SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It’s been a little over a year since the city and county of Sacramento joined forces to address the homeless problem. The goal of the team was to go directly to the unhoused with outreach and education.
The Board of Supervisors and city council looked at the agreement's impact on the community Tuesday and said 23 of the 28 goals were met.
ABC10 saw the outreach portion of the plan in action Wednesday. It's the area where they said they met all their goals for the first year. However, ABC10 also asked about the lack of accountability in the agreement for areas where they fell short, like training and education.
The partnership said it needs to do a better job collecting data and being transparent.
“Yes, we don't see a dent in it because of the volume...and the size of the problem, but I am confident that we are making some progress and chipping away even if it's not as visible as we would like it to be,” said Assistant City Manager Mario Lara.
Lara and Deputy County Director Chevon Kothari say they wish residents could see more progress.
“One lesson learned this year is that we really need to do a better job with our data, with collecting our data, and with really ensuring that the community, our elected, have access to real-time data about the work that we're doing,” said Kothari.
Lara said he issues regular reports, too.
“I do a weekly report to the council from our team that talks about we're holding ourselves accountable that we're going out there," said Lara. "We're making sure that every day we're reporting. We're recording those numbers."
Unhoused community outreach
Every day Justin Hernandez asks this question: “Anyone home? Just looking to see if you are interested in getting connected to services."
Hernandez is one of Sacramento County’s 12 mental health clinicians assigned to the Homeless Engagement and Response Team (HEART) created by the city-county agreement.
“We’re able to pull resources so our team can focus on behavioral health, and our other partner is able to focus on those immediate resources whether it's shelter or water,” said Hernandez.
The 10 teams have been working for a year, visiting more than 5,000 locations to meet the unhoused where they are.
They're connecting with people like Soleil, a woman who’s been intermittently homeless for eight years. The teams set her up Wednesday with a voucher for a free driver's license, a necessary document to apply for jobs.
“The services are getting better from what they used to be,” said Soleil.
Hernandez estimates he’s visited 100 sites and seen over 1,000 people.
But across Sacramento, it’s hard to see what progress has been made.
“Just be patient with us," said Hernandez. "We are just trying to help people and there is a lot of sentiment (of) 'get people off the streets.' That’s important, but it takes time."
Up next for the partnership? Another Safe Stay community is opening on Watt Avenue. The city will then provide another spot for a tiny home community. The location will be announced soon.
WATCH MORE ON ABC10: Here's what Sacramento County, the city has done for homelessness
