Sacramento will ask county and other cities to join JPA to address homelessness
Residents could soon see Sacramento County’s elected officials discuss the homeless crisis in one place after the Sacramento City Council voted Tuesday to create a new, unified government structure to oversee the issue.
The Sacramento City Council approved a framework for a joint powers authority, or a JPA. The authority could include elected officials from the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors — the county’s most powerful elected body — and the cities of Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom and Rancho Cordova.
“This is going to be new,” said Ya-yin Isle, Sacramento’s housing manager. “This is going to be different. This is unlike other parts of California. We really haven’t seen a structure like this.”
But the real work has yet to begin.
The City Council also approved allowing city staff to reach out to Sacramento County, Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom and Rancho Cordova to gauge their interest in joining the JPA. Those conversations will determine how that JPA works.
Each cities’ respective spokesperson either declined to comment or said they had no comment to The Sacramento Bee prior to Tuesday’s meeting.
Sacramento County Supervisor Rosario Rodriguez said she’s not opposed to creating a JPA chaired by local officials. In a Saturday interview, she indicated a preference for the JPA’s framework. Sacramento’s City Council selected the same structure.
But there are differing views are over an entity known as the Continuum of Care. The City Council’s decision also proposes to restructure the Continuum of Care, a federally designated body responsible for distributing millions of dollars to address homelessness.
But the Sacramento County supervisors have also voted for their own modifications to the Continuum of Care.
“We’re not going to hold back and wait,” Rodriguez said.
The Continuum of Care’s 30-member board — which includes local elected officials, homeless services providers and community members — determines which housing projects deserve money and collects data. A nonprofit called Sacramento Steps Forward is the organization through which the Continuum of Care operates.
Rodriguez said the city of Sacramento faces an uphill battle to persuade other cities to join its efforts.
The other cities have largely managed their homelessness response, while the city of Sacramento has not, she said, adding that the county’s smaller cities do not trust Sacramento because of its budget deficit, projected to be $66.2 million this upcoming fiscal year.
Councilmember Karina Talamantes acknowledged that Sacramento, the county’s largest city, has the largest homeless population. But she said it was due in part to the location of the Sacramento County Main Jail in downtown, where unsheltered residents from all of the county’s communities are released after an arrest.
“That’s one thing that’s frustrating for me, because the dollars that we have is just not enough to keep up with the Sacramento region’s entire problem,” she said. “And That’s why we need a formal government structure.”
The idea to create a singular place to discuss this region’s homeless issue stems from two grand jury reports released in 2019 and 2023.
The topic is expected to return to the council in August after conversations with the county and other cities help determine the next steps to implement a JPA.
This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 6:00 AM.
