Key Sacramento homeless nonprofits say CA senator’s bill blindsided them

When California state Sen. Angelique Ashby announced legislation Wednesday for a new regional housing and homelessness agency, the Sacramento organizations currently supporting affordable housing and homeless residents were shocked and feared for disruptions to their services.

As of now, the city and county of Sacramento provide housing and homelessness services alongside the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, Sacramento Continuum of Care and Sacramento Steps Forward.

“Each of these entities is doing lots of work,” Ashby said Friday. “They’re just not doing it together, and they’re not coordinated, and sometimes they’re working at odds with each other.”

Ashby’s amendment to Senate Bill 802 would collapse the management of housing and homelessness services by the city, county, SHRA, Continuum of Care and Sacramento Steps Forward into one agency: the Sacramento Area Housing and Homelessness Agency.

Among other responsibilities, the agency would develop, fund and manage homeless shelters — jobs currently split up among different entities. A single agency would be able to align coordinated entry with intended programming, Ashby said.

Ashby explained that the idea for a joint powers authority like her proposal has been a public conversation for 15 years. She also pointed to a 2023 grand jury report that called for a regional approach to homelessness.

“I am literally putting forward the bill that will put in place the call of that grand jury report,” Ashby said.

But Continuum of Care board member Bill Pavao said the legislation came as a surprise. If passed, the bill would effectively end the Continuum of Care and Sacramento Steps Forward — its lead agency.

Since Wednesday, Pavao has spoken to two other Continuum of Care board members, both of whom were also caught off guard.

Sacramento Steps Forward director of communications Kim Winters said, “We were aware of conversations about the potential legislation, but we were not directly consulted about it.”

Jonathan Cook, executive director of Sacramento Housing Alliance, found out about the amendment Tuesday. His organization advocates for housing developers across the region.

“I can’t imagine a bill being proposed in the legislature that would effectively dissolve my nonprofit without a heads up or consultation or conversation with the author of the bill prior to this being published,” Cook said.

On Friday, Ashby said that she had informed the five affected entities.

“I have talked to folks from each of those,” she explained, “but I’m happy to talk to more folks from each of those as we move through this process.

“He said, she said, it’s not going to get us anywhere,” she continued. “Moving forward, my door is open.”

Increasing efficiencies or losing expertise?

Ashby’s proposed agency would have a single governing board of 11 members selected from participating city councils and the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors. Ashby said a small number of elected officials would be easier to corral than the dozens of individuals on each of the entities’ boards.

“We cannot have the people of Sacramento having to deal with eight different boards of individuals for five different agencies, all working at counter purposes,” Ashby said. “That is not effective, right?”

But Pavao is concerned about the sharp reduction in personnel.

The Continuum of Care has a board with more than 30 representatives that applies for, receives, and distributes federal funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The board is composed of public officials, representatives from community based organizations serving Sacramento’s homeless population and individuals who were once homeless themselves.

“That seems like a dynamic that gets lost if this bill becomes law,” Pavao said.

More than perspectives, Pavao is nervous about a loss of experience. By eliminating Sacramento Steps Forward from the equation, the single agency would have to take on organizing its point-in-time count in addition to managing its homelessness services.

“I just feel like, holy cow, Sacramento Steps Forward has a lot of expertise at this point,” Pavao said. “Why would one want to vaporize that organization and see all that expertise go out the door?”

Sacramento Steps Forward has been administering homeless services for Sacramento since 2011.

The increased workload for a single agency is also a concern for Cook. He noted that the SHRA and several cities are responsible for securing and implementing their own funding, which would now have to be handled by the successor agency.

“There would be less discretion for each of the jurisdictions to be able to determine and allocate where that funding is going. And that’s a concern by both a bigger city like Sacramento as well as a smaller city like Rancho Cordova and Elk Grove,” Cook said.

Ashby, though, is confident that the single agency is the best path forward.

“The people of Sacramento have been screaming from the rooftops that they want more cooperative action taken in Sacramento,” Ashby said.

“They want actual results, and for $400 million they should have better, more permanent results in place.”

This story was originally published June 27, 2025 at 6:23 PM.