The new downtown homeless center signifies a lot more than just sheltering people | Opinion

Hundreds of Downtown Sacramento’s homeless residents have a new place for help, thanks to Sacramento County and its partnership with the city. A new center is opening on X Street that will provide outpatient mental health services and a “wellness center” for an array of human needs.

Sacramento County’s “Community Outreach Recovery Empowerment” program (CORE), opened recently in Sacramento’s urban core, precisely where it is needed the most. When city hall and county government aren’t working together, this kind of progress is slow to happen — if ever. The county promised to open such a center in the downtown. It has held true to its word.

While this one facility is not the end-all solution to the region’s homeless crisis, it shows both progress and the potential of what can happen when governments work together.

“We want to be good partners with everyone,” said Erin Johansen, the chief executive officer for Hope Cooperative. Hope is the non-profit organization that will be operating the Core Center at 1400 X Street.

In California, it is the responsibility of county governments to provide social services such as CORE. The state’s homeless population has exploded in recent years as rents have skyrocketed statewide, and this increasing burden has stressed relations among city and county leadership.

Last December, the city and county took an important step toward setting aside differences and moving forward together through a new partnership agreement that was approved by the Sacramento City Council and the County Board of Supervisors. As part of that agreement, the county agreed to launch a CORE facility in the city and create 10 new “encampment engagement teams” to improve outreach to enroll homeless residents in needed services. This facility was a crucial condition for Mayor Darrell Steinberg, and he got it.

This partnership is a fragile work in progress. Steinberg, as an example, is justifiably concerned about whether these new county outreach teams are reaching those in need. When 31 homeless individuals were relocated this summer from an encampment at 28th and C streets, for example, city staff notified Steinberg that only one of these residents was confirmed to have enrolled in comprehensive “wrap-around” social services. Steinberg has mentioned this anecdote repeatedly at council meetings, exemplifying how hard it is, even for a mayor, to keep track of outreach to the city’s unhoused population.

Can the city prevent encampments congregating near this center? “It is going to be hard,” Johansen said. “The police department is going to have to help us. The biggest thing is to remind people where they are allowed to be and where they are not.”

Hope runs the existing CORE center on Marconi Avenue and a Mental Health Crisis Respite Center on Auburn Boulevard (the subject of a neighborhood lawsuit).

It’s easier to find space for these kinds of facilities in the suburbs. But downtown is where they are needed the most.

“It has been hard to find a spot in the downtown area,” said Johansen, Hope’s leader since 2016. “Mostly because rents are high. Places aren’t just made for this.” But with the help of the city, Hope identified the available office site on X street.

About 40 staff members will be assigned to the site, ranging from doctors to nurses to mental health clinicians to “peer staff” who have experienced homelessness themselves at one point in their lives and instinctively know how to make a human connection with whoever comes in through the door.

Hope’s plan is to provide outpatient mental health services to 700 clients in the program and wellness services to 700 people as well. One person can participate in both programs.

The 9,000-square-foot site has a place where a homeless resident can take a shower and do a load of laundry. There will be coffee and light snacks, but the facility is intentionally not offering full-meal service.

“A Wellness Center is a place to drop in where you can rest for a bit, where you can connect for services if you want,” Johansen said. “There will be groups here for various things (like) life skills, mental health recovery groups, alcohol and drug-related groups.”

If this CORE center proves to be popular and effective, this is precisely the kind of solution downtown should welcome. This is a moment to thank the county for following through on its word and to celebrate a milestone of progress with Sacramento’s single greatest challenge.

The need for additional shelter space and affordable housing, meanwhile, is beyond dire. There simply is no history of local governments working seamlessly together on a problem like homelessness. Staying in their own silos will make the problem worse. Merging forces, like at this CORE center, is our only hope.