I returned to Sacramento and was shocked to find my home leaves so many without one | Opinion

I returned to once again make Sacramento my home almost exactly one year ago.

I settled into a cute, smaller home in West Tahoe Park, just east of Stockton Boulevard and south of Broadway.

I like it here. I like the neighborhood. I like Sacramento. I like the Central Valley. It is, after all, my home. I grew up in Manteca, went to college in Fresno and have worked and lived up and down the valley – Manteca, Clovis, Madera, Fresno, Turlock, Modesto, Salida, Sacramento.

Every milepost along Highway 99 seems to evoke a particular memory and moment in time.

My son’s middle name is Joaquin. In part to honor his and his mother’s Latino heritage, but also because his dad grew up in San Joaquin County. It mattered that much.

Homelessness: Our urgent human crisis

Follow our ambitious, newsroom-wide series examining the growing problem of homelessness across Sacramento and California in 2023, examining government policy, money, addiction, mental health and more.

But then came life’s detour. In 2009, I moved from California for the first time, leaving Sacramento, where I had lived for three years for the opportunity to become an editor at the Indianapolis Star.

I stayed in Indy for more than 13 years. It was an interesting time – a great place to raise a child, a great place to work, and a place where you could afford a 4-bedroom, two-bath house on a three-quarter acre lot for a mortgage payment hundreds less than the cost to rent an apartment in Sacramento.

Still, this is home. So when The Sacramento Bee provided me with the opportunity to return, I did.

My brother lives in Folsom so it’s not as though I have remained entirely absent from the area, I was aware of some of the changes – good and bad – that have taken place in the community..

Nothing, though, has struck me or disturbed me more than the change I witness daily on our city’s streets:

An elderly man on the sidewalk, a mom and child in a parking lot, a disabled man with a sign at an exit ramp, a blur of homeless humanity, from the mentally ill to the substance-impaired, creating a new landscape of despair.

Homelessness is not new. It is a chronic problem.

We are now approaching 10,000 homeless people in our county and its cities, assuming we already have not surpassed that number. The most recent total from January was 9,728, according to the federally-mandated point in time count. This number has surged from 5,570 in January 2019, and 3,665 in January 2017.

But that same report also concluded that 20,000 people in the county and its cities are expected to experience homelessness at some point this year.

The problem has never been more acute or in more need of attention – from lawmakers, from nonprofits, from public agencies, from the community, and, yes, from us here at The Sacramento Bee.

Over the next months and likely well into next year, The Bee is launching an ambitious newsroom-wide effort called “Homelessness: Our urgent human crisis” to examine the issue.

We will investigate and assess previous efforts and programs. We will take a hard look at the money being spent. And we will do out best to uncover and illuminate what has worked elsewhere.

I’m not naive enough to think that a series of stories by the local newspaper is going to magically solve a problem of that magnitude. Not even close.

But I have been a journalist long enough to know that good, honest reporting that seeks the truth, that calls out failures and illuminates successes can make a difference. I’ve experienced it.

Still, even more importantly, it’s what we should be doing. And it’s what you should expect from us as journalists who live among you and call Sacramento our home.

Let’s be transparent about where we are coming from and some of our assumptions going into this. Homelessness is a complicated problem without simple solutions. That’s due, in large part, because those who live on the streets find themselves there for myriad reasons – and the solutions need to target those varying issues: substance abuse, mental illness, housing prices and unemployability (either because of a lack of skills or, yes, a lack of inclination to work).

Blame can be spread far and wide. Virtually every level of government has failed to do anything it seems other than to blame another level of government. And when elected officials do act, too often it seems it is for the cosmetic purpose of “moving” the problem, rather than sincerely dealing with the complicated factors that have created this societal crisis..

I also want to emphasize that our coverage will never be void of compassion and humanity. We are mindful that behind each program success or failure, each novel new approach, people are affected, in some cases in ways it would be impossible for many of us to begin to understand – or ever want to grapple with.

Finally, let me reiterate why we are investing so much time and energy into reporting on this issue. The people you see on the streets are someone’s spouse or sibling or child or parent or friend. And they are part of our community.

We owe our community no less than a sincere effort to use our journalism to help ease this first-world shame. And you, as loyal readers and supporters of The Bee, should demand no less.

Thank you for that continued support, as well as your feedback.