Sacramento’s homelessness response has a fatal flaw. Here is how to fix it | Opinion

Imagine a city bus speeding down the road — it’s off course, with no clear destination and no one firmly at the wheel. That’s what Sacramento’s homelessness response feels like right now.

Homelessness in our region has reached a breaking point. It’s not just a humanitarian crisis, it’s a public safety issue, a health emergency and an economic challenge. Lives are being lost, businesses are suffering and our first responders are stretched to the limit.

The question is: Who’s driving the bus?

Despite years of effort, hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and countless programs aimed at addressing homelessness, the problem keeps getting worse. While many hardworking and well-intentioned people are doing their best, the overall system is fragmented, uncoordinated and often more focused on process than actual outcomes.

There are too many people on this bus — government agencies, nonprofits, funding sources and policy committees — but no one is clearly in charge. Without a unified approach and strong leadership, our response to homelessness is akin to spinning in circles.

Major gaps in coordination

The system is filled with overlapping roles, duplicated efforts and major gaps in coordination. Public money is being spent, but real results are hard to see and even harder to measure.

Right now, we lack the kind of strong, visible leadership it takes to move from managing homelessness to actually reducing it.

Sacramento’s Continuum of Care, the federally designated body responsible for coordinating homelessness services, is staffed by the nonprofit Sacramento Steps Forward and governed by a board of local agencies and service providers. While it receives federal funding, Sacramento County also contributes millions of dollars to the group annually through grants and contracts. Yet the Continuum of Care operates independently, with little oversight from the County Board of Supervisors, making it difficult to align resources with our county’s broader priorities or hold anyone clearly accountable for results.

It’s time to put someone in the driver’s seat.

We need a homelessness response that’s focused on results, clearly led and accountable to the public. That starts with returning oversight of the Continuum of Care to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors. This elected body is already responsible for public health, safety and human services. People deserve to know who is in charge and who is being held accountable.

We must also:

• Focus on solutions, not just processes. Funding should go toward programs that actually help people move out of homelessness, not just maintain the status quo.

• Address the root causes. We won’t solve this problem without tackling mental illness, addiction and the need for job training and life skills.

• Include public safety partners. First responders deal with this crisis every day, but they’re often left out of the policy conversation. That has to change.

Shared responsibility

Doing nothing, or simply repeating the same approach, comes at a high cost. Homelessness in Sacramento has nearly tripled over the past decade. In the last five years alone, 1,168 people experiencing homelessness have died on our streets. Fires tied to illegal encampments account for a vast majority of all blazes in the American River Parkway. And a growing number of small businesses are closing or leaving, with many citing homelessness as a major factor.

It’s important to remember that 92% of our unhoused population is local, meaning they are from Sacramento or are long-time residents. These are our neighbors, and this is our shared responsibility.

The community is tired of finger-pointing and politics. While several steps have been taken to address this crisis, the bottom line is that we cannot confuse effort with results.

We don’t need another long-term study or bureaucratic task force. We need bold, coordinated leadership. Someone needs to take the wheel and take charge of where we’re headed. We need clear goals, transparent data and a structure that holds every partner accountable.

The people of Sacramento deserve more than promises, they deserve real results.

This story was originally published April 30, 2025 at 6:00 AM.