Sacramento leaders to hold first joint homelessness meeting in 8 years
Sacramento’s two largest elected bodies will plan their first joint publicly held meeting on homelessness in more than eight years after criticism they have not collaborated effectively on the issue.
Councilmember Eric Guerra authored a letter on April 16 asking Sacramento County Board of Supervisors Chair Phil Serna for the meeting. In the letter, Guerra said it’s time to “evaluate the progress” of the city-county five-year partnership to provide services and programs to homeless communities.
“I do believe it is essential that we meet to recognize our strengths, weaknesses and how we can best maximize each other’s expertise and jurisdiction,” Guerra wrote.
Serna responded two days later, saying he concurred with Guerra and preferred to also invite the mayors of the six other Sacramento County cities: Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom Galt, Isleton and Rancho Cordova. The potential meeting would include 20 elected leaders if all agreed to participate.
“I believe the subject matter is of great interest to other local elected leaders in our county,” Serna wrote on April 18.
Guerra sent the letter two days after The Sacramento Bee reported that the two elected bodies had not met publicly since 2017. That meeting about housing and homelessness lasted more than six hours and featured then-new Mayor Darrell Steinberg.
Since that time, the region’s homelessness has increased significantly. As of last year, an estimated 6,600 homeless people lived in Sacramento County’s shelters. That number was 29% lower than in 2022.
Multiple council members, including Mayor Kevin McCarty, expressed their desire to hold a collaborative meeting on homelessness earlier this month. The council will host its own homelessness-focused meeting on Tuesday.
“How do we make that happen?” Councilmember Caity Maple asked during an April 8 council meeting. “Do we make a formal request to the county?”
Guerra said he felt motivated to request the meeting following that meeting, in which some council members expressed “frustration” about the progress achieved through the county and city partnership. He also said the newly elected bodies and “uncertainty of federal funding” were further reasons to meet.
“There’s no one else coming to help us out here like this,” Guerra said on Thursday. “This is going to be resolved because we, as a city and as a county, work together to achieve it.”
In his response, Serna agreed meeting was important given the actions of the new federal administration and that “both elective bodies have new membership.” Serna said he would reach out to McCarty.
“In your correspondence, you make a very strong case as to why it is imperative to have this joint meeting as soon as can be practically arranged,” Serna wrote on April 18.
The joint meeting will be planned for the late summer or fall, he added. Serna mentioned the Tsakopoulos library, across the street from City Hall and the County Administration Center, as a potential location.
Mindy Cuppy, city clerk for Sacramento, said on Tuesday that she had already spoken with the clerk of the Board of Supervisors to begin scheduling the meeting.
