Q&A: State Senator Ashby on her bill to reform how Sacramento works together on homelessness

Sacramento area State Senator and former Sacramento City Councilmember Angelique Ashby introduced a controversial bill last year that would require the creation of a new agency that would force Sacramento County’s local governments to work together on homelessness.

Ashby’s legislation would require all cities in Sacramento County and the county government to enter into a Joint Powers Authority (JPA), a legally binding agreement established for public agencies to work together for a common purpose. 

The bill is scheduled to be heard in the legislature this summer. It’s been the subject of public debate for months. Recently, the county of Sacramento opposed the measure and as of March has called it illegal. 

CapRadio’s Local Government Reporter Riley Palmer spoke with Ashby about her bill and why she thinks it’s necessary.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity

Could you explain what SB802 is, why you wrote it, and the biggest things that it will accomplish?

 SB 802, which has drawn a lot of attention, and I think rightfully so, is about one thing and really one thing only: It is about asking the county and the cities inside of the county of Sacramento to collaborate as they work on housing and homelessness. 

 We received grand jury reports criticizing us and the county, in fact, at one point, calling us saying that we were in an endless loop of failure in Sacramento as it relates to service to the homeless, and really telling us that the pathway forward required greater collaboration and therefore required a joint power authority.

Why do you think a Joint Powers Authority is necessary?

We don't coordinate, and so what happens is entities will say – and I'm using the term entities on purpose because sometimes it's a city, sometimes it's a county, sometimes it's a group of nonprofits – They will say, we'll work together and we'll just have meetings together. Sometimes they do, but there's no consistency to it. There's no oversight to it. There's no legal obligation to continue to do so relative to it. 

 Yes, SB 802 forces the joint powers authority, but I'm probably the fifth or sixth entity to say you must do this. And I think the reason that that conversation keeps repeating and repeating and repeating is because each of the entities involved in this control some components of it. Both financially and from a responsibility standpoint, and there is a concern on each of their parts in collaborating on those issues, but it has to happen because we're not making progress. 

 We've had point in time counts that have made it look like that number has gone up or down, the truth is we've done a lot better at compiling statistics on our own outside of a one night count. Loaves and Fishes and other organizations, including the county's own records for services to people, would indicate that we are still between 9,000 and 10,000 people unhoused.

 I spoke with Sacramento County and they have disputed the claim that there hasn't been much progress in addressing homelessness. They've also said they're against SB 802 and claim that parts of it are illegal. How would you respond to that?

 Everyone that I have spoken with in the legislative council team and as we have progressed have been operating with a level of comfort that we are well within the state's regulatory authority. None of the references that the county has sent me include any kind of legal analysis with case law. They're all just interpretations of code, which basically comes down to varying opinions on policy. 

The county is doing great work and we have good elected officials in the county and of the city and all of the cities in the region. This is not an indictment of any one individual or one agency. It is an indictment of a process that long ago should have been corrected and hasn't been and left to its own devices never will be because many efforts have been made to bring everyone into one room. A joint powers authority would not only force the cities and the counties to work together with these resources, it would give the community a place to go.

 When you as a resident have a concern and you want to share that concern with your elected officials right now, it's very hard to know where to go because there are eight different boards with some level of authority over housing and homelessness with a total of almost 90 board members. That's not tenable.

There's a concern that I've heard from cities and the county of being forced to work together. Can you speak to that concern of forcing agencies to work together? 

 They don't have to listen to me, they could do it themselves, and they've had over 20 years to pull it together, and ‘they’ includes me. I was on the city council for at least 12 of those 20 years.

We weren't able to achieve it even though we voted for it multiple times. It just didn't happen because one entity would tell the other entity no. Just like they do now. 

 Given the 20 year history of dialogue around a need for joint powers authority and the lack of progress on the issue of homelessness, the argument of don't tell us what to do falls short for me. Particularly when you are receiving half a billion dollars worth of funds in less than five years from the state of California to address housing and homelessness collectively.

In terms of your bill, what’s the timeline for SB802 and where is it now?

 I turned it into a two year bill, which basically just gave us a little more time. It already has gone through the Senate and sailed through. It's now on the assembly side of the legislature. I paused it in November to give the region a chance … They said they wanted to have a large meeting of all of the cities and the county, and they did. However, at that meeting, they took no action, including they did not even decide to ever meet again.

The normal course of the legislature is that those bills would be heard in May, June and July then would be back on concurrence likely in August and September, and then that's when they go to the governor and then he has until October, some 30 days past whenever we give him the bills to sign or veto them.  This two year process will be done in October. 

Read and listen to Sacramento County Supervisor Patrick Kennedy explain why the county opposes SB802 here.