-income housing policy now, we will have the infrastructure in place to capitalize on new developments – and create more affordable housing – when the housing market recovers.

These changes to the mixed-income housing policy came before the City Council in June and will come again this fall. As members of the faith community, we are calling on our city leaders to move these changes off the table and into law.

That is why we are reaching out to our elected officials over the next several months and asking them to commit their leadership to affordable housing for some of our most vulnerable residents. From 3 to 4:30 p.m. today at St. John's Lutheran Church, 1701 L St., we will ask City Councilman Steve Cohn to champion these changes to the mixed-income housing policy. We invite those of you who share the vision of a city where all of its residents can afford to live to join us.

Scot Sorensen and Frank Espegren are pastors at St. John's Lutheran Church, a member congregation of Sacramento Area Congregations Together.