Sacramento’s homelessness master plan could make a difference. We can’t waste this chance

Our community is facing a homelessness crisis.

Every Sacramentan knows that there is a record number of people living on our streets without access to shelter, food, medical services or social support. The most recent count estimated that 11,000 individuals experience homelessness throughout the year in Sacramento County — mostly in the city of Sacramento. This is simply unacceptable to us — and, based on the calls and emails we receive daily, it isn’t acceptable to you either.

The council has been working with Mayor Darrell Steinberg and his team to identify potential sites throughout the city where unhoused people can access shelter. We held multiple public meetings as a council, on top of outreach conducted by each councilmember, to identify sites.

This work culminated in the proposal of the Citywide Homelessness Master Siting Plan, released last week. Each site is classified as either “Priority,” meaning ready to go, or “Tier II,” requiring additional vetting and approvals.

While every council district has varying numbers of unhoused individuals, our entire city is impacted by the crisis. We all must do our part to identify sites to provide shelter and services to our neighbors without homes. We applaud our colleagues who have risen to the challenge in identifying sites for the master plan — and to our colleagues on the council, Angelique Ashby (District 1), Jeff Harris (District 3) and Rick Jennings (District 7), who are still working on identifying sites, we ask them to keep pushing forward in a meaningful way and be a part of this tremendous effort.

Sharing the solutions equally across the city is the only way to ensure that the siting plan is both effective and fair to the neighborhoods who are already doing their part. From safe ground in District 4 to the women’s navigation shelter in District 8, everyone’s earnest participation is key to our success. We are ready to assist our colleagues in any way to see this vision realized to its fullest potential.

The siting plan isn’t the end of the conversation. It is one of many steps that we will take to address the humanitarian crisis in our streets. We must also identify the patterns that have led us here: a housing crisis that has been compounding itself for decades, as well as systematic disinvestment in social services.

We must do our best to disrupt those patterns by confronting the root causes of how people lose housing. The eviction moratorium has been extended through September, but once it ends we may see a whole new wave of families who are unable to afford to stay indoors.

We need to build thousands of new affordable and supportive housing units, a problem we will confront next week when we consider the Housing Element of our 2040 General Plan. We must continue to work with the county to identify and address service gaps. Ultimately, lack of access to support services and housing is a cycle we must break if we are to substantively address the challenges of homelessness.

While we confront those systemic issues, we cannot ignore the fact that our neighbors are struggling right now. Providing them with a safe place to sleep, use the bathroom, bathe, access healthcare and have an opportunity to find stable housing is not just a moral imperative, it is a commonsense step that will benefit us all.

In the plan, Mayor Steinberg states: “We can do this. It’s all in. We have no other choice.” We agree.

As a city, we cannot continue to kick the can down the road — doing nothing is not an option. This Tuesday, the city council has an opportunity to enact a meaningful, concrete step forward with the siting plan. We can’t pass it up.

This story was originally published August 8, 2021 at 5:00 AM.