SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It’s been one week since public officials created the first joint agreement between the city and county of Sacramento to address the homelessness crisis.
Since then, ABC10 obtained a copy of the partnership agreement and conducted a joint interview with both sides. We spoke with the woman who championed the agreement for the county and the man on the hook for helping keep the city’s promises.
The city and county are meeting weekly, and sometimes daily, to work towards the partnership agreement, according to assistant city manager Mario Lara.
“What success will look like... [a] reduction in folks who are unsheltered in the city. 20%, 30% reduction in a period of time is certainly something we are working towards and we will figure out the right goal. We need to be aggressive but realistic at the same time,” said Lara.
Some promises have already been met.
The Wellness Crisis Call Center and Response Team, an alternative to 911, is already operational. A looming Jan. 1 deadline to increase Mental Health Urgent Care Center hours to 24/7 happened three weeks early.
“Two teams are currently already deployed, joint teams already deployed, so a lot of progress has already been made,” said Lara.
It’s all aligned with the core strategies of the agreement:
- County-wide coordinated access system
- Shelter and interim housing focus on rehousing
- Increase permanent housing
- Expand prevention diversion resources
- Community training
The city council added the sixth: mental health and substance use service.
ABC10 asked both sides -- what’s your six-month and one-year goal?
Chevon Kothari, the deputy county executive of Social Services, helped with the agreement from the very beginning.
"The six-month goal is to make sure our teams that do the outreach in the field are fully staffed. The one-year goal; we will have the behavioral health site, core, operational by that time,” said Kothari.
"The six-month goal is definitely to have outreach and engagement teams fully deployed. In all 20 encampments, 10 teams are available to work those encampments. One-year goal; identifying additional services available... having an additional core site identified,” said Lara.
The next big deadline is for all county and city shelter beds to be entered into a coordinated access system. This will provide a whole picture of the resources available. Also, creating a collaboration protocol. Both must happen in the next 60 days.
All these additional services are not just for those experiencing homelessness. For example, anyone can use the mental health urgent care center, which is now open 24/7.
Some immediate changes you might see in your community include teams out in encampments.
Currently, both sides are identifying the encampment zones they want to target based on population and past issues. The city is searching for 20 large sites, including places like X Street. For the county, they are still searching, but the biggest stand out is the American River Parkway.
