SACRAMENTO, California — Caltrans is going on the record about their new office dedicated to tackling the homeless crisis.
The office is less than a year old, and the director has a pretty big goal, ending homelessness.
The homeless crisis cannot be ignored. In 2022, the Sacramento County Point-In-Time count found the homeless population nearly doubled in the last three years to more than 9,000 people. It's a number surpassing even San Francisco.
"Homelessness is a challenge. It's a crisis," said Alisa Becerra, with the Office of Homelessness and Encampments.
It's why Caltrans is going on the record for the first time about their decision to launch a new office focused solely on the homeless crisis. It's less than a year old, and it's called the office of Homelessness and Encampments.
"We really need to work on bringing in the communities and really working on partnerships to see if we can do a better job of addressing this crisis known as homelessness on our state right of way," said Becerra. "And so in 2022, we created the Office of Homelessness and Encampments to do just that."
Caltrans isn't just focused on removing encampments. Governor Gavin Newsom has budgeted $750 million to help those living on the streets find resources.
"It's a tough job, but it's an important job," said Becerra. "Our goal is to do the best we can to end homelessness, and they may sound like a lofty goal from a transportation department."
It is a big goal for an admittedly small office.
"There are literally six people in my office, total, and we consider that great. We always say we're small but mighty," said Becerra.
In Sacramento, the mayor says a new approach to the crisis is showing results.
"Think about the way government responds to natural disasters, a flood or an earthquake. We apply an emergency operations standard where every arm of the city and the county government and sometimes the state government all work together to address the emergency," said Mayor Darrell Steinberg.
For an example, Steinberg said to look toward Midtown Sacramento.
"There were seven major encampments several weeks ago. There are now zero. That's because our incident command structure led by our fire department, including code enforcement and the Department of Community Response and animal control and police, and county mental health workers, are out there in an even more urgent manner," said Steinberg.
"It's not going to happen overnight. I think people are looking for overnight successes" said Becerra.
But with a state office now focused solely on this issue, Caltrans officials said they're optimistic they can start cleaning things up.
"Homelessness is a humanitarian crisis that is unfolding on our state right of way. Our job is to maintain the state right of way, and our priority is safety. So how do you work through all of those? Enter our office," said Becerra.
Before cleaning out the area, Caltrans crews give the homeless three days of notice to vacate the property and get access to services to help get them off the street. If any belongings are left behind, Caltrans is responsible for storing the possessions for 90 days, so that the homeless have a chance to collect their things.
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