Sacramento governments to open homeless shelter, mental health center under new agreement
The city and county of Sacramento finally have a deal outlining each agency’s responsibilities for addressing homelessness, potentially ending a long-running impasse between them.
The legally binding pact would commit the agencies to opening at least 200 more shelter beds, building a downtown behavioral health center and directing more mental health and substance abuse teams to visit encampments.
The two agencies are expected to approve the agreement Tuesday.
The pact will clear the way for a city of Sacramento homeless ballot measure to take effect. The measure will allow local officials to remove more homeless encampments from public places. Measure O could also require the city to open additional beds beyond the ones in the agreement if the city has a budget a surplus.
The new agreement calls for 600 shelter beds, but that includes about 400 beds the county’s Board of Supervisors have already voted to approve opening in North Highlands and south Sacramento, County Executive Ann Edwards said.
It also includes a first-of-its-kind commitment from the county to operate a new 200-bed new shelter in city limits if the city provides a “shovel ready site.” The city currently has to contract homeless shelter operations out to organizations like Volunteers of America, costing millions of dollars.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who in the past has criticized the county for not doing enough to help the homeless, described the mental health services in the agreement as “groundbreaking.”
“With this agreement the county is stepping up big time,” said Steinberg during a news conference Thursday. “They are taking a step that is bold and far reaching.”
County Supervisors Rich Desmond and Patrick Kennedy agreed.
“Neither of us can do this alone,” Desmond said “Homelessness does not respect jurisdictional boundaries. It doesn’t start or end at a city or county line”
New encampment teams
The city and county will operate multidisciplinary teams that will visit 20 encampments per month, the agreement reads. The teams will consist of 10 behavioral health workers, who are already county employees but will be redirected to serving the areas inside the city limits, county spokeswoman Kim Nava said.
The teams will also include the city’s existing Department of Community Response workers, and 15 new providers trained to connect people with Medi-Cal, the state-funded health care plan.
Two teams will start next week, starting with several camps that pose “the greatest and highest risk to health and safety,” Steinberg said. Those camps include the high-profile Camp Resolution on Colfax Street in North Sacramento, several camps along the W-X corridor, and near Sutter Middle School, Steinberg said.
The teams will be able to diagnose people “on the spot” right at the camp, Steinberg said. The workers will then be able to drive people to facilities where psychiatrists can prescribe medications, including anti-psychotics, the same day, Edwards said.
That will be significant new service for the homeless community. Even with private insurance, the wait for a first appointment with a psychiatrist in Sacramento is often three months. With MediCal, it often takes even longer.
In addition, the county will open a new behavioral health center downtown at an unannounced location. It will be the fourth center serving the city jurisdiction which the county funds. The county will also over time add 500 more substance use disorder residential treatment beds.
Measure O will go into effect
City leaders called for a binding agreement on homelessness as they debated what will become of the homeless ballot measure, Measure O. They worried the measure could strain the city’s finances, and they wanted the county to commit to a share of the work.
Daniel Conway, a lead proponent of the homeless ballot measure, called the agreement a “critical step.”
“When we launched this effort a year ago, our goal was to bring the city of Sacramento and Sacramento County together to address homelessness holistically and humanely,” Conway, chief of staff to former Mayor Kevin Johnson, posted to Twitter Thursday. “This agreement is a critical step in that direction. Now Sacramento can be a leader. Thanks to everyone who supported Measure O.”
Measure O will go into effect in early January at the latest. The measure will allow the city to sweep camps of four or more unrelated people on public property even without offering a shelter bed.
The legally-binding agreement requires the county to “do whatever it takes” to provide services, including housing — consistently the number one request from unhoused people, according to the annual Point in Time count.
The 19-page agreement also includes a process for dispute resolution, spelling out ways for the two agencies to deal with issues. If all else fails, it gives the ability for either entity to sue the other for not holding up their end of the bargain.
“(It includes) ways we can look at process improvement, not pointing fingers at each other,” said Councilman Eric Guerra.
The agreement would cost the county $10 million, including $5 million for the new behavioral services center, and $5 million to operate the new city shelter, Nava said. It’s unclear how much it would cost the city.
The agreement would be reviewed and updated annually.
The county currently has about 1,300 shelter beds open and the city has about 1,100. There are roughly 9,300 homeless people in Sacramento County, and all shelter beds are typically full.
The council will consider the agreement at its 2 p.m. meeting Tuesday. The board will consider it at its 9:30 a.m. meeting Tuesday. It will be the last meeting before three new council members are sworn in on Dec. 13.
This story was originally published December 1, 2022 at 2:00 PM.
