Sacramento’s much anticipated homeless summit was a performative sham | Opinion
Regional cooperation on homelessness has never really existed in Sacramento County. Politicians often invoke the idea, but never act on it.
That’s why it was exciting when elected officials from across the county gathered to meet in downtown Sacramento on Tuesday. They called it a “County-City Collaboration on Homeless Services and Behavioral Health” and it included the entire Sacramento County Board of Supervisors and Sacramento City Council, and one elected official each from Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom, Galt, and Rancho Cordova, among other experts.
It lasted most of the day, and what was accomplished?
Nothing. No next steps were identified. No plan was put in place. It was a complete and collective failure.
“I had hoped we’d leave this workshop with clearer direction on a shared governance model,” Sacramento City Council member Karina Talamantes wrote in a text to me after the meeting. “While there was interest, no one fully committed to forming a (Joint Powers Authority).”
The truth is that Tuesday’s meeting was a shameful waste of the time and talents of this region’s officials and experts, who spent the day locked in interminable, informational presentations and discussions without any tangible result toward alleviating the region’s worsening crisis of homelessness.
Meanwhile, Eric Guerra, Sacramento City Councilman for District 6, was praised relentlessly by County Supervisor Phil Serna for calling for and organizing the meeting. In truth, he did neither.
City and county staff worked for months behind the scenes to organize the event, which was surely a logistical nightmare, with little to no recognition by elected leaders. And Serna’s self-serving, public narrative neatly glossed over the many regional officials who had been begging for a joint meeting between Sacramento city and county entities for years.
“I have been calling for a Joint Power Authority for years, working first with then-Assemblymember (Kevin) McCarty and again this year with (state Sen. Angelique) Ashby,” Sacramento City Councilmember Caity Maple wrote to me in a text. “The vision has always been the same: A coordinated regional structure where we share responsibility, accountability and results. I’m hopeful that … we can finally turn years of discussion into action. That is what the public expects.”
Yet it was Guerra who was given a seat of honor at the head table, to Serna’s left as McCarty sat to his right. And it was Guerra whom Serna endorsed the very next day when he announced he would not seek a fifth term on the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors. (Guerra’s campaign website was conveniently launched that same morning.)
This whole meeting was a patently transparent attempt by Serna to position Guerra as his natural successor.
But beyond the political power plays, perhaps the most frustrating part about all of this is that this city-county collaboration could have been started months ago, back in June.
Sen. Ashby’s Senate Bill 802 proposed a Joint Powers Authority to be known as the Sacramento Area Housing and Homeless Agency that would have replaced an existing joint authority between the county and the city of Sacramento, the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.
Serna, McCarty and other local officials — many of whom were present at Tuesday’s meeting — had lobbied hard against the bill.
“Discussions around shared governance and any associated decisions should be made transparently, with input from all stakeholders, and with adequate time to assess the long-term implications,” McCarty, Serna and the mayors of Folsom, Rancho Cordova, Citrus Heights and Elk Grove wrote to Ashby in the days after her announcement. They made it clear that they were waiting for this joint meeting in October to create their own coalition.
Well? You had your meeting. Where is the coalition? Where is the collaboration? Where is the plan?
Meanwhile, SB 802’s plan for a JPA was backed by Sacramento city councilmembers Maple, Talamantes and Lisa Kaplan, alongside former mayor Darrell Steinberg, current Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho and Assemblyman Health Flora, R-Ripon.
The bill is currently being held for a second year, thanks in large part to the fuss kicked up by local mayors and supervisors who can only agree that they don’t like being told what to do.
Sacramento’s homeless population — somewhere between 7,000-10,000 people, and growing every day — deserves better than a contrived show of collaboration by elected officials, meant only to launch the candidacy of an ultimately forgettable city politician.
The people of Sacramento demand real solutions and real partnerships to start solving the crisis of homelessness in our region, not a seven-hour marathon of performative politicking from elected leaders who only have their next campaign in mind.
