California lawmakers introduce bill to create new entity to handle Sacramento homelessness

State lawmakers have introduced a bill to create an entirely new entity to handle Sacramento’s growing homeless crisis.

The effort was in response to a civil grand jury report released last month that recommended a countywide joint powers authority. Assembly members Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento; Stephanie Nguyen, D-Elk Grove; and Josh Hoover, R-Folsom, introduced the bill this week.

“It’s the biggest issue we’re facing and we need joint cooperation, said McCarty, who’s running for Sacramento mayor next year.

Under the current plan, the JPA would consist of six elected officials — one each from the county, and the cities of Sacramento, Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova, Citrus Heights and Folsom, the release stated.

Creating the JPA also requires approval from the elected officials in each of those jurisdictions. That will likely be harder than pushing through the legislation and having it signed into law.

The bodies could start voting on whether to opt in starting in mid to late 2024, which is the “best case scenario” for when the bill would go into effect, McCarty said.

Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Councilwoman Caity Maple are in favor of the JPA.

“We have a moral imperative to do everything in our power to end this suffering and ensure that every person can live with dignity in our region,” Maple, who says she has been proposing the idea for years, said in a news release. “We are the capital of the fifth-largest economy in the world, and yet people are going without adequate housing and services right on our doorstep.”

Steinberg agreed.

“Creating a governing body with all the cities and counties to address homelessness gives us the best chance to make the difference that the public rightfully expects,” Steinberg said in a news release. “I am looking forward to Councilmember Maple’s leadership on this issue as she represents the City of Sacramento in these discussions.”

The county supervisors are less enthusiastic.

“At this point I’m neither supportive nor opposed,” Supervisor Patrick Kennedy said Wednesday. “It’s an intriguing idea but I need to know how it would operate and whether or not it is duplicative of many of the initiatives we already have underway.”

Supervisor Rich Desmond, board chair, told The Bee last month that there were no plans to create a JPA. On Friday he said he was open to it.

“I’ve talked to Mr. McCarty and told him I am always open to a discussion about how we can improve coordination,” Desmond said. “If a JPA would make a positive difference, let’s discuss it.”

City and county leaders in December approved a joint agreement, under pressure from the Measure O ballot measure, to address homelessness, including new behavioral health encampment teams. It also included 200 new shelter beds, which have not since been opened. Even if the new beds are opened, Sacramento will still have at least 6,000 homeless people sleeping outdoors, unable to secure any of the city and county’s roughly 2,300 shelter beds, all of which are typically full.

“The JPA would enhance and build upon the existing partnership between the city and the county by implementing a comprehensive approach to address the challenges posed by homelessness,” the release stated.

The details of the JPA, including how many members and how the money would flow, are still being decided, McCarty said. State lawmakers are meeting with the localities for the next six months to discuss it, he said.

In forming its recommendation, the grand jury studied a homeless JPA in neighboring Solano County, as well as several in southern California. In each case, the grand jury found that either homelessness had been reduced or increased at a much slower rate than in Sacramento County.

Jurors also concluded that a JPA would ensure more transparency, and also more efficiency in the way state and federal money is being spent to address the crisis. Under a JPA, money directed for homelessness efforts as well as program-based decision making could become centralized.

The grand jury has released two reports this month highly critical of the way local governments — and county officials in particular —have handled the homelessness crisis, both in terms of leadership and overall effectiveness in addressing mental health and substance abuse issues.

If the elected officials create the JPA, the first meeting would likely be in about two years, said Ryan Brown, Maple’s chief of staff.