Sacramento County Homelessness: Regional Response Mandate

California lawmakers recently passed legislation that will compel Sacramento County to work collaboratively with five of its cities to reduce homelessness, CalMatters reports. The county, and the cities of Sacramento, Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova, Citrus Heights and Folsom have until January 2028 to launch a new joint powers authority, though elected officials from each locale have already started meeting as a joint task force.

“Homelessness does not stop at jurisdictional boundaries,” Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote in a note explaining the new law, “and no city or county can solve this crisis alone.”

The split in responsibility between counties and cities can have ripple effects on mental health care. Across California, cities typically provide shelter beds while counties control mental health and addiction treatment. But counties also receive dedicated funds from the state to address homelessness while cities do not — leaving the two to dispute who should pay for what. Former Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said that his voters saw people suffering on the streets and demanded he do something, but Steinberg had little power to help.

“There was just a major gulf between my accountability to the people and my authority to be able to actually make the difference that the people expected,” he said.

That’s why supporters of the law see it as a first step towards resolving a statewide issue. They argue that cities and counties need each other to address homelessness, but they rarely cooperate well. Opponents of the project argue that partnerships only work when they’re voluntary and that a state mandate sets a troubling precedent.

“It’s an unnecessary cost,” Sacramento County Supervisor Patrick Kennedy said. “It’s an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy, it’s an unnecessary burden that’s just going to slow down processes.”

While local governments often share authority over services that cross city lines, like sewers and transit, only three joint authorities in California handle homelessness according to Joe Colletti, CEO of the nonprofit research organization HUB for Urban Initiatives. The most prominent is the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which the Trump administration has blocked from accessing federal dollars, alleging that it is mismanaging public funds. The move “puts at risk almost $300 million that LA area service providers count on to help California’s largest homeless population,” according to CalMatters.

Supporters of the new law point to Solano County, where a similar partnership has operated since 2022.